Fully booked
Past Event
Access requirements
The Whitechapel Gallery is committed to making all of our events as accessible as possible for every audience member. Please contact access@whitechapelgallery.org if you would like to discuss a particular request and we will gladly discuss with you the best way to accommodate it.
Information about access on site at the gallery is available here https://www.whitechapelgallery.org/visit/access/
This includes information about Lift access; Borrowing wheelchairs & seating; Assistance Animals; Parking; Toilets and baby care facilities; Blind & Partially Sighted Visitors; Subtitles and transcripts; British Sign Language (BSL) and hearing induction loops; Deaf Messaging Service (DMS).
About This Event
This event takes place across all public spaces at Whitechapel Gallery, across multiple floors (all spaces have lift and stair access).
This event lasts approximately 3.5 hours.
This event is free of charge, but you must RSVP using the link on the page.
Please note: our spaces have limited capacities – we recommend arriving early to avoid disappointment. Depending on numbers, we may operate a one in-one out policy as well as sign-up sheets and waiting lists in selected areas of the gallery.
This event is suitable for those over the age of 16
We are unable to provide British Sign Language interpretation for this event
We are unable to provide live closed captioning or CART for this event.
To the best of our knowledge, there are no planned disruptions to local transport on the date of the event.
Transport
Our nearest train station – Aldgate East Underground (1 min) is not wheelchair accessible. The closest wheelchair accessible stations are Whitechapel (15 min), Shoreditch High Street (15 min) or Liverpool Street (15 min).
Free parking for Blue Badge holders is available at the top of Osborn Street in the pay and display booths for an unlimited period. Spaces are available on a first come, first served basis.
For this Season’s specially curated late, multi-disciplinary creative Ronan Mckenzie presents an after-hours programme of action, exploration, feeling, and tactility, in dialogue with Joy Gregory: Catching Flies with Honey.
Taking Gregory’s practice of reflection, collective memory, and the sharing of experiences as her starting point, Mckenzie will bring the gallery to life with a multi-sensory programme of workshops, movement, food, film, and more.
Please note:
This event is now fully booked, but walk ins are welcome, subject to capacity. Our spaces have limited capacities, so we recommend arriving early to avoid disappointment. Pre-booked free tickets do not guarantee entry if the building reaches maximum capacity.
Depending on numbers, we may operate entry to the building on a one-in, one-out basis as well as waiting lists in selected areas of the building.
This specially curated Late accompanies our exhibition Joy Gregory: Catching Flies with Honey.
All activity in Assembly Room is drop in, with no booking required.
Visuals for Assembly Room by anaiis, Dream Sequence Recordings, and 5dB Records & Awale Jant Band.
6.30 – 6.55pm | Capoeira and Afro-Fusion dance performance from Adriano Oliveira and Japão
Adriano and Japão will bring the audience on an ancestral journey to the roots of Afro-Brazil through the enchanting sounds of the Berimbau, mesmerising Capoeira movement and an Afro-Fusion poetry in motion finale performance. It will be a dialogue between rhythm and corporal expression.
7.30 – 8.30pm | DJ set: Grace Shelley (Roots to Rhythm)
Grace Shelley’s set will focus on Highlife and Afrobeat from the 1970s and 1980s. Playing an all-vinyl selection from her personal collection, she’ll be showcasing artists from Ghana, Cameroon & Nigeria that have produced songs/albums with percussion and modern production techniques that differ from traditional recording styles.
8.45 – 9.30pm | Live Senegalese soul music from Awale Jant Band
A live set of Senegalese soul music, combined with funk, latin jazz, afrobeat, mbalax, and blues from London-based Awale Jant Band.
6 – 9pm | Curated short film programme by Eloïse King
Drop in, no booking required.
Eloïse King presents a looping film programme featuring three film works by contemporary artists who, like Gregory, push the boundaries to explore identity, history, and societal beauty, using an expanded aesthetic language to question and reimagine power structures and cultural memory.
Full programme:
Nikki Lam, The Unshakable Destiny_2101 (2021), 6 mins
The Unshakable Destiny (2021-2025) is a five-year moving image project on the spectres of Hong Kong. An exploration of memory, site and cinema, the trilogy contemplates art-making in the diaspora, as a witness to the slippery political context of a homeland from afar. Opening with The Unshakable Destiny_2101 (2021), a 16mm film and an ode to cinematic images that shaped Hong Kong in cinema, the film was set to challenge a time in suspension for the post-2019 Hong Kong diaspora.
Herrana Addisu, The River (2024), 18 mins
The River pays homage to culture and the experiences of women through the lens of Ethiopia and draws inspiration from Herrana’s childhood home, Kebena. A Qene Films production, the film not only celebrates the art of beauty but will also highlight the systemic barriers women face in the context of forced marriage, education, and water access.
Presented by Chucha Studios @chucha.studios
Director Herrana Addisu @herranathegreat_
Production Company Qene Films @qenefilms
Executive Producer Firehiwot Berhane Germay @fraythelight
Director of Photography Tedos Teffera Tesfaye @tedosteffera
Joseph Douglas Elmhirst, Burnt Milk (2023), 9 mins 46 secs
Burnt Milk centers around a monologue by Una (voiced by Tamara Lawrance), an isolated Jamaican woman in London around 1985. As she takes a moment of solace to make Burnt Milk, she is flooded with spiritual imagery that takes her home.
Written & Directed by Joseph Douglas Elmhirst (@josephdouglaselmhirst)
Monologue written by Miss Ronnie (@eastwindscove.jamaica)
Produced by Ruby Elmhirst (@rubyelmhirst)
Based on the forthcoming novel by Miss Ronnie (@eastwindscove.jamaica)
6 – 8.30pm | Fragrance drop in with Ezra-Lloyd Jackson
Drop in, no booking required.
Join Ezra-Lloyd Jackson for a fragrance drop in to create unique, wearable scents in response to Joy Gregory’s Catching Flies with Honey. Selecting from custom scent formulations made by Jackson, attendees will curate their own bespoke combinations of scents and notes to create a one-of-one fragrance, embodying themes from the exhibition.
Please note: fragrances used will be ethanol-based. Materials for this drop in are limited – the drop in will run for as long as materials last.
6 – 8.30pm | Dried flower arranging workshop with Aiya Studio by Ayesha Marr
Drop in, no booking required.
A short intro to flower arranging with Aiya Studio by Ayesha Marr – leave the session with a small dried floral arrangement to take home with you or leave it with us to showcase your work.
No experience with flower arranging necessary – only the desire to create!
Please note: materials for this workshop are limited – the session will run for as long as materials last.
6.15-7.30pm – Breathe and flow yoga with Rashida Adam
RSVP for this yoga session here – walk ins are welcome on the day, subject to capacity.
A breathe and flow yoga session with Rashida to discover your energy, your power deep with-in You, and explore your dragons – whether they be mythical and fantastical beasts, emergent thoughts and emotions, or even people you encounter, you will be safe in this workshop and leave empowered.
Please note: we have a limited number of yoga mats on site, so please bring one with you if you are able to!
8-9pm – Finding voice, vocal session with Tawiah
No booking required – entry to the 1-hour session will be on a first come first served basis.
Join artist, composer, voiceover artist and choir director for Resident Southbank Centre Choir Sauti (formerly known as Chaka Khan’s Meltdown Choir) Tawiah to playfully explore the power of voice through improvisation and harmony.
Through collective chanting, singing, and vocal exercises, we will reflect on themes drawn from Joy Gregory’s Catching Flies with Honey and express our responses through sound, voice, and frequencies.
No previous experience of singing is required!
6 – 9pm | Pop-up Library
Drop in, no booking required.
bibisbooks will present a specially curated mini pop-up library in Joy Gregory’s Fierce and Fearless that traces threads of history, identity, and language that run through both Gregory’s visual storytelling and our focus title.
The books in this pop-up library will remain in Fierce and Fearless for the duration of the exhibition run following the Late.
The pop-up library will be closed to walk ins from 7-8pm during the Late, whilst the book club is happening.
7-8pm – Book club and sharing space
RSVP for this book club here – walk ins are welcome on the day, subject to capacity.
Join bibisbooks for a special evening book club and shared reflection space in response to Joy Gregory: Catching Flies With Honey.
Together, we’ll explore the intertwined themes of folklore, myth, and legend – tracing threads of history, identity, and language that run through both Gregory’s visual storytelling and our focus title, Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head by Warsan Shire. A powerful debut grounded in familial and cultural memory exploring layered experiences of the feminine woven through migration, tenderness, and survival.
This is an invitation to read, reflect, and draw connections between image and word. Attendees are warmly encouraged to bring along a favourite poem, folklore, or story of their own choosing that resonates with these themes to share during the session.
No previous experience with poetry required!
6.15 – 8.30pm | Whitechapel Gallery Archive Spotlight
Drop-in, no booking required.
In this drop-in session, join our Archivist Aiden Chan to explore the records generated by the Gallery since its founding in 1901. The archive’s collections include artist’s letters, graphic works, exhibition plans and photographs, recordings of artist, curators and critics and much more.
Selected materials will showcase the Gallery’s rich history and changing approaches to artistic practices and cultural programming, as well as offer insights into the wider political and social developments in East London. Join us in our reading room to explore these materials at your own pace and learn more about the practice of archiving art and cultural heritage.
6 – 9pm | Joy Gregory: Catching Flies with Honey
Drop in, no booking required.
Joy Gregory: Catching Flies with Honey, is the first major survey show of the artist, Joy Gregory (b.1959, UK), winner of the eighth annual Freelands Award and one of the UK’s most innovative artists working with photography today.
Spanning four decades, this landmark exhibition brings together over 250 works encompassing photography, film, installation and textiles, all of which showcase and celebrate Gregory’s inventive, culturally resonant and materially rich practice. Since the early 1980s, Gregory has been a pioneering force in contemporary photography, playing a critical role in its development nationally and internationally.
Whitechapel Gallery presents a new commission from artist Candice Lin (b. 1979, Concord, Massachusetts, US) featuring an absorbing and disorientating labyrinth.
Candice Lin works across a variety of disciplines and media, including installation, sculpture, painting and video, to create multisensorial environments that tell stories about the historic roots of contemporary political circumstances.
Visitors to g/hosti are plunged into a circular labyrinth made from curved, painted cardboard panels that depict a fantastical world populated by animals and other creatures. The structure towers above head height, while cut-out sections and undulating edges offer glimpses of spaces beyond. Visitors move through the visually lush landscape of brushstrokes and textures as if entering the layers of a painting. Along the way they encounter watchful wolves, tender mice and playing cats – the bright colours, patterns, animal imagery and cardboard materials evoking childhood and play. Yet sinister and sometimes startling images lurk in the detail – including human cadavers that peek out from the shrubbery – creating a relentless environment that threatens to engulf the viewer.
6 – 9.30pm | Alba Caffé
Main café space & pop-up bar in Assembly Room.
Alba Caffe will be open all night serving a range of drinks and snacks. Eat and drink your fill in the main Café space or find them at the pop-up bar in Assembly Room.
Performer, Teacher, Choreographer and Capoeirista, Adriano Oliveira from Porto Seguro, Brazil trained in both traditional African and Afro-Brazilian dance before joining the dance company “Axè Odara” known across all of Brazil for its experimental research in Afro-Brazilian culture.
Adriano arrived in Europe in 2001, settling in Italy via Paris and Berlin, where he concentrated more time on teaching. In 2003 Adriano began work with several not-for-profit organisations, travelling regularly to Burkina Faso to deepen his knowledge of traditional west-African rhythms and percussion.
In 2016 Adriano relocated to London where he has taught at Danceworks, Brixton House Theatre, The Place, Mountview. And Siobhan Davies. He has also taught at Kingston University and Mountview as a visiting lecturer specialising in African Dance and is a regular guest teacher at the London School of Samba collaborating with them for the annual Notting Hill Carnival. Most recently in 2025 he joined forces with Mac Dendê of Dendê Nation where they were the winning Brazilian band for Sunday parade!
Adriano has been involved in several Arts Council funded projects as well as organising his own non-funded Afro-Brazilian Arts & Dance events including the third annual Capoeira Batizado for his group Capoeira Sul Da Bahia London and Vontade.
Aiya began as a workshop to try something new – use my hands to create and build. So much of my life/work was reliant on technology, scrolling and the media space. I attended a flower course, began creating at home and starting working in florists and markets. I’ve had to pause and be still as life began to shift but excited to bring myself and others into my world.
London based Awale Jant Band was founded in 2017 by Senegalese singer Birame Seck and French musician and producer Thibaut Remy.
Thibaut is a self-taught musician who relies primarily on feeling, and he says, “When I heard Biram singing it reminded me of an American soul singer: He is a Senegalese soul singer… We’d like people to feel our music joining the dots between cultures.” Singer, songwriter Biram Seck is from Dakar, the son of a Gawlo (story-teller). Biram’s grandfather was a master of the traditional West African guitar/banjo, the xalam. As Biram says, “I love music because it is a means of communicating ideas to broaden minds and build an integrated world… a world of peace.”
The name Awale Jant Band is a combination of Biram Seck’s Jant Band and Thibaut Remy’s London group Awale – a collective of African, French, British and Senegalese musicians performing for the last 10 years in London. In Wolof, it means “Let the sun pass through”. And literally this is their mission, to uplift people with their music
Welcome to bibisbooks. A book club and growing community of readers and friends. Together we create space from text, cultivating dynamic discussions that diversify our perspective one book at a time.
Capoeira Nativos in London is led by coach Samir Nunez with 25 years of experience practicing nad teaching capoeira to kids and adults.
Samir Nunez (ContraMestre Japao) started practicing capoeira at the age of 10, most of that time was spent working on different projects in Colombia, Brazil, and most recently the UK. From 2011 he managed Capoeira Nativos’ biggest capoeira school in Colombia. He directed capoeira events, taught classes for children and adults, and lead various projects for vulnerable children and young people living in high-risk communities. Since relocateing to London, Samir has taken a prominent role leading the global Capoeira organization of Nativos.
Eloïse King is a multi-disciplinary filmmaker that uses; film, photography, and writing to interrogate cultural shifts and institutions to expose the fractures and fissures in societal ‘progress.’ Rooted in her perspective as a queer woman of Caribbean, working-class heritage, her practice seeks to disrupt dominant histories to reimagine collective memory.
King’s worked across broadcast, commercial, and film and as a former Global Executive Producer at VICE, she led multi-award-winning international documentary teams, commissioning across North America, South America, Europe and Asia. She founded and curated WOMEN ON DOCS, a screening and networking series (V&A, BFI, and BAM) to platform women and non-binary nonfiction filmmakers.
Previous titles as a producer and, or director include: THE GATHERINGS (2008, Grierson Nominated ), KIDS BEHIND BARS (2014, GURLS TALK: ADWOA ABOAH (2016, LOVIE/ WEBBY award), MYKKI BLANCO: Out of This World (2017, MoAD, Tate Britain) and AMY WINEHOUSE & ME: DIONNES’ STORY (2021, MTV/Paramount+). Recently collaboration with artist María Magdalena Campos-Pons and KAMAG captured the artist’s spiritual roots, THIS HOUSE NEEDS CLEANSING (TATE, 2025). King’s work has been supported by : John Brabourne Award (2020), Firelight Media Fellowship (2021-23), BFI LFF Network, (2021)and Sheffield Queer Realities Lab (2024-25) and is a Bertha Foundation, Field of Vision and Perspectives grantee.
King’s debut feature, THE SHADOW SCHOLARS (BFI LFF 2024 Best Documentary Special Mention; IDFA, CPH:DOX Encounters 2025), executive produced by Sir Steve McQueen and partners BFI Doc Society and Film4, pioneered ethical VFX to protect its Kenyan subjects, won Bergen Film Festival’s Golden Owl and earned a BIFA Best Director and Breakthrough Producer long list. She is currently developing a hybrid feature BRIGHT EYES.
Ezra-Lloyd Jackson is an artist and perfumer based in South London. Ezra’s work has involved a range of collaborations with other artists and designers, such as Anthea Hamilton, Ronan Mckenzie, R.I.P Germain, Julian Knxx, Babirye Bukilwa, Rahemur Rahman, Matthew Needham and Speakers Corner Quartet. Ezra has shown work in the ICA, Barbican, V&A Museum, Sarabande, FACT Liverpool, Soho House, Netflix HQ, and at the Venice Biennale. He has also run various scent workshops at institutions like Gucci, 180 Strand, The Science Museum, and IntoUniversity.
Grace Shelley is a London-based DJ with a passion for sharing West African music and genres influenced by sounds from across the African continent, predominantly Ghanaian Highlife. Her work focuses on the intersection of social movements, decolonisation, and the preservation of musical heritage.
Roots to Rhythm is a collective that explores the deep connections between dance music and various African genres.
Herrana Addisu is a multidisciplinary artist, award-winning filmmaker, and social impact strategist using storytelling to challenge systemic injustice and uplift marginalized communities. Raised in Ethiopia before immigrating to the United States, she is the founder of Chucha Studios, a creative production company dedicated to connecting visual storytelling with systemic change. Her debut film The River has been showcased globally, earning recognition for its poetic portrayal of women’s resilience and beauty.
Joseph Douglas Elmhirst is a British-Jamaican filmmaker. His work often centers around character’s coming into their own power, as well as exploring complex themes such as misogyny and religion.
Marie Mitchell is a British-Caribbean cultural practitioner who works with words, and food, adopting a considered approach to discuss social and political themes in spaces of nourishment. Community is at the heart of her work, she curates events, pop-ups and spaces to nurture through body and mind. With food, she develops dishes by focusing on the now – often using seasonality as her springboard, while weaving history, geography and contemporary ingredients into her menus. Caribbean hospitality, ingenuity and heart is the foundation of her, and her work, and this is always where she draws back to.
Her debut cookbook, Kin: Caribbean Recipes for the Modern Kitchen was published with Particular Books (Penguin Press) in the UK in June 2024, to much acclaim, winning the Debut Cookery Award at the Fortnum and Mason awards 2025, named best new voice by Waitrose, and second in the top cookery titles of 2024 by Observer Food Monthly.
She published Kin, with WW Norton in March 2025 in North America, and was named one of Eaters best new books for Spring. She’s a regular guest chef on Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch, written for Vittles, The Guardian, The Observer, Ocado, Waitrose, Sainsbury’s and featured in Eater, Harper’s Bazaar, Time Out, Saveur Magazine, Vancouver Sun, and on Ali Rosen’s Potluck in the US.
Nikki Lam is an artist-curator and filmmaker based in Narrm/Melbourne and Hong Kong. Working primarily with moving images and text, their work contemplates time, memory and impermanence. Nikki is interested in the complexity of migratory expressions, fragmentation and relations. Nikki’s work has been shown, published and screened widely across Australia and internationally. Their latest work The Unshakable Destiny (2021-2025) is a modular moving image trilogy on Hong Kong cinema and its spectres, exploring diaspora art making as a witness to the slippery political context of a homeland from afar. Nikki is currently co-director of Hyphenated Projects, an award-winning artist-led network that nurtures practice in Asian diasporas, and co-founder of Slow Burn Books. Nikki is a PhD (Art) candidate at RMIT University.
Rashida is a Movement Explorer, with a background in Dance, Pilates, Qigong and Yoga.
Tawiah [pronounced Taa-We-Ah] is a rare and unique talent, effortlessly blending her skills as a film composer, live performer, and alt-soul singer/songwriter.
She gained recognition with her award-winning EP In Jodi’s Bedroom (2007) and Recreate (2017), followed by her debut album Starts Again (2019) and concept album Ertha (2022), she is currently working on her third album.
Tawiah has toured with Moses Sumney, Michael Kiwanuka and collaborated with Dev Hynes, Kindness, and Mark Ronson to name a few. In 2024 she was choir leader for Chaka Khan’s Meltdown Festival. Also an accomplished composer, her work spans ITV’s Without Sin, BBC’s Black Ops, and Amazon’s Anansi Boys.
Ronan Mckenzie is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice includes photography, curation, and design. Alongside creative still and moving image works for a number of titles and brands including Vogue, Luncheon, Wall Street Journal, Clinique, Glossier and Nike, Ronan continues to work on special projects including designing a chess board for W Budapest, interviewing Carrie Mae Weems for The Barbican, creative direction for musician anaiis, writing for Apartamento and leading educational programmes for Gucci Changemakers. Curatorially, her collaborators include The V&A, The RA, Carl Freedman Gallery, London Design Festival and Somerset House. In addition to working on numerous projects for others, Ronan founded her own gallery and community space HOME (2020-2023), as well as her label SELASI (2020-present).
