Thinking Culture | School of Culture & Creative Arts | Global Majority Network | College of Arts & Humanities
Date: Thursday 08 May 2025
Time: 19:00 - 21:00
Venue: Civic House
Category: Ceremonial events, Films and theatre, Social events, Academic events
Speaker: Farah Saleh

Balfour Reparations

Part of the Creatives of Colour Festival, May 8-10, 2025.

This performance lecture investigates ways of confronting the United Kingdom’s colonial legacy in Palestine. In particular, the role of Arthur James Balfour, the country’s Prime Minister (1902-1905), Foreign Secretary (1916-1919), Chancellor and Rector of many UK prominent universities (1886-1930), in the historical denial of Palestinian political rights and self-determination in their homeland. Saleh does that through elements of Speculative Choreography and Afrofuturism that combine history, fiction and fantasy, while engaging with and being inspired by archival material, such as videos, photos, and documents. The performance lecture takes place in 2045 to reflect on the fictive apology letter that the United Kingdom will have issued in 2025 to the Palestinian people promising them reparations. The audience become members of the reparations’ evaluation committee created on the 20th anniversary of the apology and are invited to participate in the performance.

The performance is 40 minutes in duration, followed by 40 minutes Q&A.

Creatives of Colour Festival

This event centers the voices, experiences, and creativity of people of colour in Glasgow, sharing amongst our larger community. Storytelling sits at the heart of these creative practices, and celebrates the resilience, joy, and talent of PoC artists.

Our stories. Our lens. Our terms.

This event is presented by ‘Thinking Culture’, a cultural programme from the School of Culture & Creative Arts, University of Glasgow

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