A discussion with artists and activists at the front of creative climate action, hosted by Julie’s Bicycle for London Climate Action Week
When: Saturday 27 June
Time: 17:00-19:00
Where: Somerset House, Strand, London, WC2R 1LA
Price: Free
Our world is on fire while the fossil fuel industry continues its expansion in the name of profit. How can global cultural movements help end the reliance on fossil fuels fast and equitably?
This event will explore how the arts can support an urgent transition, and how principles of climate justice rooted in liberatory futures must shape that shift.
Join Julie’s Bicycle and guest speakers Zamzam Ibrahim, Chris Garrard, Kumi Naidoo and Dominique Palmer on Satuday 27 June between 5-7pm at Somerset House for an in-depth panel discussion with artists and activists at the forefront of creative climate action.
SPEAKERS
Kumi Naidoo
Kumi Naidoo is a South African human rights and environmental justice activist, who is currently the President of the Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative. He is the former Secretary-General of Amnesty International (2018-2020) and the first person from the Global South to lead Greenpeace International (2009-2015). He is an advisor for the Community Arts Network. He serves as a global ambassador for Africans Rising for Unity, Justice, Peace and Dignity. His family started the Riky Rick Foundation for the Promotion of Artivism to build on the positive legacies left by popular South African rapper Rikhado “Riky Rick” Makhado through his music and life’s work. Through this Foundation, he co-founded the Global Artivism Initiative. Kumi is also the author of award-winning Letters To My Mother: The Makings of a Troublemaker and the host of the podcast Power, People and Planet.
Zamzam Ibrahim
Zamzam Ibrahim is a British-Somali organiser and climate justice activist working across migration, education, and social movements. A former President of the National Union of Students UK and Vice President of the European Students’ Union, she is currently Co-Lead of the Alliance for Youth Organising, Director of Somalis for Sustainability, a facilitator for Julie’s Bicycle’s Creative Climate Leadership programme, and Youth Advisor to the UN’s Green Jobs Pact. Her work focuses on supporting organisers and communities to build power, strengthen movements, and drive change from the grassroots to the global.
Dominique Palmer
Dominique Palmer is a Climate Justice Activist, Speaker, Author and advocate of slow fashion based in the U.K. She is a coordinator in Climate Live, global youth-led concerts harnessing the power of music to engage, educate and empower, on the Steering Committee for the Youth Climate Justice Fund- the first global youth led climate fund, an activist for #StopRosebank, writes op-eds and pieces for published books, and on the Youth Council for New Zero World. She also harnesses the creative power of the arts to communicate climate issues, and finding joy through uniting. She became an environmentalist after discovering how air pollution was impacting her community, and started her journey in climate action. The same year she was involved in organising the September 2019 climate strikes which brought 300,000 people on the streets in the U.K, and inspiring people across the world to take climate action.” Palmer is a winner of the prestigious Planetary Health Award, and in 2023, was honoured as a ‘Young Leader’ at the Green Carpet Fashion Awards. She was also named in Forbes 2020 Top U.K Environmentalists List for her work. She was named one of the U.K’s most high profile youth activists on Sky News, and has featured in major publications including British Vogue, DAZED, the Sunday Times Style, and Global Citizen. In 2024, she was named on the Future Figures list by BBC 1xtra. Dominique’s debut children’s book Planet Protectors was published by Harper Collins in Spring 2026.
Chris Garrard
Chris Garrard (they/he) is the Co-founder and Co-director of Culture Unstained, a campaigns and research organisation that has helped to turn the tide on fossil fuel sponsorship of museums, galleries and theatres across the UK. He is also an art activist and has devised and coordinated large-scale creative protests, and currently directs an activist choir. He has a doctorate in composition from the University of Oxford, where he wrote music in response to the climate crisis as well as an opera based on Margaret Atwood’s novel ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’. In 2022-24, he was also a Postdoctoral Research Fellow on the project ‘Performing Resistance: Theatre and performance in 21st century workers’ movements’ at the University of Exeter.
Chair: Taghrid Choucair-Vizoso
Taghrid joined Julie’s Bicycle’s Senior Leadership Team as Head of Programmes in March 2024. She is a cultural worker with fifteen years of curatorial, producing, and educational experience working across contemporary performance, multi-art form festivals, participatory arts, and cross-cultural programmes. Prior to JB she was Joint CEO at Shubbak Festival, where she was committed to forging more just cultural ecologies; developing collaborative and decolonial curatorial approaches and artistic development opportunities that centre equity while reducing access barriers to the arts. She is passionate about the transformative power of culture to mobilise for the environment, social and climate justice; particularly in relation to restoring nature, food and land sovereignty, resilience, circular economy, just transition, ending fossil fuel capitalism, and the liberation of indigenous peoples. She frequently presents, speaks and leads workshops across JB’s programmes, including Creative Climate Changemakers. She is a trustee with the Palestinian Institute for Climate Strategy, Book Works, and Another Sky.
About Somerset House
This event is supported as part of the Somerset House Resident Community Programme.
Somerset House is a thriving workspace, home to a community of over 600 creative pioneers and cultural changemakers.
Shaped by resident artists and organisations, the Community Programme is a monthly series of events designed to facilitate meaningful conversations and foster connection. It nurtures collaboration, knowledge exchange and sustainable growth across the community. Find out more about joining our creative workspaces here.
London Climate Action Week
London Climate Action Week (LCAW) was founded in 2019 by E3G in partnership with the Mayor of London. It is the largest city-wide climate festival in Europe and one of the world’s largest independent climate change events.
Its mission is to harness the unique power of London for global and local climate action. It mobilises London’s unparalleled ecosystem of climate and non-climate organisations to accelerate global climate action and supports action in London to ensure it acts as a global climate leader.
The 2026 edition (20–28 June) focuses on four themes:
- Building, investing and innovating the clean economy
- Understanding climate risk and building resilience
- Regenerating nature and oceans
- Mobilising whole-of-society climate action
London Climate Action Week showcases London as a leading example of how the whole of society can come together to shape and drive climate action.
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