5 Things to Do in Nottingham This Week

Monday nights can be a bit of a drag; you’re still recovering from the weekend’s antics and you’ve got an entire working week to get through. Socialising is sometimes the last thing on your mind, and we get it, but we reckon you’ve got more to offer than a night in front of the tele. Get on over to the Malt Cross on Monday night to take part in Nottingham artist, Oliver Lovley’s life drawing session. You’ll receive individual guidance on how to draw from observation, as well as top tips about composition and mark making. And you get to draw someone naked. Sorry to lower the tone. Tickets are available online until 3pm on Monday, but don’t hang about. For obvious reasons, this event is strictly over eighteens only. Pens and pencils at the ready.
Monday 24 July, 6pm, £7, Malt Cross, event link

Nature in Mind are scheduling a summer programme of outdoor activities to help folk with mental health issues improve their wellbeing. Get outside and make the most of the sunshine while it’s still knocking about, and give your head some space while you’re at it. Green fingered friends, head over to St Ann’s allotments to get to grips with how to grow your own lush veggies. You’ll be able to pick up a load of skills on growing your own nosh, as well as having a chinwag and a tasty meal that’s come straight from the soil of Nottingham. Also, you might be doing someone else a bit less fortunate a favour. This lovely lot let anyone join in for nothing, but if you can, dob ‘em a quid or so to enable them to continue this worthwhile project.
Tuesday 25 July, 10.30am, voluntary contribution of £1, St Ann’s Allotments, event link

The future stars of the Nottingham music scene have been grafting away over the course of this year. Mentored and nurtured as part of YMCA Digital’s Young Creatives scheme, the artists have attended creative sessions in music and radio, and now they’re ready to show you lot what they’ve got. They’re taking over Jamcafé on Wednesday with a load of show stopping performances from 6pm. Catch CB, a female rapper doing her thing, followed by Megan Upton and Mk, an eighteen year old rapper whose slogan reads “Mk is the name. Life is the game.” There’ll also be performances from established local artists, including Nusic’s FSON 2016 finalists, Homesick. Be there or be very square.
Wednesday 26 July, 6pm, free entry, Jam Café, event link

The Nottingham Revolutionary Communist Group are bringing a taste of the revolution to Hoodtown, this week. And we are partial to a bit of that round these parts, int we? Rough Trade are making way for an evening of films set to mark the 64th anniversary of the Moncada Barracks Revolt that kickstarted the Cuban Revolution. Following the films, the floor will open for a discussion about socialist Cuba, the ongoing revolution and its relevance to struggles across the world. Films will kick off at 6pm, so make sure you get there just before to bag yourself a pint and a good spot.
Wednesday 26 July, 6pm, free entry but donations encouraged, Rough Trade

This weekend, Nottingham is gearing up to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community in the all-out fabulous annual Pride event. If you’re artistically minded, or just want summat to do over your lunch hour, pop into Nottingham Contemporary on Thursday or Friday and give artist Kashif Nadim Chaudry in making a regally royal canopy to be paraded at the main Pride event on Saturday. It’s to be inspired by the legendary “cloth of gold” and will be making its way around the city centre in all its glory to “make kings and queens of us all.” Can’t bleddy wait.
Thursday 27 July and Friday 28 July, 10am, free, Nottingham Contemporary, event link