The Maud Sulter Annual Lecture with Pratibha Parmar | The Glasgow School of Art Exhibitions Department

The Maud Sulter Annual Lecture with Pratibha Parmar
4.30 – 6pm Friday 31st October 2025
Reid Lecture Theatre
Free but ticketed – Book via Glasgow Women’s Library

Glasgow Women’s Library in partnership with Glasgow School of Art and Street Level Photoworks is delighted to welcome internationally acclaimed filmmaker, writer and activist Pratibha Parmar for a special lecture exploring her long-standing connections with the late artist, writer and cultural historian Maud Sulter (1960 – 2008).

Pratibha Parmar first met Maud Sulter in the mid-1980s, during a time when Black women artists, writers and cultural workers were carving out vital spaces outside the mainstream arts establishment. Through painting, photography and moving image, this movement generated bold new visual narratives—contesting erasure, expanding representation, and mapping visions for different ways of seeing and being. Parmar will reflect on these foundational moments in dialogue with Sulter’s work and consider their reverberations today.

This event follows a landmark year for Parmar, which has seen the publication of a new book charting her groundbreaking career and a major season devoted to her films at London’s ICA. Her expansive body of work, which spans decades and continents, continues to inspire across film, art and activism. Parmar’s ground breaking films centre marginal stories in bold creative ways. She has collaborated on a film project with the Pulitzer Prize winning author Alice Walker, and made a film on Angela Davis, one of the most wanted women by the FBI. Among her acclaimed projects is Nina’s Heavenly Delights (2006), a Glasgow-set upbeat romantic comedy that brought South Asian storytelling and queer love to the big screen with warmth and flair.

In addition to the lecture, Parmar will host a salon at Glasgow Women’s Library in the east end of the city, designed to support emerging women of colour creatives. This relaxed and informal gathering offers a unique opportunity to learn from and be in conversation with one of the most influential feminist voices in contemporary film and art.

The Annual Maud Sulter Lecture is presented by Street Level Photoworks, Glasgow Women’s Library, and The Glasgow School of Art. The series aims to build on Sulter’s legacy by providing a platform for Black and Women of Colour creatives who knew Sulter; can speak to the context she worked in; discuss her work; place her work in a wider field of practice; have crossovers in their practice; or discuss how Sulter’s legacy has impacted their own approach. In this way, the Annual Maud Sulter Lecture aims to keep the reach of her work alive.

Part of Black History Month