Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Monday 08 October
6:15 PM - 7:15 PM
An ancient, epic tale of star-crossed lovers, Layla and Majnun is more than 1000 years old. The story is revived at this year’s Melbourne International Arts Festival, in a magnificent dance production choreographed by Mark Morris.
As a complement to these performances, the Wheeler Centre is hosting a conversation about the significance of the Layla and Majnun legend, in the past and today, and on the nature of Persian storytelling traditions more broadly.
We’ll hear from musicologist Aida Huseynova, an expert in the music and culture of Azerbaijan, who consulted on the Layla and Majnun production. We’ll also hear from Shokoofeh Azar, acclaimed author of The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree, who drew on Persian legends when writing her Stella Prize-shortlisted novel.
The pair will discuss the importance of music and song in Persian storytelling, and the role of adaptation and interpretation in keeping traditional stories alive.
Our bookseller at this event will be Hill of Content.
Presented in partnership with Melbourne International Arts Festival.
Featuring
Aida Huseynova
Aida Huseynova Ph.D., a musicologist from Azerbaijan, is a Lecturer in Music at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Since 2006, Huseynova has served as a research advisor for the Mark Morris Dance Group, the Silk Road Ensemble founded by Yo-Yo Ma, the Kronos Quartet and the Aga Khan Music Initiative.
Among her publications is the monograph Music of Azerbaijan: From Mugham to Opera (Indiana University Press, 2016). Huseynova’s awards include an Andrew W. Mellon grant (2015), a Fulbright Fellowship (2007–08).
Shokoofeh Azar
Shokoofeh Azar is an Iranian-Australian journalist and author, living in Australia since 2010 as an asylum seeker. She is the author of The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree which was published in 2017 by Wild Dingo Press in Melbourne. This debut novel was nominated for the International Booker prize, The Stella, The Pen and National Awards.
Shokoofeh is now completing her second novel the title of which is The Touba Tree of Our Kitchen. This novel has received two grants so far by Creative Victoria and The Council of Arts.
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Serpil Senelmis
Serpil Senelmis is an Australian broadcaster with Turkish heritage. She is the co-director of Written & Recorded, a content agency.
The West Australian Academy of Performing Arts graduate has worked behind the microphone, in front of the camera and behind the scenes of radio and television programs across Australia. As a producer, she has worked with Jon Faine, Helen Razer, Derryn Hinch, Waleed Aly, singer Clare Bowditch, Jonathan Green, Patricia Karvelas and comedians Nazeem Hussain and Tony Moclair. She’s had a long working relationship with gonzo journalist John Safran and his co-host Father Bob Maguire. Her documentary work has covered the Turkish history at Gallipoli and a retrospective look at 1960s Turkish popular music.
In 2014, Serpil formed part of ABC Local’s broadcast team for the live coverage of ANZAC Day from ANZAC Cove and Lone Pine in Gallipoli. And in 2015, she returned to Turkey for the ABC’s broadcast of the centenary commemorations. In 2016 she presented The Sunday Sesh, which aired nationally on ABC Local Radio and in 2017 she hosted the ABC Local Radio national afternoons program during the summer line-up.