Serpil Senelmis, Aida Huseynova and Shokoofeh Azar

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 hosted 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.

Hear from musicologist Aida Huseynova, an expert in the music and culture of Azerbaijan, who consulted on the Layla and Majnun production; and from Shokoofeh Azar, acclaimed author of The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree, who drew on Persian legends when writing her Stella Prize-shortlisted novel. 

With host Serpil Senelmis, the pair discuss deep, burning love in Persian storytelling, the traditions of mugham music, and the role of adaptation and interpretation in keeping traditional stories alive.

Presented in partnership with Melbourne International Arts Festival.

Nate DiMeo is the voice and producer of The Memory Palace, a celebrated storytelling podcast about the past. In this conversation, recorded live at Geelong Regional Library & Heritage Centre, he talks about history, time and wonder – and how he's built a creative livelihood around his writing. Hosted by Jon Tjhia.

Jon Tjhia and Nate DiMeo at Geelong Library and Heritage Centre — Photo: Helen Withycombe

In each short Memory Palace episode, DiMeo’s evocative, elegiac monologues reach back into history, returning with quiet magic; a flickering of something timeless. More than many podcasts, the show hinges on writing. ‘I'm just looking for some little fleck of something wonderful in the past,’ DiMeo has said of the process. ‘I latch onto that thing that moved me … We know the subject; what's the story? That's the part that takes forever.’

Based in Los Angeles, he’s recently been the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s artist in residence. Other recent writing projects include ghostwriting Pawnee: The Greatest Town in America with the Parks and Recreation writing team, several TV staff writing gigs and a novel in progress.

Note: We apologise for the poor audio quality of this recording, due to technical circumstances beyond our control.

Clips featured in this episode Excerpt from 'One to Another', episode 59 of The Allusionist 'Fifty Words Written After Learning the Arctic Bowhead Whale Can Live up to Two Hundred Years', episode 50 of The Memory Palace

Both used with permission.

This event was part of The Creative Exchange, presented in partnership with Creative Victoria, the Wheeler Centre and Geelong Regional Libraries.