Legend, Myth And History – Where Can We Draw A Line?
‘Legend, Myth and History – Where can we draw a line?’ is the title of the next discussion in the Literary Conversations Across Borders digital series, with historian, broadcaster and writer Bettany Hughes, Peter Hellyer, an expert on the UAE’s history, and chairman of the Sharjah Institute for Heritage, Abdulaziz Al Musallam, one of the most popular folklore writers in the UAE. They will examine where fact meets fiction, and the responsibility placed on historians in uncovering the truth, on Saturday, 18 July 2020 at 19:30.
Bettany Hughes has brought many historical topics to life in her acclaimed television series. Her latest book, Venus & Aphrodite examines the complicated roots of the Roman and Greek deities as well as what they meant to classical civilisations. Peter Hellyer is author and editor of nearly 20 books on the UAE’s archaeology, history and environment. He was Executive Director from 1993-2005 of the Abu Dhabi Islands Archaeological Survey, ADIAS, which discovered several of the UAE’s most important archaeological sites, including a pre-Islamic Christian monastery, Neolithic villages and a five million-year-old trackway of fossil elephant footprints.Dr. Abdulaziz Al Musallam is a poet and a writer and has worked on folklore including fairy tales, oral history and Nabati Poetry and regularly writes essays and editorials on these subjects for leading Arabic newspapers and periodicals.
The debate, the latest event in the Literary Conversations Across Borders series, uses a digital platform to host Emirati writers and commentators in live discussions with high profile experts from around the world. The latest talk celebrated the UAE making history with the launch of the Hope Probe mission to Mars, featuringH.E. Zaki Nusseibeh, Minister of State and Dr. Farouk El-Baz, NASA space scientist and geologist and was moderated live from Japan by Salem AlMarri, Head of the UAE Astronaut Programme, MBRSC.
The inaugural event of Literary Conversations Across Borders saw more than 3,500 people from 46 countries register and able to tune in to the live event which also featured H.E.Zaki Nusseibehin a debate with Indian politician Shashi Tharoor on how the events of 2020 will change the course of history.
Other sessions included H.E. Omar Ghobash and journalist Lesley Hazleton as they debated the impact of the pandemic on faith and belief systems, and celebrated environmentalist Dr. Jane Goodall and H. E.Mariam bint Mohammed Al Mheiri Minister of State for Food Security on how the pandemic might influence global food supply challenges and the natural world. The series also incuded an international poetry exchange featuring the UAE’s Afra Atiq, Colombian American Carlos Andrés Gómez , and British Ethiopian Lemn Sissay, while Christina Lamb, award winning journalist from the Sunday Times, considered how news reporting has changed in the last ten year with UAE political commentator Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi.
The Literary Conversations Across Borders project is a new initiative to promote international cultural understanding through the power of books and words launched by the UAE Office of Public and Cultural Diplomacy and the Emirates Literature Foundation.
There are eight sessions in this first Literary Conversations Across Borders series. Further details and more authors will be announced shortly.
The sessions are free to watch but pre-registration is required at www.elfdubai.org/en/literary-conversations-across-borders
After the event the session will be hosted on the Emirates Literature Foundation YouTube channel. Full details on the upcoming programme will be available on the OPCD opcd.ae and Emirates Literature Foundation elfdubai.org websites.
