Rumi, 'Fountain of Fire' a poetry evening

The 12th century Sufi mystic poet Rumi has become one of the most popular poets in the Western world today. Why? His 65,000 verses speak of subjects that are still relevant for us today. Subjects like love, separation, joy, happiness, grief, fight and surrender, you and me. Like Shakespeare's simple and timeless words, "to be or not to be", Rumi's words in the Persian language are direct with images from everyday life, and filled with rhythm.

It is known that he was inspired to dance and spin, and spoke these poems aloud (sometimes inspired by the rhythm of noises in his environment), while his students wrote them down for posterity. This poetry evening will look at translations of 75 of his verses by Nader Khalili into today's English language, exploring their themes and some rhythms of Rumi's original words.

The session will be lead by Iliona Khalili. Iliona has a Masters in Architecture from the Architectural Association in London. From 1991 - 2008 she studied Earth Architecture from Nader Khalili in California and worked with him as partner and wife to build prototypes of sustainable earth masonry construction in the spirit of Rumi's poetry at Cal-Earth Institute.

"Earth architecture is poetry crystallized into structure" - Nader Khalili.

She now works with New Earth UK and is interested in the architecture of sustainable community.