The Town Hall Spark Sessions with The Spark File

Episode 8 Transcript: Melay Araya

Laura Camien:

Welcome to the Town Hall Spark Sessions. I'm Laura Camien.

Susan Blackwell:

And I'm Susan Blackwell. We are creativity coaches at the Spark File, where we help people fear less and create more.

Laura Camien:

As creatives ourselves, we are obsessed with one of the most dynamic cultural centers in New York City: The Town Hall.

Susan Blackwell:

For over a century, the Town Hall has been a champion for artistry and advocacy, amplifying the voices of icons and emerging artists alike.

Laura Camien:

And now, aren’t we lucky, the Spark File and the Town Hall have joined forces to elevate and celebrate artists who are gracing the stage at Town Hall and using their creativity to fight for the powers of good.

Susan Blackwell:

So, without further ado, let's get into the Town Hall Spark Sessions.

Laura Camien:

Oh, Susan! Today is so special, I’ve been very excited about this for quite some time. I don’t know if you know this, but Town Hall has a million shows and performers onstage all the time, right?

Susan Blackwell:

Right!

Laura Camien:

Well, some of those performers have booked their show because maybe they want to perform on the legendary stage, or because they’re, you know, recording a live album and they want the glorious sound that the hall was designed for. But within those shows, there is a curated season of performances produced by Town Hall. These are called Town Hall Presents, and they’re all curated and created by the vision of one extraordinary persona, and that person is the Town Hall Artistic Director, Melay Araya, one of the most visionary, creatively tuned-in, inspiring human beings that I’ve ever met.

Susan Blackwell:

Yeah, I think she’s a genius.

Laura Camien:

Yes, agree. And we don’t toss that word around.

Susan Blackwell:

No.

Laura Camien:

Melay has a singular perspective on creative work, and she really approaches everything in such a heart-centered, connected way. I really marvel at watching how she works. And today, I’m going to share my conversation with her. She has just put together, and just this moment, I think, announced the 2025/26 Town Hall Presents Season.

Susan Blackwell:

Oooh!

Laura Camien:

I know! And I can’t wait for you to hear all about it. There are incredible world premieres and shows that you can’t see anywhere else. Like, for example, rock legend Vernon Reed.

Susan Blackwell:

Oh, yeah!

Laura Camien:

Okay, you might know him from In Living Color, or, you know, from Rolling Stone’s list of greatest guitarists of all time. At Town Hall, Vernon Reed is scoring the 1925 film Body and Soul, which was directed by Oscar Michaud, considered to be one of the first major Black American filmmakers. It starred Paul Robeson in his film debut. Both of these men were trailblazers, breaking barriers, speaking out against racial segregation and discrimination. Vernon Reed is gonna compose a brand new score for this film. It’s going to be an incredible night at the hall.

Susan Blackwell:

I love the way Melay pulls together these artists and elements across time, even.

Laura Camien:

Across time!

Susan Blackwell:

Puts them in collaboration with each other. I think that’s where some of her genius lies.

Laura Camien:

When we talk about standing on the shoulders, you know, of people and artists before us, I think Melay thinks like that. And that there are people on the stage now because of the work that was done on the stage before, and, yeah, it’s an incredible, incredible gift she has. But I have to stop with the spoilers, you have to hear it from Melay!

Susan Blackwell:

Let’s get into it!

Laura Camien:

Welcome, Melay! Thank you for joining us in The Town Hall Spark Sessions.

Melay Araya:

Thank you for having me!

Laura Camien:

I’m going to ask you a couple of questions, but before I do, tell us how you identify, creatively speaking?

Melay Araya:

I always say I’m an artistic director, because I think at this point in my life and in my career, I’m definitely behind the scenes and coming up with ideas, not necessarily for specific, what goes into specific shows, but creating performance experiences and live experiences. So I think artistic director is the right name.

Laura Camien:

Alright, that leads perfectly into the first question, which is, tell us about what you do at The Town Hall?

Melay Araya:

I play with artists and with numbers. I feel like that’s kind of the job, right?

Laura Camien:

Fun with art and numbers!

Melay Araya:

Art and numbers, because it's a creative role, and it's great in that sense, I get to dream up new ideas with artists, or I get to present things that artists are already working on that I find exciting, but then there’s a lot of strategy in terms of how to make that work in a singular season, and that strategy involves of course marketing, finance, balance in a season, you know, timing. All of these elements are somewhat outside of the creative and generative process that I go through with artists.

Laura Camien:

All of it has an aspect of creativity. I’ve watched you work, and even in the strategic assembling of a season, it’s all creative.

Melay Araya:

It is! And curation is part of it, right? Because of the things that are already made, right, like for Pride and Prejudice the Concert Experience. Like, symphony and overture have worked on that; they’ve made it. But then it becomes, how does that connect with all the other things we’re doing, and how does that connect to like what’s happening in the outside world outside of town hall? So there is curation and strategy of placing beautiful things in each other’s context that I think is really curation. And then, with the shows that we’re building, I mean that’s, I don’t even know what to call that process. It’s generative. It’s working closely with artists and producers. It's sometimes having the idea and giving it to artists, and sometimes the artists having the idea and me figuring out how to execute it. So each one of those, the sort of one-nighters that the town hall creates, is very different. But that is a little bit outside of curatorial in a sense. It’s a lot of problem-solving. I was a violinist as a child. You’re problem solving, you’re problem solving as you’re performing, as you’re preparing to perform. Oh, what position is my hand going to be in, and what will make this the smoothest? You’re constantly problem-solving to make something smooth and beautiful, so I think that’s still a part of curation and producing.

Laura Camien:

100%. I haven’t seen a single thing that you do throughout the day that isn’t creative in some way. And you know, we, Susan and I were talking in our introduction of you, and one of the things I notice about you that I marvel at is just the speed with which the spark of an idea comes to you and the, not just the decision, it’s kind of a combo, the vision for execution and the decision to execute. It happens very fast. Like, there’s not a lot of let me overthink this, or let me try to solve every part of the puzzle before we greenlight. There’s a trust that all those things will be figured out, and you hit the go button! I marvel at that. Because that space right there is where a lot of creatives hesitate and then don’t move forward.

Melay Araya:

I think that there are still projects that don’t get figured out, and that are maybe too large in scale right now, or the pieces are not coming together, or sort of will never come together. So when something hits and I can immediately see a path forward, it’s like… no, we gotta catch it, before the momentum is gone. So I cherish moments like that when I can just say—oh, the idea, I can see the execution, and then we’re sort of running runners and then, you just gotta go and catch it before the excitement leaves. Because I think that’s sometimes one of the struggles, and I know artists must deal with this, is that sometimes when you’re working on something for so long, you lose the enthusiasm for it.

Laura Camien:

100%

Melay Araya:

And it’ll be the thing I’m most excited for. You’re just trudging through it. Of course, and figuring out all the problems. It’s not like they cease.

Laura Camien:

That’s right.

Melay Araya:

Problem solving begets more problem solving sometimes in production, so any time I can just capitalize on something I think will work, I’m like, we gotta do it.

Laura Camien:

We gotta do it! Let’s get the wheels in motion. I love that you're speaking our language because at The Spark File, that’s really what all of our courses are designed to help with: that very thing you just described, that’s like, I wanted to do this, I started to do it, and I lost my way. I got lost in the weeds, it felt hard, it was arduous, and I lost my enthusiasm for it. And so learning to find our way through it to completion is a whole art form in and of itself. I want to know specifically, I believe on this very day that this episode is airing, I believe that Town Hall will be announcing the 2025/26 season. So, can you tell us more about the vision for your upcoming season?

Melay Araya:

I mean, it’s a little bit of a cornocoupia. Like I think about it like that, like there’s a container which is visible, and that’s like our beautiful, beautiful space. And then flowing out of it are some of our fruits and vegetables are similar to each other and some of them are not, but I want it to have that feel, when you drop a basket of fruit and they all stop rolling at different times, that’s kind of how I envision the season. One of the most important parts of the season is of course Girlhood, and that will continue to develop and will continue to have ways to define holes, space really, for teens and women in their young, early 20’s. Um, that to me is a like unifying force behind this, and I think as a woman and just someone who is paying attention, it’s needed. To have this kind of space and to promote the things that are tossed away or deemed insignificant because they are dealing with girls or girlhood, so I think that’s one big through line throughout the season.

Laura Camien:

I love your vision for Girlhood and all that it contains because it even, it’s very fresh and modern and taking a look at the things that are happening in the world right now, and also includes some Jane Austen, who was exploring these concepts in her time, and what it meant to come of age as a young woman, and what are the circumstances within your control, out of your control, and how it feels within those realities.

Melay Araya:

I can’t wait to learn. Like, I’m an elder millennial, right? And, my Girlhood is not their Girlhood. They’re living in a completely different world that I couldn’t imagine navigating, and maybe they’ll look at the world I grew up in and say I can’t imagine navigating that. So, learning from them, like with our Girlhood State of the Union. Learning what their political aims are, and of course they’ll be diverse as they were in every other time period. Not all girls feel the same way, and not all girls have the same world views and sets of values. But, if we look at the history of culture, certainly in this country, and I think we can say that is true elsehwere as well, culture is driven largely by women, and certainly pop culture in this country is drive by girls and girls' tastes. So it’s so funny seeing men win major awards, it’s like…that was a teen idol.

Laura Camien:

Well, it’s interesting you say that because doesn’t the season also include an orchestrated evening of Taylor Swift music?

Melay Araya:

It does! And you know, I’m still at the beginning of my Taylor Swift journey, and I’m fascinated generally by the culture that is developed in fandoms. So as someone who is firmly older and, you know, in the Bey-hive, that moment when they were both on tour and seeing the creativity of the fandoms, and then the next summer seeing the creativity of the Barbie fandoms, and how people were dressing going to the movies, I think some of my own personal interests and I think in general, cultural organizations are waking up to the fact that teens in particular girls, with fan fiction, with the kind of bracelets that the friendship bracelets they make at the Taylor Swift concerts. I went to my first K-Pop concert a few months ago and got a whole bunch of free stuff from girls, right? Because they just make their own merch to give to their friends!

Laura Camien:

They’re so creative.

Melay Araya:

Yeah, so that, the Taylor thing, you know, is as good as that music is, and it is good, it's the culture around it that fascinates me, and I think this show is part of that now.

Laura Camien:

And I think it all points back to you knowing this topic of the power of young women and not underestimating what they can do, and I love also this theme of creativity that begets creativity. Because when you have an artist who is like, yes please! If this inspires you to create something else, based on this or otherwise, please create. And so many of these young women are so creative and so expressive, it’s very inspiring.

Melay Araya:

Even ourselves as institutions, as we look back and forward, we have all this history we inherited, and we have all this history we want to make, but some of that—you can’t perform a song without knowing some chords. You have to know what you’re building on and for me that’s especially at this time, in this country, that’s one of the biggest comforts. Most of the things that I feel like I want to see, even though I don’t know what it is, right, like I have that desire, I want to see something in this realm. There is something in the past that is its ancestor. And that always gives me a sense of confidence about it, because somebody already did something daring before that makes it possible for us to do something daring now. So I had a great conversation two days ago with Vernon Reed, who I love. Just the best—you want to talk brilliantly? Brilliant, astral thinking, we were talking about Body and Soul and Oscar Michaux. How do you dare to do that in the early 20th century? How do you say I’m going to be a Black independent filmmaker with no industry support, obviously. But this is the same time as lynchings.

Laura Camien:

Exactly! In the face of everything that the world is trying to tell you, you decide that won’t be my truth.

Melay Araya:

And his visionary thinking and actions, and then there’s Paul Robeson, who is also in that film. So we were just talking about how we don’t want this to be a recreation of what music would have sounded like for a silent film in 1920–no! These folks were talking about stuff that people are now putting to paper in 2025. It’s going to be funky, it’s going to be mixed media. It’s not just going to be the strings playing when a man turns a corner. It’s not going to be that. So in that same way, someone as iconic and daring and groundbreaking as Vernon Reed, he’s looking at Robeson and Michaux and be even more daring. I can build on that, we need to show people just how radical and brilliant, and forward thinking, ahead of their time these men were, and a hundred years later, we’re gonna bring someone else, and a whole new group of musicians to really funk it out and create some weird kind of time travel ancestor build off of the legacies of these two men. And Vernon will never say it, but to me, that night, Vernon Reed composing a score to that film starring Paul Robeson made by Oscar Michaux, it’s the meeting of three geniuses. A meeting of three Black male geniuses.

Laura Camien:

Thats right. And it’s one of the other themes that runs, there are several themes that run through the season, but Black Brilliance you’ve talked about as a theme that runs through. And this is a world premiere, correct?

Melay Araya:

We have quite a few world premieres. The Pride and Prejudice: that’s a world premiere. Taylor Swift, that’s a U.S. premiere. We’ve got programs that we’re literally stitching together ourselves. I love in Women Who Run With Wolves. I love when the author writes about making a life by hand. And although we have great ambitions and we want to be snazzy and global, it still comes down to somebody has to make something by hand

Laura Camien:

That’s right.

Melay Araya:

And I think that’s what is exciting about live art, that nothing can replicate. It’s the tactility of it, and you’re watching something made by hand with people. Flesh and bone. You know there’s something that can’t be lost from that and whether you’re a church singer Latin mass in the 17th century or you’re doing some sort of ritual in Sumeria, or, you know, whatever… or you’re on the Town Hall stage in 2025, that remians the same. So building a life by hand, building a seaosn by hand, building nights by hand, like I still think it’s craft work. It’s really craft work. So, Tony K. Mombara had this product called Culture and I like to think of it as—the role of artists and also people who work in the arts. It’s cool, it’s snazzy. I got to meet RuPaul. There’s so many things like that but ultimately it's like you’re a worker. And your role is to develop culture and disseminate culture. You know?

Laura Camien:

Yes, and in a way, consume culture, interpret it within you, and output a creative self expression that contributes back to culture, and you’re doing it every day at Town Hall. Obviously a whole bunch of ideas sparked you in regards to the upcoming season, but right this minute can you share something that is sort of sparking your creativity right now?

Melay Araya:

You know I love TikTok. And I took—I had a TikTok fast, and I was like, now I’m on Reddit a lot, and I’m not getting much out of it. So I just limit my time on TikTok. So I went back to TikTok, even though I still love Reddit, and I think one of the reasons I look to TikTok for inspiration is because I never know what I’ll find. I also look to TikTok because I’m faced with people I would never see in real life.

Laura Camien:

That’s right.

Melay Araya:

I know about a South African cellist because of TikTok and I’m learning about medieval labor politics through TikTok. And granted, i do feel that some of the advantage my generation had was having library and research skills and having to do things by hand and then gaining these tools, because I think without, I can’t imagine life without that, I think this would be an overwhelming place, but having these little sparks of interest that I then can pursue in a more meaningful way offline, I think that’s…I’m in love with that use of in particular TikTok. It starts here and then, boom, whatever sticks. I think I’ve talked to you about the book I read because someone did a TikTok about how the Nazis were on amphetamines, and I was like..I have to understand this. And the rabbit hole, I was like…wait a minute, everyone has been on amphetamines during these wars. It started all on TikTok.

Laura Camien:

I was just going to say you’re describing that my personal belief is the best use of it to spark inspiration and then set it down, learn more about a thing, dive into that thing, and explore it in real life.

Melay Araya:

There’s also some weird ways to have community on there. Right? For example, I don’t know if anyone on this podcast has ever talked about reality TV or specifically Love Island. I mea, people ahve said this about reality TV in general. A lot of people look to it just for entertainment and a lot of people look to it because its microchasms of society. And theere’s just one relationship that has broughtout all the romance girlies and booktok people and all of this and its so fun, now book reccomendations are being sent around. People are making fantastic edits. It saparked all of this creativity to the point where people are actually starting to think about because this relationship has really taken off, thinking about this community of people who, we’re living off of tidbits, it’s kind of a friends to lover kind of situation so its, you have to be really perceptive to see those people really like each other, and you’re like…well, I’m delusional. Now they’re together! So, that, now people are like… wait a minute, we could organize off of this. And so there are even poltiical theorists talking about this, about how hope, and what people were calling delusion, but you know people like me in favor of the relationship. So it’s like the way that we explode in so many directions, create a community. In that sense, it’s really fun seeing people inspired, or just in a cult-like frenzy over a relationship. It's actually inspiring. It’s brought out a lot in myself and a lot of people I’ve spoken to tis like trust and protectiveness around people who are hopeful, hopeless romantics, emotional, sensitive. So, this is my way of saying I think there’s wisdom and inspiration and I can find a lot of it on TikTok. The things that TikTok leads to.

Laura Camien:

Tell us as a creative, how are you navigating this moment in time?

Melay Araya:

I mean obviously being in a community, people who are sensitive. I think one of the hardest things to maintain in the last how many months is hope. Hope and motivation. So, I think the little sparks and sort of little interventions in a day. You know, I’ve got my coloring books. I’ve got my silly reality TV and also deep meaningful conversations that are real. Like, no, I am actually afraid. I am deeply, deeply heartbroken. You know, I’m deeply heartbroken. Enraged. I think creating little check ins to calm oneself or at least to see color for me is huge, and then honestly like, getting local. I think for a lot of people the timing of the last election and the beginning of Zohran’s campaign was giving people something to do. So I’m just trying to stay active politically, artistically, with family and friends.

Laura Camien:

Just continuing to show up is a radical act of defiance. To be calm each day. And from the work that you’re doing at Town Hall, you need to hear from an outsider’s perspective, you’re putting meaningful work on this stage that will help others to find that, to find community that they might connect with. To help each other during this time.

Melay Araya:

I feel very political and we had a talk back. I was in New York, and someone stood up and said what is this for? Not that people need to be converted, but I think people need battery packs, too. Not everything is about changing your mind, it’s about being energized. So being in a room where someone says a slogan and the crowd erupts or when someone is speaking and you’re touching people’s hearts and you’re in a room of, even if it's 50 people, I think we need to be together and all able to look around and be like…you’re seeing this, right?

Laura Camien:

That’s what’s going to save us. We’re not alone. Melay, you work really, really hard. You’re committed to your creativity. What’s it all for?

Melay Araya:

I think because of my own personal experiences and the experiences of people around me, I really feel deeply that art and the humanities are our lifeblood and our medicine. That belief carries me through everything. Because otherwise, this stuff’s hard. Like, why do it? But I think the fact that I also am so changed after each amazing show I see or book I read or talk I go to, I want that for other people as well, and I know I’ve had a lot of access to that over the years just, 1.) by being born and raised in New York City. 2.) Having parents that were very encouraging and then 3.) to some extent, the rooms I got to be in, sometimes by luck and sometimes by their own grit. I want others to have that experience.

Laura Camien:

I can tell you, without a doubt, you are causing those experiences for people. For one, I’m grateful for it and want to say thank you, thank you, and invite all the listeners and invite everyone you know to experience moments like that at the Town Hall.

Melay Araya:

Thank you, Laura!

Susan Blackwell:

Thanks to our guest, Melay Araya. And thanks to the whole team who makes all of this possible.

Laura Camien:

The Town Hall and this episode of the Town Hall Spark Sessions were made on the lands of the Lenape people.

Susan Blackwell:

If you'd like to learn more about the Spark File, creativity coaching and how we can support you as you clarify and accomplish your creative goals, visit thesparkfile. com, and you can follow us on socials @ thesparkfile.

Laura Camien:

To learn more about the Town Hall and its exciting upcoming events, visit theTownHall. Org, follow them @TownHallNYC and visit them at 123 West 43rd Street in the heart of New York City. It's all happening at the Town Hall.

Susan Blackwell:

And if something you heard inspired you to use your creativity for the powers of good, we are writing you a forever permission slip to make that thing that's been knocking at your door. It's your turn to take that spark and fan it into a flame.

Laura Camien:

We'll wrap it up with the Town Hall Ensemble. This was recorded live at the Town Hall in 2017—take it away!

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