Question:
WHY does Silk Road Rising exist?
Answer:
Because we need to EXPAND THE AMERICAN STORY.
Silk Road Rising is a Chicago-based, community-centered, artmaking and arts service organization rooted in Pan-Asian*, North African, and Muslim experiences. Through storytelling, digital media, and arts education, we cultivate new narratives, challenge disinformation, and promote a culture of continuous learning.

*We define Pan-Asian as inclusive of all cultures that span the Asian continent, including their diaspora communities.
Silk Road Cultural Center is a Chicago-based interdisciplinary arts organization rooted in the modern communities of the historic Silk Roads, including our diaspora communities. We embrace the arts as a catalyst for connecting people, places, histories, and futures.

Cultivating New Narratives

Create

We commission and produce live and digital artistic works rooted in Pan‑Asian, North African, and Muslim experiences—where culture, identity, and imagination intertwine.

Challenging Divisions

Advocate

Our storytelling disrupts divisive narratives, fosters critical dialogue, and challenges assumptions—cultivating empathy as a force for social change.

Promoting a Culture of Continuous Learning

Educate

Through workshops, community events, and our Polycultural Institute, we invite lifelong learners into conversations that bridge divides and spark new possibilities.
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Rebuilding Syria Part 7: United Syrian Federation

After fourteen years of war, Syrians are pushing for a future that is post-Assad, post-Al Sharaa, post-sectarian, and definitively post-autocracy. In this episode, we lay out a distinctly Syrian path forward: a United Syrian Federation built on federalism, localism, and the right of historic communities to shape their own destinies free of coercion and domination.
The United Syrian Federation explores one of the most contentious and consequential proposals in Syria’s reconstruction debate—federalism. It makes the case for a federal Syria in language that is direct and decisive—what it is, what it isn’t, and why a robust but accountable central government can coexist alongside genuine regional self-rule.
Pointed, unsentimental, forward-looking. If you care about Syria’s future and the difference between unity and uniformity, this episode is for you.
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Full-On Cleopatra

🗓️ When: April 15-25, 2026
📍 Where: Stage Center Theatre 3701 W. Bryn Mawr Ave, Chicago, IL 60625

A traveling soothsayer, Asim, wanders into the courtyard of Cleopatra’s palace and starts chatting with the queen’s handmaiden, Charmian. He promises to read her fortune. As the unhappy future of the court begins to unfold, this soothsayer soon becomes a witness, then finally a participant in the last days of Cleopatra and Antony. A comedic look at the dramatic last days of one of history’s great romantic couples.

Reserve your tickets today!

Road Less Traveled

You Are Cordially Invited

Road Less Traveled

Join us on Saturday, November 22nd, for a staged reading of Lyra Nalan's Road Less Traveled!

Framed by Robert Frost’s beloved poem “The Road Not Taken,” Road Less Traveled intertwines the lives of Frost and Chinese American trailblazer, Tye Leung Schulze. Set in the early twentieth century, these two iconoclastic figures appear in distinct yet parallel worlds as they wrestle with choices, consequences, and meanings.

🗓️ When: Saturday, November 22, 2025, at 2:00 PM
📍 Where: 150 North Michigan Ave, 3rd Floor, Randolph Room, Chicago, IL
🎟️ Tickets are free, but advanced registration is required

This staged reading is being supported by the Paul M. Angell Family Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Reserve Your Tickets Today!

In Conversation

Silk Road Cultural Center's Jamil Khoury speaks with Assyrian American theater artist, Atra Asdou, about her new play "Iraq, But Funny," premiering at Chicago's Lookingglass Theatre Company, May 29 - July 20, 2025.

The conversation also explores Assyrian identity in the diaspora, and a Who's Who of Assyrian American art makers.

For more information about the production, read HERE

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Contact

Silk Road Cultural Center
150 N Michigan Ave, Ste 1970
Chicago, IL 60601
Phone:
312-857-1234
Fax:
312-577-0849
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Silk Road Cultural Center is a dba of Gilloury Institute, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization
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