MAY 2021 WEBINAR:

Silk Road Rising: Art, Activism, and Why Representation Matters

Presenter: Jamil Khoury,  Award-Winning Theater Producer, Playwright, Essayist and Filmmaker 

May 12, 2021 - 11:00 am-12:30 pm (ET) 

Representation matters: it molds perceptions, informs conversations, and influences policies. In this webinar, Silk Road Rising Co-Founder and Co-Executive Artistic Director Jamil Khoury uses the artistic works of this organization to demonstrate how storytelling serves as a catalyst for expanding representation, creating change, and building community. Based in Chicago, Silk Road Rising is a community-centered art-making and arts service organization founded in 2002 by Khoury and his husband Malik Gillani as a response to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Using the Silk Road as a metaphor for cultural interchange, its work is rooted in representing the experiences of Pan-Asian, North African, and Muslim communities including their diaspora. The work of Silk Road Rising is an intentional strategy to shift and expand these communities’ narratives. Through live theatre, digital media, and arts education, Silk Road Rising’s work challenges disinformation, cultivates new narratives, and promotes a culture of continuous learning. Khoury will also explore polyculturalism and how it informs his company's artmaking and activism.

SIETAR USA MEMBER Registration = FREE (current, paid SIETAR USA members in good standing)

Non-Member Registration = $25.00

Access to this webinar will be via the Zoom platform. Click here to register: Silk Road Rising...

**********************, 

About the Presenter

Jamil Khoury is a theatre producer, playwright, essayist, and filmmaker, whose work focuses on Middle Eastern themes and questions of Diaspora. He is particularly interested in the intersections of culture, national identity, religion, and belonging.  Khoury holds a M.A. degree in Religious Studies from The University of Chicago Divinity School and a B.S. degree in International Relations from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service. He is a Kellogg Executive Scholar (Northwestern University) and has been awarded a Certificate of Professional Achievement in Nonprofit Management.  Khoury has received numerous awards over the years, including the 2017 University of Chicago Diversity Leadership Alumni Award, the 2015 Community Leader Award from the Association for Asian American Studies, the 2013 Kathryn V. Lamkey Award from Actor’s Equity Association (for promoting diversity and inclusion in theatre), and the 2013 changemaker Award from South Asian Americans Leading Together.