By Us, About Us, For All.
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.
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.
ADVOCATE
Our storytelling disrupts divisive narratives, fosters critical dialogue, and challenges assumptions—cultivating empathy as a force for social change.
EDUCATE
We commission and produce live and digital artistic works rooted in Pan‑Asian, North African, and Muslim experiences—where culture, identity, and imagination intertwine.
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Jamil Khoury
Malik Gillani
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By Us, About Us, and For All.
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.
Creative
We commission and produce live and digital artistic works rooted in Pan‑Asian, North African, and Muslim experiences—where culture, identity, and imagination intertwine.
ADVOCATE
Our storytelling disrupts divisive narratives, fosters critical dialogue, and challenges assumptions—cultivating empathy as a force for social change.
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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Chicago is America’s modern Silk Road—a vibrant cultural hub where ideas, histories, and people intersect. SRCC emerges from this spirit, carrying forward a 2,000‑year‑legacy of interconnection. We believe representation isn’t optional—it’s essential to building empathy, equity, and cross‑cultural solidarity.
Think & Create:
Seeking Whether as individuals or collectives, the quest for purpose, meaning, and belonging remains ever present in our daily lives. It inspires us to seek greater understanding of ourselves and each other in relation to the world around us.
Aphasia Arts Forum:
Art as recovery. Celebrating speech and creativity by and with people living with aphasia—led by Founder Malik Gillani.
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Explore our award‑winning “video plays,” documentaries, and animated shorts—like Obstacle Course, Sacred Stages, and community‑written monologues.
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Watch. Immersive video plays, documentaries, animations, and live events—experience voices beyond the mainstream.
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SPOTLIGHT
The Horse of Jenin
Join us for The Horse of Jenin, written and performed by Palestinian stand-up comedian and actor Alaa Shehada, and filmed at the 2025 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Sunday, October 25, 2026
3:00 PM
Tickets: $10
The film runs one hour and 15 minutes and will be followed by a panel discussion and reception Film Produced by Jenny Tibbels of 55B Productions
About The Film
“The horse in Arabic is a symbol of freedom. But to us, this horse is much more. This horse is us.”
Built from the debris of a major invasion, the Horse of Jenin sculpture became a constant presence in Alaa’s life growing up in Occupied Palestine. It stood proudly in the center of the city for twenty years, symbolizing hope and resistance. Then, on October 29, 2023, an Israeli bulldozer entered the city, ripping the sculpture from its place — and from its people. Now, Alaa is left wondering… What happened to the horse?
Combining storytelling, mask, and stand-up comedy, The Horse of Jenin is constructed from the fragments of Palestinian actor and comedian Alaa Shehada’s own memories and stands as an ode to the power of imagination and the resilience it brings.
The internationally acclaimed production has sold out venues in Amsterdam, London, and New York and received the 2025 Edinburgh Fringe First Award. Alaa Shehada trained at The Freedom Theatre of Jenin, co-founded the Palestine Comedy Club, and has performed alongside renowned comedian Bassem Youssef.
A planned nine-city North American tour of The Horse of Jenin in Spring 2026 was disrupted when Alaa was denied entry to the United States despite traveling on a valid O-1B visa for artists of extraordinary ability. Rather than allow border restrictions and the targeting of Palestinian voices to silence Alaa’s story, the live tour has been reimagined as a virtual tour—bringing this powerful work to audiences across North America.