Written by Malik Gillani and Jamil Khoury
In 2019, Silk Road Cultural Center Founding Executive Director, Malik Gillani, suffered a stroke that resulted in aphasia (a language disorder) and apraxia of speech (a speech disorder). Silk Road Cultural Center has since made a commitment to generating awareness around these little-known yet common conditions, and to showcase Silk Road experiences within stroke recovery discourse.
Silk Road Cultural Center is developing The Art of Aphasia, a live theatre production that centers Malik’s aphasia journey and his relentless determination to regain his voice. Amplifying the very intersectional story a disabled, Muslim, queer, immigrant, person of color is critical to expanding representation around neurodiversity and disability justice.
This project is supported in part by grants from the MAP Fund and National Endowment for the Arts.
Playwright Malik Gillani
