Silk Road Cultural Center showcases the voices of Pan-Asian, North African, and Muslim communities. Since our founding, we've produced dozens of theatre productions and hundreds of live and virtual events. Our objective is to expand and reimagine the American story and how we define Americanness.

When our company was founded there was a glaring absence of Pan-Asian, North African, and Muslim voices in local storytelling. Today we are witnessing a wave of Silk Road stories on Chicago’s stages and are enormously proud to be playing a role in this extraordinatry shift.

Silk Road Cultural Center centers storytelling to promote learning and address complex social issues within and between diverse communities. Since the launch of our first education program in 2007, we have served thousands of Chicagoans with a focus on our city’s BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color), immigrant, and refugee families. By exploring and sharing their unique stories, participants imagine a more connected Chicagoland.

Polycultural Institute is the think-and-create tank of Silk Road Rising. Its mission is to generate art and ideas that promote polyculturalism.

Polyculturalism is the theory that cultures continuously evolve and transform through dynamic interchange. It assumes that cultures are fluid and flexible, not static and fixed, and that as cultures interact with each other, they redefine themselves.

Polyculturalism promotes the understanding that cultural communities — and the multifaceted individuals that comprise them — share challenges and needs that inevitably produce alliances and spur coalitional politics.

The concept of polyculturalism is largely synonymous with both interculturalism and cultural interchange. It is, however, more intentionally political in that it aims to shape discourse and drive change.

We promote polyculturalism to expand civic and social connectivity. As America’s multiracial democracy continues to be undermined by extreme polarization, we know instinctively that diversity is our strength when it brings us together.