EVENT HIGHLIGHTS
We are happy to invite Jamil Khoury, the Founding Artistic Director of Silk Road Rising to speak on “Represention of Middle Eastern & Muslim peoples in the American Theatre”.
Members: Complimentary
Non-Members: $10
Not a member? Become one here to have unlimited complimentary access to this event and all other Chicago Global Family events for one year!
CLICK TO RSVPIf you have difficulties registering for this event, please CONTACT Rana Yurtsever, Program Director for Niagara’s Center for Public and Global Affairs, via email at [email protected] or phone 312-240-0707 Ext. 107.
Date:
Tuesday, August 11.
11:30am- 1:00pm
Lunch will be served
Venue
Niagara Foundation-Chicago office
205 North Michigan Avenue, Suite 4240
Chicago, IL, US, 60601
Jamil Khoury is the Founding Artistic Director of Silk Road Rising an organizations that Promotes playwrights of Silk Road backgrounds (Asian and Middle Eastern) He has eleven years expereince as a cross-cultural trainer and international relocations consultant. Additionally he is theatre producer, essayist, playwright, and film maker, Khoury’s work focuses on Middle Eastern themes and questions of Diaspora. He is particularly interested in the intersections of culture, national identity, citizenship, and class.
By:
Jihan Dubose, Center for Public & Global Affairs Intern
Jasmin Rojo, Communications Intern
August 14, 2015
On Tuesday, August 11th, Jamil Khoury joined the Niagara Foundation for a Chicago and Global Family event. A self-proclaimed WASP (White-Arab-Slovak-Pole), Khoury captured his audience instantly with his humor and genuine personality. As a theatre producer, essayist, playwright, and filmmaker, Khoury is a man of many talents, with 11 years of experience as a cross-cultural trainer and international relocations consultant. He is also the Founding Artistic Director of Silk Road Rising; an organization that promotes Asian and Middle Eastern backgrounds.
Located in the Windy City’s Chicago Temple, Silk Road Rising is a non-profit organization that promotes and provides a platform for Middle Eastern, Arab, and South Asian actors and playwrights to tell their stories. By challenging audiences’ perceptions of Muslim and Desi people in the wake of 9/11, Silk Road is introducing and providing a conversation that hopes to advance multiculturalism and add more realism and dimensions to the world of theater.
In his essay, “ Mass Media Muslims,” Khoury analyzes the three lenses through which he sees mainstream America respond to Silk Road people and cultures. Through national security, patriarchy, and liberalism, Khoury questions how and why Silk Road people are feared, despite their humanness and uniqueness as individuals. For Khoury, it is through art that false representations can be questioned, challenged, and changed.
After listening to his essay, Khoury and attendees engaged in an enthusiastic conversation about the power of theater. Art as a collective of expression serves as a language that reaches beyond the red tape of culture, race, and socio-economic class. Storytelling, as he terms it, is most effective when stories are told from actors of various backgrounds. As a playwright, Khoury expressed his passion for storytelling-bridging cultural divides and introducing audiences to stories rarely told on stage. It is through artistic but realistic representation that Khoury hopes to paint Silk Road people in a truthful, unbiased light, one that will cut through the darkness of Islamophobia and political racism.
The Niagara Foundation would like to thank Jamil Khoury for participating in this Chicago and Global Family event.