Special events encompass the many conversations, workshops, playwright meet-and-greets, galas, and artistic events Silk Road has held over the years. Events have served to supplement mainstage productions, expand our educational programming, and unite our communities.
September 20 - Say Gay Plays
May 17 - Byzantine Renewal: The Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom
February 6 - Thinking Polyculturally Workshop
January 25-27 - Unveiled at Loyola University Chicago
October 27-29 - MENATMA Convening 2023
April 14 - Memory Lane: Revisiting Precious Stones
March 26 - Doing It For Ourselves: SWANA & Queer in the Global Story
February 15 - A Narrative Arc: From Precious Stones to The Shroud Maker
November 10-12 - Middle Eastern North African Theater Makers Alliance 2022 Fall Convening
September 12 - Putting It Together: Muslimness, Queerness, and Joy
March 31 - Creative Conversations: Obstacle Course at Northeastern Illinois University
February 7 - Dramatizing Aphasia: Arts, Speech, and Healing
November 14 - Becoming: Arab Americans and Whiteness
October 17 - Arab American Theatre with NC State University
June 12 - Breaking Fast: An Online Salon
June 8 - Interfaith Storytelling and the Art of Understanding
May 12 - Art, Activism, and Why Representation Matters
March 26 - NO SUMMARY: with John Eisner, Jamil Khoury, and Torange Yeghiazarian
February 8 - Authenticity vs. Opportunity: New Possibilities in MENASA Recognition & Representation
December 13 - Story as Resistance: The Joys, the Heartbreak, and the Food
September 19 - Balloons Over Babylon
August 13 - A Conversation with MENA Theater Makers
August 6 - Creative Conversations: Obstacle Course with the Houston Coalition Against Hate
May 20 - Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Webinar: Facing the New Wave of Anti-Asian Racism in the U.S.
May 18 - Creative Conversations: Obstacle Course with DePaul University
May 11 - Creative Conversations: Obstacle Course with Asian Human Services
April 11 - Creative Conversations: Obstacle Course with the Middle Eastern Immigrant and Refugee Alliance
March 7 - Meet the Playwright: Nahal Navidar
March 2 - Obstacle Course: Mosque Controversies, Public Policy, and Prejudice
November 10 - Naming & Defining Our Coalition
July 14 - Meet the Curators, Olzhas Zhanaydarov and Evgeny Kazachkov
March 19 - Pedagogies in Lifelong Learning: An Arts Educators Workshop
February 21-March 3 - American Griot
September 21 - Debunking Disinformation: Building Cultural Integrity through Storytelling
August 18 - Expanding the American Story as a Revolutionary Act
August 17 - Centering Our Voices as a Revolutionary Act: Rebels for Movement Building
August 11-19 - Revolutionary Acts: 6th National Asian American Theater Conference & Festival
October 11 - And Then They Came for Me: Documenting Japanese American Incarceration
July 13 - Silk Road Quartet (Ragdale Ring Performances)
May 17 - Hewar: Concert and Talkback
March 31 - Theater as communicator?: Workshop at RCC’s 2017 convention
March 11-12 - The Art of Translating: Interpreting Cultures and Contexts
February 13 - Disturbing the Peace: Film Screening and Discussion
February 12 - The Polarized Theatre of the Oppressed
February 1 - Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams in Damascus
January 23 - Art AIDS America
October 27-30 - Mosque Alert at North Central College
August 12 - Dramatizing Islamophobia: Muslims, Demagogues, and Inciting Campus Discourse
July 30 - Four Hijabs Panel
May 18-19 - The 2016 Middle East America Convening
February 8 - Shakespeare in the Middle East
January 19 - Panic Intersecting: Mosques, Zoning, and Islamophobia
November 11-15 - Mosque Alert at Valparaiso University
August 6 - Eastern Christians: Commemorating Genocide, Confronting the Future
March 9 - Muslim American Artists: Reshaping the Narrative
February 25-28 - Mosque Alert at Knox College
January 31 - Breaking Borders
June 7 - Silk Road Rising Salutes: A Celebration of Reverend Philip Blackwell
April 13 - In the Other's Shoes: Identity and Representation in Storytelling
March 10 - Dramatizing Resistance: Saadallah Wannous and the State of Contemporary Arab Theatre
January 20 - Multi Meets Poly at Valparaiso University
November 11 - Dramatizing Paul of Tarsus: Christian and Jewish Responses to Paulus
September 19, 20, 22 - The Hijab Cycle Workshops
February 18 - Building a Theatre of Inclusion
December 7 - Artists on Faith at the Chicago Leadership Prayer Breakfast
November 28-29 - The House of Bernarda Alba at Silk Road Rising
November 7-12 - The House of Bernarda Alba at Valparaiso University
November 12 - Triangulation: Mosque Battles, Theatre and Civic Engagement
October 27 - Threads of Silk 2012: A Gala to Benefit Silk Road Rising
April 28 - Re-Spiced at Governor’s State University
February 20 - Excerpts from Paulus at Valparaiso University
November 5 - Threads of Silk Gala 2011: A Gala to Benefit Silk Road Rising
January 22 - The DNA Trail at the University of Southern California
January 13, 14, 15 - Dawn’s Light: The Journey of Gordon Hirabayashi
November 13 - Threads of Silk: A Gala to Benefit Silk Road Theatre Project
September 13, 20, 27 - Scorched play reading course
July 28 - Asian Night at Sox Park
March 16 - actOUT with Jamil Khoury and Steve Scott
February 20 - Meet The DNA Trail Playwrights at Columbia College Chicago
October 24 - 2009 Gala fundraiser
July 25 - Meet the Playwright: Lauren Yee
April 28 - Meet the Playwright: Leila Buck
March 19 - Motti Lerner: Playwriting in Wartime
March 16 - Staging Conflict: Theatrical Narratives of the Holy Land
February 3 - Meet the Playwright: Motti Lerner
December 6 - Meet the Playwright: Christopher Chen
November 20-28 - Yohen at North Central College
August 14 - Meet the Playwright: Philip Kan Gotanda
May 9 - In Conversation with Julia Cho and Heather Raffo
April 21 - Political Acts: The Emerging Arab American Theatre Movement
April 12 - Meet the Playwright: Sung Rno
February 2 - Meet the Playwrights: Yussef El Guindi and Heather Raffo
May 19 - 365 Days/365 Plays: Silk Road Jams!
May 11 - Looptopia: Silk Road Jams
March 9 - Meet the Playwright: David Henry Hwang
February 27 - In Conversation with David Henry Hwang
February 22 - Why is Chicago Theatre so White?
February 8 - The Silk Road Unveiled: A Zhou Brothers Mural
November 5 - Caravaggio Performance and Panel Discussion for the Chicago Humanities Festival
October 24 - Sartori: Carnival and the Origin of Masks
October 13 - Caravaggio: The Artist and the Man
October 12-26 - Baroque Band Lunchtime Concerts
October 6 - Lucia Mauro's Italy
April 13 - ACLU Night at Back of the Throat
October 16 - Interfaith Performance of Ten Acrobats in an Amazing Leap of Faith
October 13 - Andrea Harris Art Exhibit: "Women of the Veil"
June 5 - Precious Stones at the Hyde Park — University of Chicago Arts Fest
February 23 - Precious Stones Course
