Moderated by Jamil Khoury
Featuring Mark Daniel, Tony Michelassi, and Phil Robertson
January 19, 2016

The panel discussion Panic Intersecting: Mosques, Zoning, and Islamophobia was held at Silk Road Rising on Tuesday, January 19, 2016. The panel featured zoning specialist and attorney Mark Daniel, DuPage County Board Member Tony Michelassi, and Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Chicago) Trial Attorney Phil Robertson. Moderated by Artistic Director Jamil Khoury, the panelists discussed their experiences with mosque zoning disputes in the Chicagoland area and the motivations behind them. This event created a broader understanding of the difficulties facing the Muslim American community in their wish to exercise their religious freedom and provided more context for our upcoming world premiere of Jamil Khoury’s Mosque Alert.

Moderated by Jamil Khoury
Featuring Nairee Hagopian, Dr. Kamal Ibrahim, Dr. Nabeel Khoury, Deacon George Kourieh, and Dr. Khalil Marrar
August 6, 2015

The panel discussion, Eastern Christians: Commemorating Genocide, Confronting the Future was held at Silk Road Rising on Thursday, August 6, 2015. The panel featured panelists from Arab Christian, Armenian, Coptic, Muslim, and Syriac communities. They were asked to reflect on the centennial of the Armenian, Aramean/Assyrian, and Greek Genocides, and discuss present day challenges confronting Christians in Egypt, Iraq, Syria and beyond.

Moderated by Jamil Khoury
Featuring Rashid Ghazi, Marwan Kamel, Nura Maznavi, Rohina Malik, and Azhar Usman
March 9, 2015

The panel discussion Muslim American Artists: Reshaping the Narrative was held on March 9, 2015 as part of Silk Road Rising’s ongoing commitment to reclaiming, dissecting, and subverting representation. We assembled a panel of five outstanding Chicago-based artists to discuss their work and where it fits against the broader backdrop of American culture, Muslim identity, world events, and the communities from which they hail.

Moderated by Jamil Khoury
Featuring Pidgeon Pagonis, Mary Anne Mohanraj, Mohamed Mehdi, Wendy Doniger, and Nisha Kommattam

April 13, 2014

With this panel discussion we intend to probe and explore questions of identity and representation as they pertain to storytelling, both historically and in our rapidly changing, ever-globalizing world.

Moderated by Jamil Khoury
Featuring Sahar Assaf, Riad Ismat, Nabeel Khoury, Robert Myers, Nada Saab

March 10, 2014

DRAMATIZING RESISTANCE: Saadallah Wannous and the State of Contemporary Arab Theatre is a panel discussion exploring the legacy of the late great Syrian playwright Saadallah Wannous (1941 - 1997), whose "theatre of politicization" project countered what is commonly referred to as "political theatre." Wannous' influence on theatre being created in the Arab world today, the role of the dissident playwright against the reality of government censorship, and the relationship between theatre and the "Arab Spring," are among the featured topics.

Moderated by Jamil Khoury
Featuring Sahar Assaf, Riad Ismat, Nabeel Khoury, Robert Myers, and Nada Saab
March 10, 2014

Dramatizing Resistance: Saadallah Wannous and the State of Contemporary Arab Theatre was a panel discussion held on March 10, 2014 at Silk Road Rising that explored the legacy of the late great Syrian playwright Saadallah Wannous. Wannous' influence on theatre being created in the Arab world today, the reality of government censorship, and the relationship between theatre and social and political change, were among the featured topics.

Moderated by Cheryl Hamada, WTTW
Featuring Motti Lerner, Margaret M. Mitchell, Nicholas Patricca, Steven Philp, Rabbi David Levinsky

November 11, 2013

In anticipation of the world premiere of Motti Lerner's PAULUS, an artistic interpretation of the latter years of Paul of Tarsus as imagined through a psychological lens, Silk Road Rising hosted a conversation with scholars, clergy, and the playwright. 

Moderated by Danny Bernardo
Featuring David Henry Hwang, Jamil Khoury, Eliza Shin, and Chay Yew
February 18, 2013

On February 18, 2013, Silk Road Rising, The League of Chicago Theatres, and Lifeline Theatre hosted a panel discussion entitled Building a Theatre of Inclusion: Perspectives on Asian American Casting & Producing. It was organized by a steering committee comprised of the following individuals:  Adam Belcoure, Danny Bernardo, Allison Caine, Deb Clapp, Jamil Khoury, Dorothy Milne, Geoffrey Scott, Tim Speicher, Ben Thiem, Chay Yew. The video was recorded and edited by Deann Baker and Drew Pientka of Silk Road Rising.

March 16, 2009

This collaborative program between Silk Road Theatre Project and Theatre Mir featured scenes from the companies' respective productions of Motti Lerner's Pangs of the Messiah and Robin Soans' The Arab-Israeli Cookbook.

April 21, 2008

Next Theatre Company, in collaboration with Silk Road Theatre Project and the Museum of Contemporary Art, produced a high-profile panel featuring the three most potent forces in Arab American theatre today.

Moderated by Novid Parsi
Featuring Erin Gilbert, Luther Goins, Jamil Khoury, Eddie Torres
Guest Respondent: Laura Washington

February 22, 2007

A panel discussion in response to an article co-written by Parsi entitled "Why is theatre in Chicago so white and how can we fix it?"

Moderated by Lucia Mauro, art critic
October 13, 2006

On the occasion of the world premiere of Silk Road Theatre Project's Caravaggio, the Istituto Italiano di Cultura hosted a panel discussion addressing how theatrical invention helps us understand history.