For more than two decades, Malik Gillani has helped people tell stories that might otherwise have gone unheard.
As the cofounder of nonprofit Silk Road Rising—now the Silk Road Cultural Center—Gillani helped build one of Chicago’s leading theater companies dedicated to amplifying the voices of Asian, Middle Eastern and Muslim artists. In doing so, he became an influential figure in both the city’s cultural landscape and its LGBTQ+ community.
Founded in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Silk Road emerged as a response to the wave of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim backlash that followed. Gillani and his husband, Jamil Khoury, realized they could use the power of theater to replace fear and stereotypes with stories rooted in peoples’ lived experiences.
Today, Gillani continues telling stories, though the way he communicates has changed. In 2019, Gillani suffered a stroke that left him with aphasia, a language disorder that affects communication but not intelligence. The experience transformed his relationship with language, but not his commitment to storytelling.
Looking back, Gillani said his identities and life experiences are inseparable, shaping the person he has become.
“Over the years, I have learned that all of my identities—my Muslim faith, my art and being a gay man—do not conflict. Instead, they connect beautifully to make me who I am,” Gillani said in written responses to Windy City Times prepared with assistance from his speech-language pathologist, his husband Khoury, dramaturg Sharvari Sastri and Google Gemini.
Many identities, one purpose
Gillani was born in Lahore, Pakistan, and immigrated to Chicago with his family when he was 8 years old. Looking back, he said the move represented a new beginning filled with opportunity.
“To me, being an immigrant at the age of eight meant stepping into a world of incredible opportunity,” Gillani said. “From the beginning, it meant building a meaningful life and adapting to a new cultural milieu.”
As a teenager, Gillani found confidence through dance and performance. But when it came time to choose between college and pursuing dance professionally, he opted to continue his education.
Gillani chose to continue his education, enrolling in St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland, where he immersed himself in the school’s Great Books curriculum. He read works like Plato’s Republic and Tolstoy’s War and Peace while exploring different languages, cultures and religions.
That experience fundamentally changed how Gillani saw both the world and himself, he said.
“Immersing myself in these diverse perspectives changed everything,” Gillani said. “By learning about the wider world, I truly began to understand and define myself. This educational journey gave me the ultimate confidence to stand proudly in my own identity.”
That confidence extended to his sexuality. Gillani said he was initially afraid to come out as gay because of widespread homophobia within society at the time, but he gradually came out after college and eventually came to embrace every part of his identity.
“Today, I view gayness as a gift,” Gillani said. “I feel completely whole. My faith, my art, my theatremaking and my identity as a gay man all coexist in perfect harmony.”
Changing the stories Chicago tells
After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Gillani and his husband watched anti-Arab and anti-Muslim prejudices spread across the country. They first tried to counter it by writing opinion pieces, giving speeches and making educational videos.
Then they realized they could instead use theater to educate people by allowing audiences to see the world through someone else’s eyes.
In 2002, the couple founded the Silk Road Theatre Project, which used storytelling to challenge stereotypes and amplify voices that are often overlooked. Named after the ancient trade routes connecting Asia, the Middle East and Europe, the company embraced artists and stories that reflected the richness and complexity of those communities.
Over the next two decades, Silk Road Theatre Project evolved into Silk Road Rising and today operates as the Silk Road Cultural Center.
“To us, this means a culturally diverse group of individuals who can experiment and take risks while making art, and who can express their distinct backgrounds and identities without fear or apology,” Gillani said.
Gillani wanted artists who rarely saw themselves represented on stage to have space to tell their own stories without having to simplify or hide parts of their identity.
“I wanted our stage to be a safe haven,” Gillani said. “By giving artists a place to express themselves through stories that weren’t being heard on Chicago’s stages, we encouraged them to be completely comfortable with who they are. Visibility meant giving them the freedom to be authentic.”
Finding a new voice
For someone who had spent decades building community through conversation, theater and storytelling, Gillani’s loss of language was devastating.
“Before the stroke, I was a talker. A manager. A community builder. I loved meetings. I loved people. Words were my tool. My power. My joy,” Gillani said. “Then—gone.”
Gillani said the hardest part wasn’t the stroke itself. It was realizing that the words he thought he was speaking were no longer reaching other people.
Rather than retreating, Gillani began finding new ways to express himself. Through visual art, video and his upcoming theatrical work, The Art of Aphasia, he has transformed one of the most difficult experiences of his life into another act of storytelling.
The play will receive a staged reading Aug. 1 at the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts. Tickets are free and the event is open to the public.
“The Art of Aphasia is my way of taking it back, of reclaiming my voice. It will be a play and eventually a movie,” Gillani said.
The play centers Gillani’s recovery from stroke while exploring resilience, marriage and the power of storytelling.
Gillani said he created the play “not just for myself, [but] for every queer person who has ever felt silenced. For every immigrant who has struggled to find the right words in a second language. For every person with a disability who has been dismissed, ignored, or talked over.”
“We are still here. We still have something to say,” Gillani added.
The experience also deepened Gillani’s faith and reshaped the way he thinks about communication. He said the stroke taught him that connection isn’t defined solely by language, but by the many ways people express love, hope and humanity.
“Language is not only words,” Gillani said. “It is movement. It is cooking. It is music. It is prayer. It is the look on Jamil’s face when I finally said, clearly, after months of therapy—I love you. It was the first full sentence I spoke.”
Today, Gillani hopes audiences leaveThe Art of Aphasia with a greater understanding of aphasia, while also recognizing that a disability affecting language does not diminish a person’s humanity.
“Aphasia affects the brain. It affects the body. But it does not affect the soul,” Gillani said. “That is what I want every person in Chicago to carry home.”
