Humanities Institute Faculty Fellow Spotlight: Millie Chen

Where there is limited freedom of expression, how can one creatively and collectively mourn, remember, persist, and declare? Songs have the capacity to turn sorrow and outrage into fortitude and optimism. Silk Road Songbook is a socially driven, multidisciplinary art project that weaves song into landscape, challenging censorship and Orientalist exoticism. Grass roots songs channeling local voices concerning land, sovereignty, and cultural identity are created in collaboration with artists in communities along an ancient trade route spanning Eurasia between Xi’an and Istanbul. For each place, voices are the dynamic driving force; land is the anchor.