Change Is Coming, a performance art action by Monica Jahan Bose in collaboration with the women of Calvary Women’s Services.

The performance will begin inside the Calvary garden at 4 pm.  

The public portion will commence at 4:30 pm on the street outside 1217 Good Hope Road, SE and continue to the Anacostia River.

The performance “Change is Coming” is the culmination of a series of climate art workshops held at Calvary Women’s Services, a transitional program for homeless women in Anacostia, Washington DC. Calvary provides housing, education, and support for homeless women, some of whom are escaping from domestic violence. In 2015, during the exhibition/workshops “Climate and Actions” at Anacostia Arts Center, a woman called Amanda joined a climate art workshop and was so excited by it that she brought 25 women from her shelter to join a special workshop organized just for Calvary women. During 2016-2017, Monica Jahan Bose has been working with women in this shelter, leading on-site collaborative workshops that include sharing stories and knowledge about climate change and creating saris with climate pledges from women in Anacostia to women in Katakhali Village, Barobaishida Island, Bangladesh.The saris will be used the performance and later returned to Bangladesh to be worn by women in Katakhali Village.

The performance script is being determined in collaboration with the women of Calvary, and will include singing, sewing in a vegetable garden tended by the women, and walking to the Anacostia River. The performance takes inspiration from the Sam Cooke song, “A Change Is Gonna Come.” Our walk to the river will echo the women of Katakhali walking to the Darchira River during their performance in January 2016. The workshops and performance are supported by a grant from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, which is funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Climate pledge on one of the Calvary saris, June 2017.

Darchira River Performance, Bangladesh, January 2016.

Copyright 2016-2017, Monica Jahan Bose, all rights reserved.