Talk title: “From Bangladesh to Brooklyn: Transnational Art Practices” by Monica Jahan Bose

Abstract: Monica Jahan Bose has lived in Bangladesh, the U.K., the United States, Japan, France, Pakistan, and India. Using the sari as a symbol for women’s lives, she has presented her work in tiny villages in Bangladesh, at art fairs during Miami Basel, and on the streets of Brooklyn. Her talk presents her recent projects and considers how South Asia and Bangladesh enter conceptual frameworks and art practices in the US, the extent to which artists in Bangladesh are influenced by the outside world, and the impact and interplay of colonization and globalization on the art world in South Asia and the US.

Bio:
Monica Jahan Bose is a Bangladeshi-American artist, lawyer, and activist whose work spans performance, painting, film, photography, printmaking, and interdisciplinary projects. Her solo performance/installations and exhibitions have been presented at Art Asia Miami, Twelve Gates Gallery, the Bangladesh National Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, the DUMBO Arts Festival, (e)merge art fair, SELECT Art Fair (during Miami Basel), UNESCO, Galerie Deborah Zafman, and many other venues. She studied art at Wesleyan University and Santiniketan (India) and has a law degree from Columbia University. She is the creator of “Storytelling with Saris,” a longterm collaborative art and advocacy project with 12 women from her ancestral island village, which is adversely impacted by climate change. Monica lives and works in Washington, D.C. and Bangladesh.

The sari installation in the atrium is called “Power” and is part of the “4 + 1” Exhibition curated by Shanthi Chandrasekar. The opening is at 7 pm on March 9, 2017. The show is up through April 30th. Hours from 8:30 am to 9:30 pm on weekdays, on Saturdays 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and Sundays 12:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

A 16-minute sample preview of the upcoming film “Rising up to Climate Change: Storytelling with Saris” along with the UN film “Thirty Million” will be screened in the NY offices of Earthjustice and shown via webinar to their offices around the country. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Monica Jahan Bose.

For the VISION DC Arts and Urban Innovation Summit 2017, Monica Jahan Bose will create a video installation called TOGETHER.

TOGETHER speaks to climate change with collaborative saris made in Bangladesh and Washington, D.C. as well as a new video work.

There are panels, performances, and installations throughout the day. More details about the summit here.

We are very excited to be presenting another workshop on gender and climate for the Sierra Club’s Youth Activist Weekend 2017 in Washington, D.C. This year’s workshop will include a pre-view screening of a scene selects from the upcoming film RISING UP TO CLIMATE CHANGE: STORYTELLING WITH SARIS.

Come and learn about solar energy in a fun and conversational setting as part of a series of Storytelling with Saris climate advocacy events. I was inspired by the women of Katakhali Village in Bangladesh to install solar panels on my own home. I will share how my solar project is going and we will hear from other neighbors who have recently installed panels. We will also be making a climate pledge sari to be sent back to Bangladesh to be worn by women in the island community of Katakhali. Drinks and food and much conviviality are promised! The event is free but you must register. Donations to the project are very much appreciated. Storytelling with Saris is supported in part by the DC Commision on the Arts and Humanities, funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

-Monica

Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center presents “Ae Kai,” a culture lab on convergence
Dates: July 7-9, 2017, 11 am to 9 pm
Location: Site of former Foodland, Ala Moana Shopping Center, Honololu, Hawai’i

I will be presenting RECLAIM, an installation and interactive language and climate lab in collaboration with Hawai’ian artist Hina Kneubuhl. I am also collaborating with Hawai’ian artist Sloane Leong on a zine about the language movements in Hawai’i and Bangladesh.
Special performance on Saturday, July 8, 2017 at 4:00 pm, starting at the Foodland site and moving to Ala Moana beach park.
Website for the Smithsonian “Ae Kai” Culture Lab here.

Monica Jahan Bose will be leading a series of empowerment workshops with women at a shelter in Anacostia. The women are learning about climate change and making a collaborative sari with woodblock, writing, and painting. The workshops will culminate in public performance on the banks of the Anacostia River on September 1, 2017. Stay tuned for details.

This project is funded by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, which is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Photo: Jaclyn Merica.

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.


Projection, discussion, et dédicace au Librairie du Cinéma du Panthéon | Paris | Île-de-France | France [English text below]

Les artistes et cinéastes Monica Jahan Bose et Leena Jayaswal seront present pour la projection de deux courts métrages, suivi d’une discussion avec les auteures et une séance de dédicace du livre Her Words: Storytelling with Saris.

OU: Librairie du Cinéma du Panthéon
15, rue Victor Cousin – 75005 Paris.

COMMENT:
Metro: Cluny-La Sorbonne / RER : Luxembourg / BUS 38, 96, 21: arrêts Luxembourg, Saint Jacques-Gay Lussac

QUAND: Samedi, 14 octobre de 17H à 19H

Bose et Jayaswal coréalisent un film sur le changement climatique vu au prisme du projet artistique Storytelling with Saris, une évocation de récits de femmes de l’île de Barobaishdia au Bangladesh, destinée à inciter américains et européens à agir individuellement et collectivement sur le climat. Depuis le retrait du gouvernement américain de l’Accord de Paris sur le climat, l’engagement individuel et collectif sur le sujet revêt une signification particulière. Le projet Storytelling with Saris s’appuie sur des performances et des actions artistiques pour susciter un désir collectif et individuel de s’engager dans la lutte pour la réduction des énergies fossiles. Le projet a déjà fait escale dans plusieurs localités aux Etats-Unis (Hawaï, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvanie, Virginie, Washington, Wisconsin) et au Bangladesh (Dhaka et le village de Katakhali), et elle investira la galerie Six Elzevir à Paris, dans le Marais, à compter du 16 octobre 2017 de 12 h à 21 h.

Projection : (1) extrait du film Rising Up to Climate Change: Storytelling with Saris, realisé par Monica Jahan Bose et Leena Jayaswal. Shefali Akhter Shetu et Nandita Ahmed ont participé au tournage et montage (durée :15 minutes) (2) Jalobayu (Climate. Water. Wind), un court documentaire de Monica Jahan Bose sur une performance présentée à Miami Beach dans le cadre de l’édition 2014 d’Art Basel Miami Beach (durée : 7 minutes).

Dédicace : « Her Words: Storytelling with Saris », un livre de 110 pages en couleurs traitant du projet sera disponible (25 euros) et donnera lieu à une séance de dédicaces par Monica Jahan Bose.

Entrée libre, et on vous offrira un verre …
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
Storytelling with Saris

Please join artists and filmmakers Monica Jahan Bose and Leena Jayaswal for a screening of two short films, followed by a talk and discussion, and a book signing of “Her Words: Storytelling with Saris.”

Librairie du Cinéma du Panthéon

15, rue Victor Cousin – 75005 Paris.

Metro : Cluny-La Sorbonne / RER : Luxembourg

Saturday, October 14, 2017 from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm

Bose and Jayaswal are co-directing a film about climate change through the lens of the Storytelling with Saris art and advocacy project, which highlights the stories of women on the Island of Barobaishdia in Bangladesh to inspire Americans and Europeans to take action on climate on an individual and community level. With the U.S. federal government’s withdrawal of support for the Paris Climate Agreement, the actions of individuals and local communities become particularly relevant. The Storytelling with Saris project uses performance art actions to engage and inspire community and individual commitments to reduce use of fossil fuels. Storytelling with Saris performances, art actions, and engagements have taken place in multiple localities in the U.S. (Hawai’i, Iowa, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and Wisconsin) and Bangladesh (Dhaka and Katakhali Village), and upcoming on October 16, 2017 @ 6:30 pm in Paris, France at the Galerie Six Elzevir in the Marais.

Film Screening — (1) preview/excerpt from film “Rising Up to Climate Change: Storytelling with Saris” co-directed by Monica Jahan Bose and Leena Jayaswal. Film team includes Shefali Akhter Shetu and Nandita Ahmed. (15 minutes)
(2) “Jalobayu (Climate. Water. Wind.),” a short film of a recent performance during Art Basel Miami Beach by Monica Jahan Bose (7 minutes)

Book signing — “Her Words: Storytelling with Saris,” a 110-page full-color book about the Storytelling with Saris project is available for sale for Euro 25 and will be signed by Monica Jahan Bose

The event is free and will include a wine reception.