The EMK Center is pleased to invite you to a fundraiser and screening for the future film Rising Up to Climate Change: Storytelling with Saris. The film looks at the impact of climate change on women from Katakhali Village on the island of Barobaishdia in Patuakhali District through the lens of the Storytelling with Saris climate art advocacy project. It also follows the stories of Americans and Europeans who are making climate pledges on saris to reduce their carbon footprint. Unless the world takes immediate action, Bangladesh could lose 20% of its land, displacing 30 million people. Women disproportionately suffer the impacts of climate change because of cultural norms and the inequitable distribution of resources and power, especially in developing countries. Women’s leadership is also critical to addressing climate.

The all-woman film team includes Monica Jahan Bose, Leena Jayaswal, Nandita Ahmed, Shefali Akter Shetu, Dawne Langford, and Executive Producer Preema Nazia Andaleeb, as well as the women of the Katakhali Cooperative.

Bangladeshi-American artist Monica Jahan Bose has been working on the film since 2013, and Dhaka-based cinematographer Shefali Akhter Shetu joined the team in 2015. The women in the Katakhali community are also being provided several small cameras and training to self-document with film their lives and climate events such as extreme storms, cyclones, untimely rains, drought, and resulting damage and effects. The goal of the film is to empower individuals and communities around the world to take action to save Bangladesh and our entire planet from climate change.

Please join us for a screening of a 15 minute sample of the film followed by discussion. We are looking for partners to finish this important project highlighting women’s stories and their leadership in addressing climate change. Shefali Akhter Shetu will be present in person along with writer and activist Noorjahan Bose, Monica’s mother. Monica will join via Skype.

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Monica Jahan Bose is a Bangladeshi-American artist, lawyer, and activist whose work spans performance, painting, film, photography, printmaking, and interdisciplinary projects. As an artist originating from Katakhali, Bangladesh, Monica brings her history into contemporary art, translating these experiences into immersive work. She is the creator of STORYTELLING WITH SARIS, a long-term collaborative art and advocacy project, which has been featured around the world, including recent exhibitions and art actions in Paris, Hawaii, and Washington DC. In 2015, Bose partnered with the International Centre on Climate Change and Development to create a climate awareness workshop in Katakhali, Bangladesh. Alongside her art practice, she practiced and taught environmental and human rights law for many years. Monica has received numerous commissions and awards for her interdisciplinary art work.

Shefali Akter Shetu founded and manages Aperture, Ltd. in the roles of Managing Director, Photographer and Documentary Filmmaker. Since 1999, she has edited video and photography for Drik, SARPV, Panos Bangladesh, and World View International Foundation. In 2005, Shetu was given the Meena Media Award for the best documentary from UNICEF. She was also nominated for the best children’s film at Oberhausen Film Festival in 2004 for “One Lokman”, a documentary about a child street singer. In 2007-2008, she worked in India for DrikIndia through a professional skill sharing exchange program by Fredkorpset. Born in Comilla, Bangladesh, she now lives and works in Dhaka, Bangladesh. In December 2015, she joined the Storytelling with Saris team as cinematographer and editor.

For more information and bios of the full team see http://storytellingwithsaris.com/bios/

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.

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.

Weather the Storm

Civilian Art Projects
March 31- April 21, 2018
Opening reception: Saturday, March 31 @ 7-9 pm
Sari workshop and sing-a-long: Saturday, April 14 @ 3 pm
Closing and artist’s talk: Saturday, April 21 @ 3 pm

“Weather the Storm” centers on a series of performances and climate art actions that Monica Jahan Bose has led since November 2016. The title of the show derives from a Bengali song that the artist has been singing in her performances, lines from which appear in her paintings. She has taken Tagore’s Kharobayu Boye Bege (A Strong Wind Is Blowing) and replaced “O boatman” with “O Woman” to create a feminist song about working together to row a boat to shore during a storm. Over several years, she has collaborated with homeless women from Calvary Women’s Services in Anacostia as well as women from One Billion Rising, a global platform to end violence against women, and the women of her ancestral village, Katakhali Village, Barobaishdia Island, Bangladesh. Bose’s performances, paintings, videos, works on paper, and saris explore themes of empowerment, environment, mythology, and community.

A Bangladeshi-American artist and lawyer who has lived in seven countries, Bose uses Bengali and English text and women’s writing as integral elements in her work, highlighting multilingualism and women’s agency and literacy. Bose has long used the sari — 18 feet of unstitched handwoven fabric — to represent women’s lives, both in her paintings and her ongoing social practice project Storytelling with Saris.

She has started using the coconut as a symbol of climate resilience. Each of her recent performances about climate change — in Miami, Washington DC, Honolulu, Paris, and Katakhali Village, Bangladesh — involved months of planning to create a woman-centered community, which comes together to collect dozens of coconuts to build a raft, sew saris together to make a massive sari, write carbon reduction pledges on saris, or grow and plant a coconut tree.

The exhibition is accompanied by a new publication, Rising Up to Climate Change: Storytelling with Saris, and is funded in part by a grant from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, which is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Monica Jahan Bose has exhibited her work and performed extensively in the US and internationally. Her ongoing collaborative project Storytelling with Saris has been featured in numerous publications and TV and radio programs. Her work has been featured in the Miami Herald, the Washington Post, Art Asia Pacific, the Milwaukee Sentinel, the Honolulu Star Advertiser, the Japan Times, and all major newspapers in Bangladesh. She recently created a large-scale installation and performance for the Smithsonian Asia Pacific American Center’s Ae Kai Culture Lab in Honolulu. She will travel to Athens in July for a solo exhibition in connection with the UNESCO World Book Capital celebration. She has a B.A. in the practice of art (painting) from Wesleyan University, a post-graduate diploma in art from Santiniketan, India, and a J.D. from Columbia Law School.

Gallery hours: Saturdays from noon to 6 pm and by appointment.

Please join us at the Black Box Theatre of the Anacostia Arts Center for a screening of the performance film from Change Is Coming, a performance on the Anacostia River with the women of Calvary Women’s Services, who have been involved with the Storytelling with Saris project since 2015. The film is 20 minutes in duration and we will be screening it several times from 3:30 to 6:00 pm, so please pop in even if you are late. We will also be making a collaborative climate pledge sari with woodblock and writing. Filmmakers Monica Jahan Bose and Leena Jayaswal will be present.

We will also have a book signing for the new book, Rising Up to Climate Change: Storytelling with Saris, which is available for $20.

The public screening will be preceded by a private screening and discussion with the women of Calvary (2:30 to 3:30 pm).

Many thanks to Camille Kashaka and the Anacostia Arts Center for making this event possible and for hosting the 2015 show “Climate and Actions.” This film, performance and screening are supported by a grant from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Cinematography: Leena Jayaswal.
Editor: Dawne Langford.

Photo credit: Phyllis Kimmel.

Dates: July 5 – 19, 2018
Opening reception with workshop: July 6, 2018 @ 7 pm
Closing and performance: July 18, 2018 @ 7 pm.
Gallery hours: Weekdays 10-6 pm; Saturdays 10-4 pm.

We have received an invitation from the Mayor’s Office in Athens to present an exhibition titled “Footprint-Apotipoma.” The show will take place in the galleries of the new Serafio Sports, Culture and Innovation Center in the heart of Athens during the important UNESCO World Book Capital 2018 event. The exhibition is curated and organized by Vasia Deliyianni.

“Footprint- Apotipoma” is a large-scale site specific exhibition, workshops, dialogue, and performance
using saris, printmaking and video on the issues of climate change and migration. “Footprint” uses the arts to activate awareness about climate change and trigger people to reduce their carbon footprint and to build global trans-border communities through collaboration and conversation between people in Washington DC and its sister city of Athens. The project collaborates with artists, curators, writers, poets, migrants, and non-artists in Athens. A special workshop with refugee women will take place on July 12 from 6 – 9 pm.

The show is supported in part by a generous grant from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, which is funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. We are grateful to the Mayor’s Office in Athens for its support as well.

Link to Press Release.
Link to Invitation.
Link to Curatorial essay (Greek) by Vasia Deliyianni

This special workshop will include a film-screening and multilingual dialogue with refugee and immigrant women in Athens, followed by a hands-on sari workshop where women create a sari about their displacement and migration stories. The event will be at the site of the Footprint-Apotipoma exhibition at Serafio Innovation Center. Interpreters will be provided in multiple languages, including Greek, Arabic, Farsi, French and Bengali. Participants in SHELTER will also be invited to be part of the interactive performance Home/Σπίτι(Spiti)/বাড়ি(Bari) (which is on July 18 at 7 pm).

SHELTER: July 12, 6-9 pm.

Coordinator and curator: Angeliki Grammatikopoulou

Supported by the Athens Mayor’s office and the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, which receives support from the National Endowment on the Arts.

Στο πλαίσιο της έκθεσης FOOTPRINT ΑΠΟΤΥΠΩΜΑ της Monica Jahan Bose θα πραγματοποιηθεί ένα εργαστήριο και μια performance, στις 12 Ιουλίου στις¨16:00 με τη συνεργασία του Προγράμματος Στέγασης και Υπηρεσιών που υλοποιείται από την ΕΑΤΑ του δήμου Αθηναίων. Γυναίκες από το πρόγραμμα θα αποτυπώσουν γράμματα και λέξεις πάνω στο Σάρι με εργαλεία και υλικά που θα προμηθεύσει η καλλιτέχνιδα. Το εν λόγω Σάρι, μαζί με ένα άλλο που θα δημιουργηθεί νωρίτερα μέσα από την συνεργασία πολιτών και της καλλιτέχνιδας, θα χρησιμοποιηθούν σε performance με συμμετέχουσες γυναίκες του προγράμματος που θα πραγματοποιηθεί κατά τη λήξη της έκθεσης στις 18 Ιουλίου.
Η έκθεση είναι μια συλλογική απάντηση στην κλιματική αλλαγή και τη μετανάστευση. Αποτελεί μέρος της ¨”Εξιστόρησης με Σάρι ” (Storytelling with Saris” ενός έργου που αποτελεί καλλιτεχνική συνεργασία και διαμαρτυρίας με σημείο εκκίνησης το Μπαγκλαντές

Home/Σπίτι(Spiti)/বাড়ি(Bari)
a feminist performance by Monica Jahan Bose in collaboration with the people of Athens

This special interactive performance will include refugee and immigrant women and connect them with other residents of Athens. The performance asks the question: what is home and how do we find new homes and rebuild our lives? The performance will include writing personal reflections on “home” on the glass windows in multiple languages; sewing together saris that contain the stories and writing of people in Athens, Paris, Bangladesh, and the US; and carrying the saris outside the gallery. All ages and genders welcome. This is a woman-centered performance and men are welcome to join and follow, but not lead. Photography of the performance is prohibited except by authorized photographers.

Home/Σπίτι(Spiti)/বাড়ি(Bari), July 18 at 7- 9 pm.

Performance coordinator and curator: Angeliki Grammatikopoulou

Supported by the Athens Mayor’s office and the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, which receives support from the National Endowment on the Arts.

Come join me at Anacostia Unmapped on Sunday, September 9.  I will be sharing stories of resilience from Bangladesh and Anacostia and you will get to write and draw your own stories on a sari from Bangladesh.   This is part of the exhibition Anacostia Unmapped 2.0,  curated by Karen Baker.  It’s a fascinating exhibition, so please come out to see it before it closes on September 14.  

Metro Navy Yard (Green line) – take the exit that is NOT to the baseball stadium.  

Event information

This event is free and open to the public at 111Minna Gallery, just a short 5 minute walk from the GCAS venue. Doors open at 5:00pm; the hour-long panel will commence at 6:00pm; and the reception will run until 9:00pm.

Our 6pm panel of local and international climate leaders moderated by Leila Salazar Lopez, (Executive Director of Amazon Watch) including Majandra Rodriguez-Acha, (founder of TierrActiva Peru), Bridget Burns (Co-Director of WEDO), and more.

Art will be on display from artists Monica Jahan Bose and the Young Feminist Fund(FRIDA), global storytelling project.

Light refreshments and drinks will be provided. The 111Minna Gallery is a 21+ venue. Please ensure that you have your identification handy.

Please join Napa Bookmine for a special book discussion, film screening, and sari art with artist and climate activist Monica Jahan Bose, author of Rising Up to Climate Change: Storytelling with Saris.  In celebration of Latino Heritage Month, the event will be bilingual with Spanish/English Translation and Monica will be in conversation with Napa Valley artivist Xulio Soriano, who will share climate stories from Mexico and California.  Napa Sierra Club, Healing Walk Napa Valley, and Napa Climate NOW also endorse and are c0-sponsoring this event.

Napa Bookmine

964 Pearl St.

Napa, CA 94559

Saturday, September 15, 2018, 5 – 7 pm

Refreshments served. All ages welcome.  

Monica Jahan Bose is a Bangladeshi-American artist, lawyer, and activist whose practice includes painting, performance, photography, film, and writing. She works in collaboration with rural and urban communities to address issues around gender and climate change.  Monica is presenting her work for the first time in the Bay Area, as part of the Sierra Club’s Women Leaders in Global Climate Action, an affiliate event of the Global Climate Action Summit hosted by Governor Jerry Brown.

Monica’s ongoing feminist collaborative project Storytelling with Saris has traveled to nine states and several countries and been featured in numerous publications and TV and radio programs. She has collaborated with the International Centre for Climate Change and Development and the Sierra Club on empowerment workshops that highlight the disparate gender impacts of climate change and encourage people to make promises to reduce their individual carbon footprint.  She recently returned from a large-scale public art project in Athens, Greece, supported by the City of Athens and the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities (through the NEA).  Her first art book Her Words: Storytelling with Saris was featured in book events in Bangladesh, the US, and France. 

Her new art book Rising Up to Climate Change: Storytelling with Saris features 95 stunning images from her climate art actions along with writings and Bengali songs (with Bose’s own translations). She has a BA in the practice of art (painting) and mathematics from Wesleyan University, a post-graduate diploma in art from Santiniketan, India, and a JD from Columbia Law.  She lives in Washington, DC.

Xulio Soriano:

Xulio Soriano is a grassroots community organizer and poet from Napa, California born and raised in Oaxaca, Mexico. A descendant of the Mixteca Indigenous people, he has focused on assisting marginalized groups within the Indigenous and Latino communities. His work is centered around the intersection of education, art, and socio-ecological impact. He is currently Executive Director 2 of the Movimiento Cultural de la Unión Indígena – MCUI, a non-profit that advocates for and serves indigenous farm workers in the North Bay Area. Soriano is a co-founder of multiple grassroots organizations, including Napa Valley Dream Team, Napa Valley Rapid Response, and Healing Walk Napa Valley. In early 2018 he co-presented at a panel at the United Nations in New York City with the Women’s Intercultural Network on the topic of Indigenous farm worker women in rural agricultural areas of California and the effects that climate change has had on them.

TRADUCCIÓN EN ESPAÑOL:

La librería Napa Bookmine les invita a una plática literaria y una presentación de una película. También se presentará el arte interactivo sari de la artista y activista climática Monica Jahan Bose, autora del libro “Levantándose por el cambio climático: historias por medio de saris.” En celebración de El Mes de Herencia Latina, el evento será bilingüe con traducción en español-inglés. Monica estará en conversación con Xulio Soriano, un poeta y activista socio-ecológico con raíces indígenas mixtecas. Soriano compartirá historias de cambio climático en México y California. Monica compartirá una parte de su película y dará autógrafos para su nuevo libro. Dibujaremos y escribiremos compromisos por el clima en sari de Bangladesh.

Se servirán bebidas. Todas edades bienvenidas.

Biografías: 

Monica Jahan Bose es una artista, licenciada en derecho, y activista cuya práctica incluye pintura, obras, cine, y escritura. Trabaja en colaboración con comunidades rurales y urbanas en su pueblo natal de Bangladesh en India para concientizar y encontrar soluciones entre el género y el cambio climático. Monica radica en Washington, DC y por primera vez presenta sus obras y trabajo en el Área de la Bahía como parte de Mujeres Líderes en Cambio Climático por parte de la organización Sierra Club. Mónica estudió en la Universidad Wesleyan y la Universidad Berkeley. Estudió leyes en la Universidad Columbia donde recibió su título en leyes.

Xulio es un poeta y organizador de movimientos de base radicado en el Valle de Napa. Nació en Oaxaca, México y es de la comunidad indígena Mixteca. Su trabajo se enfoca en impacto socio-ecológico y en comunidades indígenas e hispanohablantes marginadas. Es un director ejecutivo de la asociación civil Movimiento Cultural De la Unión Indígena. Es cofundador de Napa Valley Dream Team, Red de Respuesta Rápida del Valle de Napa, y la Caminata de Sanación del Valle de Napa. A principios del 2018 co-presentó en un panel en Las Naciones Unidas en la ciudad de Nueva York con la asociación civil Women’s Intercultural Network ( Red Intercultural de Mujeres) sobre el tema de cómo el cambio climática afecta a mujeres campesinas e las áreas rurales y agrícolas de California.