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.

Storytelling with Saris collaborates with the women of Samhati in Katakhali Village, Barobaishdia Island. Please support the important work of Samhati by attending the 2018 Benefit Dinner.

September 1, 2018

Dear Friends,

We are delighted to invite you to Samhati’s Annual Dinner and Auction, which will be held on Saturday, October 6, 2018, 6:00 to 9:00 pm, at the River Road Unitarian Universalist Congregation, 6301 River Road, Bethesda, MD 20817.  Dinner will be served at approximately 6:30 pm.

Founded in 1984, Samhati is the longest-running organization of Bangladeshi women in the United States.  We design and support small projects – focused on education, health, and environmental sustainability – to improve the lives of impoverished women and families in Bangladesh.  Samhati is tax exempt (IRS ID Number 52-1390261). As an all-volunteer organization with negligible overhead, Samhati can direct approximately 90% of your contributions to needy families. 

• If you donate $75, it will provide a one-year scholarship to ensure that a middle or high school child stays in school and does not have to work.   
• A donation of $100 will provide adult literacy or vocational classes for a village woman, who in turn will be able to better care for her family. 
• A donation of $500 will fund our health clinic in Katakhali village for one month, providing care for the entire Barobaishdia Island of 27,000 people.
• Your gift of $1000 will fund climate adaptation training for 10 villagers in Katakhali.

Hundreds of women, children, and families – and entire communities- have been transformed by Samhati’s work. Our focus on literacy has created leadership from within to maintain and grow our projects. Samhati has provided cyclone relief and climate adaptation training, established the first women’s shelter in Bangladesh, and developed eco-empowerment projects in villages. We are providing educational scholarships to discourage child marriage.   Your support makes a huge difference. Please send in your donations and join us on October 6. Feel free to contact us: 703-618-4618 (Jhinuk Hasan-Fulton) or info@samhati.org.  

With gratitude,

The Samhati Board

Behavior, Energy, and Climate Change Conference, Washington DC @ Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill

October 9 panel  Powerful Public Engagement through Art

Moderator: Kirsi Jansa, documentary filmmaker of Sustainability Pioneers, lead organizer of the Creatives for Climate collaborative, affiliated with CMU The Institute for Green Sciences

Panelists: • Arlene Birt, visual and public artist at Background Stories, associate professor at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design

• Monica Jahan Bose – artist and environmental activist, Storytelling with Saris

• Rachel Guardiola, Hamiltonian Fellow at the Hamiltonian Gallery in DC – interdisciplinary artist and naturalist

• Aaluk Edwardson – Iñupiaq writer, performing artist and teacher, affiliated with Iḷisaġvik College and the University of Alaska Fairbanks

We are so excited to launch WRAPTURE, a public art project supported by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, which is supported by the NEA. The public launch event is on November 13 @ 6 pm at the Anacostia Arts Center. We will be making saris with the community for several months and then sari-wrapping five Anacostia buildings in the spring. Stay tuned and join us on November 13! The project team includes Monica Jahan Bose, Amy Lokoff, Karen Baker, Camille Kashaka, Kymone Tecumseh Freeman and our partners include Anacostia Arts Center, We Act Radio, and Calvary Women’s Services.  We are grateful to have this opportunity from the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities to create a temporary public art installation with DC residents.