Because of Covid-19, we will not be having an in-person film screening on March 31 but instead we will do the event on zoom.  Please signup for this event and we will send you the link for a watch party on March 31.  You can watch the first draft from the comfort of your home and we will have an online q&a afterwarks.  Zoom link https://us04web.zoom.us/j/550440803  meeting id: 550440803

We are going to reschedule the in-person event to June or July — please stay tuned.

Please join us for the preview of the art documentary, “WRAPture: A Public Art Project.” The screening of the director’s cut will be followed by audience feedback and a reception. The film documents a seven-month-long public art project about climate change that takes us from Anacostia DC to a remote island in Bangladesh. WRAPture, led by Bangladeshi-American artist and climate activist Monica Jahan Bose, creates 65 saris on the theme of climate change with over 300 people from DC and Bangladesh and wraps them on five buildings in Anacostia. The diverse participants in Washington DC are all ages and ethnicities. They discuss and learn about climate change and cover saris with woodblock printing, painting, and writing, in solidarity with coastal women farmers in Bangladesh. During the course of the workshops, several participants write and recite original poetry. A community grows out of the project, feeling empowered to address climate change.

This is a free event but seats are limited so please register now on Eventbrite.

Filmakers: Monica Jahan Bose and Paris Preston

Duration: 44 minutes.

Original score: Sonia Maria

The film and project are funded by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.

Get paid to make art and learn about climate change!  This workshop will now be online on zoom.  The paid participation is sold out but you can still join and observe on zoom.  The meeting link will be posted soon.  

Artist and climate activist Monica Jahan Bose and multimedia artist and video journalist Robin Bell are launching WARMING WATERS, a new temporary public art project, and need your help to create it! WARMING WATERS will drape the C&O Canal wall in Georgetown behind Dean and Deluca with massive colorful cotton fabric saris from Bangladesh covered with printmaking and writing about climate change by residents of Washington and Katakhali Village, Bangladesh along with video projections on the saris and trees in the evenings. The temporary installation will be for four consecutive days around Earth Day 2020, from April 22-25. Monica is collaborating with community members to create these saris.

We seek paid assistants* (at least age 15) to sign up for the workshops. Participants will learn woodblock printing, create artwork that will be displayed, and discuss and learn about the effects of climate change.

SIGN LANGUAGE INTERPRETATION WILL BE PROVIDED.  ALL OTHER LANGUAGES WILL BE ACCOMMODATED IF YOU REQUEST.  The space is wheelchair accessible on the ground level.  Metro:  Anacostia (Green line) and many buses including Circulator.

*Spots are LIMITED. We will be working on 2 saris per workshop and only have spots for 15 people each time. Please email storytellingwithsaris@gmail.com if you need to release your reservation. You must arrive on time and fully participate to receive payment.

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This project is funded by a Public Art Building Communities Grant from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. The project is also supported by our community partners the Anacostia Arts Center and the Mohona Cooperative, Bangladesh.

Due to the Covid-19 emergency, we will be doing an online event on April 22 for the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day and postposing the public outdoor events to the summer.  The livestream will be at https://www.facebook.com/StorytellingWithSaris/   Stay tuned for further details.

Artist and climate activist Monica Jahan Bose and multimedia artist and video journalist Robin Bell present WARMING WATERS, a temporary public art project, using massive colorful cotton fabric saris from Bangladesh covered with printmaking and writing about climate change by residents of Washington and Katakhali Village, Bangladesh along with video projections. 

This temporary public art project combines the communities in Washington DC and Katakhali Village in Bangladesh to fabricate, assemble and drape saris and video projections celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day. Birthed from the ongoing seven-year-old project Storytelling with Saris, these massive blue and white saris will be covered with customized woodblock printmaking, hand-painted images, and writings about climate change.  The installation on the C&O Canal is now postponed to the July 22-25, 2020. 

WHAT MAKES WARMING WATERS SO UNIQUE? It’s 100% wrapped in community engagement and environmental education.  Residents of DC help fabricate the project through a series of workshops, which include printmaking from the women of Katakhali Village. As part of the project, DC residents learn about climate change and renewable energy, and add their own stories to the saris. The projections will show the participants making the saris, highlighting their handwritten climate pledges and art.  WARMING WATERS marries fiber art with new media.

This project is funded by a Public Art Building Communities Grant from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.   Click here for the PRESS RELEASE.

Please join Washington-DC based artist Monica Jahan Bose and Paris-based musician/songwriter Nirina Lune on Facebook Live for their conversation titled “SLOW: Responding to the Pandemic.”  You do not need a Facebook account to join.  It will be June 30th at 10 am EST, which is 4 pm in France, 3 pm GMT, and 8 pm in Bangladesh.  Add to your calendar by clicking here.

Due to the pandemic, in lieu of meeting in person and creating a performance in Washington DC,  Nirina and Monica are creating a music/sound piece called “Slow/Lent,” inspired by their times of isolation during the pandemic. SLOW responds to the beauty and benefits of slowing down, looking deeper, and shifting our lifestyles toward a more sustainable world.   Please join as the two artists discuss their concept and build this musical piece.  You are invited to be part of the project in process and to submit questions via Facebook Live.   “Slow/Lent” will be released in September in conjunction with a discussion between Nirina and Monica, which will broadcast live on radio and social media platforms. This project is supported by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.

Monica Jahan Bose: Born in Britain, Monica Jahan Bose is a Bangladeshi-American artist, lawyer, and activist whose work spans performance, painting, film, photography, printmaking, and interdisciplinary projects. Her solo projects and performance/installations have been presented at the Brooklyn Museum, Art Asia Miami, Twelve Gates Gallery, the Bangladesh National Museum, the DUMBO Arts Festival, (e)merge art fair, SELECT Art Fair Miami, the Smithsonian Asia Pacific American Center, and many other venues. Bose currently lives and works in Washington, D.C. and Bangladesh. She studied art at Wesleyan University (USA) and Santiniketan (India) and has a law degree from Columbia University (USA). She lived in Paris from 2006-2010 and had solo and duo exhibitions at Galerie Deborah Zafman and UNESCO and was selected for the 2010 Prix Marin Exhibition. Bose has received numerous commissions and awards, including four grants from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities (through the U.S. National Endowment for the Arts) and a 2015 commissioned performance for Nuit Blanche DC.

She is the creator of STORYTELLING WITH SARIS, a longterm collaborative art and advocacy project with her ancestral village of Katakhali, Bangladesh. In December 2015, Bose partnered with the International Centre on Climate and Development to create a climate awareness workshop in Katakhali, Bangladesh. As an artist originating from Katakhali, Bose brings her history into contemporary art, translating these experiences into immersive site-based work. Her heritage and community may drown under the Indian Ocean.

Nirina Lune:  Born in 1983 in Paris, France to a mother with roots in Madagascar, Nirina Lune is a French-Malagasy performer based in Paris. Her music incorporates soul, blues and experimental influences to envelop the listener like the movements of sands, where siren voices mingle with telluric beats. She explores the facets of feminine power and sensuality to transcend her heartbreaks. In 2019, she released “Femme Fountain” an album of songs that she produced and wrote herself. She has performed her music in numerous venues in France. In 2019, she co-created and performed a collaborative performance WATER RESISTANCE at the gallery The Window and the adjacent streets with artist Monica Jahan Bose. Dozens of people joined the performance, including people in the street. Nirina is bilingual in English and French and has been invited to run workshopson writing and performance.

This is a notice to the public that a proposed public art project by artists/fabricators Monica Jahan Bose and Robin Bell called CONCRETE DREAMS for April/May 2021 on the facade and sidewalk of the DC Arts Center in Adams Morgan will be presented at a public hearing on July 11 at the ANC1C (Adams Morgan) virtual meeting. Residents and business in the area are invited to join and give feedback at the zoom meeting on Wednesday, July 1, 2020 @ 7:00 pm. This is only a proposal and will not be realized unless funding is granted. All details at this link.

We are finalizing the sewing of 22 saris for the WARMING WATERS installation!  We cannot meet in person for the sewing circle so we will meet via zoom.  Please email storytellingwithsaris@gmail.com if you would like to join the meeting and find out more about the upcoming installation in Georgetown on July 22-25, 2020.  

ASL interpretation provided.

Please join us for a Webinar “Glowing in the Dark: Rural Recognitions” on July 20th online at 9 am EST.

There are four panelists and Monica Jahan Bose will be presenting some of her new projects and discussing their relationship to the Samkhya philosophy. 

Artist and climate activist Monica Jahan Bose and multimedia artist and video journalist Robin Bell present WARMING WATERS, a temporary public art project, draping the C&O Canal wall in Georgetown behind Blue Bottle Coffee with massive colorful cotton fabric saris from Bangladesh covered with printmaking and writing about climate change by residents of Washington and Katakhali Village, Bangladesh along with video projections on the saris in the evening. The temporary installation will be for three consecutive days from July 23-25, 2020 and is open for viewing from sunrise until 10 pm.  The projections will be in the evenings from 9-10 pm, weather permitting.  All visitors to the installation must wear masks and practice social distancing.  We will have circles marked for households to sit together separated from others.  Please bring a blanket if you wish. Limited tickets available for the projections each night.  Please order here.

Dedication:  Thursday, July 23 at 8 pm, followed by projections.  ASL interpretation will be provided.  Contact us for other languages or accommodations. Stay tuned for more details.  Do wear a mask or face covering if you come to view this outdoor installation and maintain six-foot distance from people who not part of your household.

We will also be livestreaming the Dedication and the projections at https://www.facebook.com/StorytellingWithSaris/live

This temporary public art project combines the communities in Washington DC and Katakhali Village in Bangladesh to fabricate, assemble and drape saris and video projections on the C&O Canal wall in Georgetown. Birthed from the ongoing seven-year-old project Storytelling with Saris, these massive blue and white saris will be covered with customized woodblock printmaking, hand-painted images, and writings about climate change.

WHAT IS WARMING WATERS? It’s a climate justice art collaboration involving dozens of members of the public.   Residents of DC help fabricate the project through a series of workshops, which include printmaking from the women of Katakhali Village. As part of the project, DC residents learn about climate change and renewable energy, and add their own stories to the saris. The projections will show the participants making the saris, highlighting their handwritten climate pledges and art.  WARMING WATERS marries fiber art with new media.

This project is funded by a Public Art Building Communities Grant from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. 

I am very excited to announce RENEW, my book of collaborative public art and poetry about climate change, which will be out on September 12. The book is over 100 pages in full color, designed by Erik Moe, and has images and poetry from the public art projects WRAPture and Warming Waters and recent installations and performances in New York, Paris, Rome, Miami Beach, and Katakhali, Bangladesh.

We will have a “Driveway Salon and Book Launch” in DC in my driveway on September 12, 2020 at 7 pm.  This is in lieu of an exhibition that was planned for this fall.  

We will show exclusive new videos from performances in Paris and Italy. Pick a 30 minute visit slot. Only 15 tickets per 30 minute slot. Raindate: September 13.

Please preorder your signed books now. The book will have a limited run of 250 copies at $30. In addition, I will create 50 pieces with a special hand-cut cover with sari insert at $50 each.   Our community poetry contributors will receive complimentary copies of the book.

You may pre-pay by venmo @monica-bose (preferred), CashApp $monicaartivist,  Paypal monicajahanbose@gmail.com, or by sending a check made out to Monica Jahan Bose, 2017 Belmont Rd NW, Washington DC 20009. If you would like the book mailed to you, please add $5 shipping and handling.  Thank you so much for supporting this climate justice project.  

This project is supported in part by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. 

Image above: Photo credit Ben Droz; Rising Up, performance still, Miami Beach, Florida; ©2018, Monica Jahan Bose. 

Image below: Photo credit Nandita Ahmed; La Marea, performance still, Rome, Italy; ©2019, Monica Jahan Bose.

By popular demand, we are doing another Driveway Art Salon while the weather is nice!

This time we are screening the freshly made final cut of “WRAPture: A Public Art Project,” which includes a stunning original soundtrack by Sonia Herrero. The film was edited by Paris Preston and features many of the community participants in DC and Katakhali Village, Bangladesh. Sonia and Monica will be present to answer questions about the film and soundtrack. We will also have available the book RENEW, which contains many images and poem from WRAPture.

Pick the early show from 7-8 pm or late show from 8-9 pm. Only 15 tickets per screening.

This is a Covid-conscious socially-distanced event and you must wear a mask and cover your nose and mouth and chin and maintain a six-foot distance from those not in your group/household.

This project is supported in part by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.