Events
It’s time to celebrate Earth Day all month long! Join us for a planting, poetry, and art workshop at The Nicholson Project’s garden. We will be cleaning and planting the garden with Kendra Hazel, the new Garden Manager at Nicholson. Artist Monica Jahan Bose will lead us in creating poetry and art inspired by the garden. We will have more workshops in the summer with Monica followed by an exhibition and poetry slam at The Nicholson Project in September.
If you have joined prior Storytelling with Saris workshops, please bring with you your folder of materials — journal, pencil etc. Looking forward to seeing you!
Please email storytellingwithsaris@gmail.com with any questions or accommodation needs. ASL will be provided.
Monica Jahan Bose is a Bangladeshi-American artist and climate activist whose work spans painting, printmaking, performance, film, and interdisciplinary projects. Her social practice work highlights the intersection of climate, racial, gender, and economic injustice through co-created workshops and temporary public art installations and performances. She is the creator of STORYTELLING WITH SARIS, a long-term art and advocacy project with her ancestral village of Katakhali, Bangladesh. She has a BA in the Practice of Art (Painting) from Wesleyan University, a Diploma in Art from Santiniketan, India, and a JD from Columbia Law School.
Kendra Hazel is the 2023 Garden Manager at The Nicholson Project. She is an herb enthusiast, urban garden educator, and a plant based chef. She studied Health Science at Florida A&M University, has worked with neighborhood community gardens independently and as the Community Garden Spaces manager with City Blossoms, and recently founded Green Things Work where she shares her holistic approach to wellness.
The Nicholson Project is an artist residency program and neighborhood garden in Ward 7’s Fairlawn neighborhood. Its mission is to support, provide opportunities, engage, and amplify artists and creatives from our community and the local artist community—particularly artists of color and those from Ward 7 and 8—while engaging our neighbors through community-based programming. Its vision is to serve as a cultural hub and community anchor celebrating Ward 7’s authentic identity, while infusing new vibrancy into Southeast DC. We hope to inspire others to use similar non-traditional arts and community-centered projects as a pathway toward stronger, more vibrant communities.
This project is supported in part by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.
Image: Planting workshop for Sustain, © 2022 Monica Jahan Bose, photo credit: Paris Preston.
Join us for a planting, poetry, and art workshop at The Nicholson Project’s garden. We will be cleaning and planting the garden with Kendra Hazel, the new Garden Manager at Nicholson. Artist Monica Jahan Bose will lead us in creating poetry and art inspired by the garden. We will have more workshops in the summer with Monica followed by an exhibition and poetry slam at The Nicholson Project in September.
If you have joined prior Storytelling with Saris workshops, please bring with you your folder of materials — journal, pencil etc. Looking forward to seeing you!
Please email storytellingwithsaris@gmail.com with any questions or accommodation needs. ASL will be provided.
Monica Jahan Bose is a Bangladeshi-American artist and climate activist whose work spans painting, printmaking, performance, film, and interdisciplinary projects. Her social practice work highlights the intersection of climate, racial, gender, and economic injustice through co-created workshops and temporary public art installations and performances. She is the creator of STORYTELLING WITH SARIS, a long-term art and advocacy project with her ancestral village of Katakhali, Bangladesh. She has a BA in the Practice of Art (Painting) from Wesleyan University, a Diploma in Art from Santiniketan, India, and a JD from Columbia Law School.
Kendra Hazel is the 2023 Garden Manager at The Nicholson Project. She is an herb enthusiast, urban garden educator, and a plant based chef. She studied Health Science at Florida A&M University, has worked with neighborhood community gardens independently and as the Community Garden Spaces manager with City Blossoms, and recently founded Green Things Work where she shares her holistic approach to wellness.
The Nicholson Project is an artist residency program and neighborhood garden in Ward 7’s Fairlawn neighborhood. Its mission is to support, provide opportunities, engage, and amplify artists and creatives from our community and the local artist community—particularly artists of color and those from Ward 7 and 8—while engaging our neighbors through community-based programming. Its vision is to serve as a cultural hub and community anchor celebrating Ward 7’s authentic identity, while infusing new vibrancy into Southeast DC. We hope to inspire others to use similar non-traditional arts and community-centered projects as a pathway toward stronger, more vibrant communities.
This project is supported in part by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.
Image: Planting workshop for Sustain, © 2022 Monica Jahan Bose, photo credit: Paris Preston.
Please stop by for the final day of “Nourish: Storytelling with Saris”! Monica Jahan Bose will be there during gallery hours from noon to 4 pm and will be happy to give you a tour of the exhibition.
Nourish: Storytelling with Saris
Location: The Nicholson Project, 2310 Nicholson Project SE, Washington DC, Bus B2 and many others
Exhibition Dates: September 10-November 4, 2023
Gallery Hours: Wednesdays 2-6pm + Saturdays 12 noon – 4pm
Link to Washington Post Review.
Nourish: Storytelling with Saris is an installation of video, drawings, poems, saris, and kanthas inspired by plants and herbs. Touching the soil and growing food are grounding and nourishing. For the last two years, Bangladeshi-American artist Monica Jahan Bose and DC participants in her Storytelling with Saris project have been connecting with the soil and Earth and food justice issues by nurturing plants on windowsills and planting neighborhood vegetable gardens. This year they planted and harvested in the garden at The Nicholson Project. Bose led a series of planting workshops that included poetry and art inspired by soil and plants. Using performance, sari art, writing, and film, Storytelling with Saris, which commenced in 2012, links DC residents with Bangladeshi coastal women farmers in solidarity to address climate and food injustice. There is a concurrent exhibition by Stephanie J. Williams.
Monica Jahan Bose bio: Monica Jahan Bose is a Bangladeshi-American artist and climate activist whose work spans painting, printmaking, film, performance, and public art. Her socially engaged work highlights the intersection of climate, racial, gender, and economic injustice through co-created workshops, art actions, and temporary installations and performances. Bose uses the sari — a precolonial 18-foot-long unstitched garment that is always recycled and never discarded — to represent women’s lives and the cycle of life on our planet. She has exhibited her work extensively in the US and internationally (20 solo shows, numerous group exhibitions, and more than 25 performances) including solo exhibitions at the Bangladesh National Museum and MACRO Museum of Contemporary Art Rome. Her ongoing collaborative project STORYTELLING WITH SARIS with women farmers from her ancestral island village has travelled to 10 states and seven countries and engaged thousands of people. Her work has appeared 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 has a BA in the Practice of Art (Painting) from Wesleyan University, a post-graduate Diploma in Art from Santiniketan, India, and a JD from Columbia Law School.
This project was supported by the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities.
We will be doing workshops and talks and an exhibition in Dhaka and Patuakhali, Bangladesh. Stay tuned for details.
Join us for a planting, poetry, and art workshop at The Nicholson Project’s garden. We will be cleaning and planting the garden with Peter Lewis, the Garden Manager at Nicholson. Artist Monica Jahan Bose will lead us in creating poetry and sari art.
If you have joined prior Storytelling with Saris workshops, please bring with you your folder of materials — journal, pencil etc. Looking forward to seeing you! Please email storytellingwithsaris@gmail.com with any questions or accommodation needs.
Monica Jahan Bose is a Bangladeshi-American artist and climate activist whose work spans painting, printmaking, performance, film, and interdisciplinary projects. Her social practice work highlights the intersection of climate, racial, gender, and economic injustice through co-created workshops and temporary public art installations and performances. She is the creator of STORYTELLING WITH SARIS, a long-term art and advocacy project with her ancestral village of Katakhali, Bangladesh. She has a BA in the Practice of Art (Painting) from Wesleyan University, a Diploma in Art from Santiniketan, India, and a JD from Columbia Law School.
Peter Lewis is an avid gardener, artist, and chef. He has been working with Nicholson Project since 2022 and is the main point of contact for garden activities and distribution during peak growing season. Peter also manages seeds starts and runs the Community Composting Program at Koiner Farm in Silver Spring, MD.
Monica Jahan Bose bio: Monica Jahan Bose is a Bangladeshi-American artist and climate activist whose work spans painting, printmaking, film, performance, and public art. Her socially engaged work highlights the intersection of climate, racial, gender, and economic injustice through co-created workshops, art actions, and temporary installations and performances. Bose uses the sari — a precolonial 18-foot-long unstitched garment that is always recycled and never discarded — to represent women’s lives and the cycle of life on our planet. She has exhibited her work extensively in the US and internationally (20 solo shows, numerous group exhibitions, and more than 25 performances) including solo exhibitions at the Bangladesh National Museum and MACRO Museum of Contemporary Art Rome. Her ongoing collaborative project STORYTELLING WITH SARIS with women farmers from her ancestral island village has travelled to 10 states and seven countries and engaged thousands of people. Her work has appeared 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 has a BA in the Practice of Art (Painting) from Wesleyan University, a post-graduate Diploma in Art from Santiniketan, India, and a JD from Columbia Law School.
The Nicholson Project is an artist residency program and neighborhood garden in Ward 7’s Fairlawn neighborhood. Its mission is to support, provide opportunities, engage, and amplify artists and creatives from our community and the local artist community—particularly artists of color and those from Ward 7 and 8—while engaging our neighbors through community-based programming. Its vision is to serve as a cultural hub and community anchor celebrating Ward 7’s authentic identity, while infusing new vibrancy into Southeast DC. We hope to inspire others to use similar non-traditional arts and community-centered projects as a pathway toward stronger, more vibrant communities.
This project is supported by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.
