Please join us for this performance at Asbury Park, NJ as part of Transformer’s Siren Arts Program, which this year is called RIPPLE.  Click here for  Press Release.

CLICK HERE FOR BROCHURE.

Transformer celebrates the 5th year of our Siren Arts program back on the beach in Asbury Park, NJ this summer, supporting 5 east coast based artists presenting innovative performance art works that address human & environmental interconnectedness. Each artists’ 3 day beach residency includes public artist talks 6pm Wednesdays at The Asbury Hotel’s Salvation rooftop space, and performances 7pm Thursdays on the 2nd Avenue Beach: 

July 20 – 22: JungWoong Kim & Germaine Ingram (Philadelphia, PA)
July 27 – 29: Armando Lopez-Bircann (Washington, DC)
August 3 – 5: Monica Jahan Bose (Washington, DC)
August 10 – 12: Jaime Sunwoo & Johnnie Cruise Mercer (Brooklyn, NY)
August 17 – 19: Eli Barak (Baltimore, MD)

In Offering, Bangladeshi-American artist Monica Jahan Bose draws on rituals using water, turmeric, salt, and saris to speak to climate change, rising waters, and salt incursion into agricultural soil. Offering is part of her ongoing climate justice art project Storytelling with Saris (started in 2012), which collaborates with women from her ancestral island village and people in the US. The sari, a precolonial garment that is passed down through generations and never discarded, represents continuity and renewal. Bose makes offerings to the wind, sand, and sea towards the goal of renewal and cleansing. With a circle of handwoven climate-themed saris, she reates a healing space, offering the opportunity to increase our connection with the Earth and inspire us to take steps to reduce our carbon footprint and cool down our planet. The public is invited to join the performance. 

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 public art installations and performances. She is the creator of STORYTELLING WITH SARIS (launched  in 2012), an ongoing art and advocacy project with her ancestral village of Katakhali, Bangladesh.

Photo credit: Ben Droz, from Rising performance in Miami Beach ©2018 Monica Jahan Bose.

Reception, workshop, and artist’s talk:  September 15, 2021 from 4:30 to 6 pm.

Exhibition dates: August 31-October 1, 2021.

RENEW is a solo-exhibition of the work of Bangladeshi-American artist and climate activist Monica Jahan Bose.  Bose will be a visiting artist at Washington College, which is in Chestertown, Maryland, a riverfront community on the frontlines of climate change in the Chesapeake Bay region.  She will meet the students and visit their studios, present her exhibition, and organize a hands-on public workshop and talk in the gallery.  The show includes paintings, handprinted collaborative saris, sculptures, works on paper, books, and performance video, all of which speak to climate justice and the need to renew our relationship with the Earth, move towards renewable energy, and renew our commitment to ecological living.

Join us for a driveway salon and the outdoor premiere of the performance film Offering, from the Asbury Park, NJ performance presented by Siren Arts and Transformer.  Cinematography by Matt Gere and original score by Sonia Herrero.  My studio will also be open.  Covid-19 vaccination required.   Drinks and fun guaranteed!  Please enter from alley off of 20th street — do not ring front door as we will be in the back.

Please join us for the culminating performance and poetry slam for Prokash/Reveal.   We have held a series of six free bilingual Bangla/English art and poetry workshops  addressing identity, gender/sexuality, mental health, and immigration/race for people of all genders of Bangladeshi/Bengali origin in the NYC metro area.  The workshops were conducted in two age groups: two for self-identified younger people (14-30+),  two for an older group, and two for the groups together.  The workshops were co-facilitated by Monica Jahan Bose and Ali Asgar Tara.  It has been a wonderful experience to finally find the words to discuss these taboo topics.  We will come together to share our art and poetry in an outdoor performance where we sew together a community identity scroll. 

RAINDATE:  October 10 at 11 am to 1 pm.

Getting there:  Avenue C Plaza is located at the intersection of McDonald Ave and Ave C in Kensington and is accessible via the F/G trains at Church Ave and the B67 bus.

The project is presented by Arts & Democracy with lead artist Monica Jahan Bose.  This programming is supported by the Asian Women Giving Circle, a donor advised fund of the Ms. Foundation for Women. It is also supported in part by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the New York City Council.

Group Exhibition, Curated by Nirmal Raja, featuring approximately 30 artists and collaborations, at Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design
Exhibition dates: October 11 – December 4, 2021

Zoom Panel “Climate Change & Sustainability: Transnational Perspectives in Art,” Oct. 28, 2021, 6:30 p.m. CST (7:30 pm EST), with Monica Jahan Bose, Pamela Longobardi, Jill Sebastian and Liz Bacchuber

Register for October 28 panel here.

See online exhibition content here.

For the exhibition, I created the installation “Shift” featuring five white collaborative saris, rice, dal, and brass containers, along with my soundpiece “Slow” with French musician Nirina Lune.  Shift is an installation that explores the idea of shifting our lifestyles in response to the climate crisis. The 18-foot-long cotton saris are handwoven Bangladeshi pre-colonial garments covered in woodblock prints and drawings and writings by Bose, Bangladeshi women, and people in Europe and the United States. The pandemic, by slowing us down, has highlighted the environmental impacts of our “normal” hectic life of overconsumption, commuting, and travel, leading to the heating of our planet, disruption of agriculture, and food insecurity.  The exhibition also includes the film “Rising Up to Climate Change” a film I co-directed with Leena Jayaswal.

Join this three day symposium online from November 5 to November 7.  All details HERE. Monica will be part of the panel, Making Climate Change Visible, on Saturday November 6 at 2 PM- 3:15 PM ET.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE RECORDED SYMPOSIUM AND PANELS.  

CLICK HERE TO VIEW RECORDING OF MONICA’S PANEL.

Making Climate Change Visible, on Saturday November 6 at 2 PM- 3:15 PM ET.In this session we will hear from a variety of people who produce climate-themed art and/or have the production or use of art at the center of their climate-oriented work. Panelists will explore the interface between art, science, and policy, discussing how their work exists at this interface and charting a course toward even more productive engagement. This conversation will be moderated by Maggie Stogner, Executive Director of the AU Center for Environmental Filmmaking.

Panelists Include:

• Lauren Bon, artist
• Jesse Ribot, scholar of environmental justice and artist
• Monica Jahan Bose, artist, lawyer, activist
• Signe Wilkinson, editorial cartoonist

Monica Jahan Bose
she/her/সে

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. Her solo projects and performance/installations have been presented at such venues as the MACRO Contemporary Art Museum (Rome), the Bangladesh National Museum, Art Asia Miami, Twelve Gates Gallery, the Brooklyn Museum, the DUMBO Arts Festival, (e)merge art fair, SELECT Art Fair Miami Beach, UNESCO (Paris), and the Smithsonian APA Center (Honolulu). She has received numerous grants, awards, and public art commissions.

Bose is the creator of STORYTELLING WITH SARIS, a long-term art and advocacy project with her ancestral village of Katakhali, Bangladesh. She partnered with the International Center for Climate Change and Development to present a climate knowledge sharing and adaptation workshop in Katakhali. 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.

We all need to be talking about and seeing climate change. Collaborative art that connects us to others and enhances community is critical to addressing the climate crisis. It can catalyze action on climate by making us feel empowered to make a difference.

Twitter: @monicajahan @storywithsari
Instagram: @mjbose @storywithsari

Please join us for an in-person outdoor planting, poetry, and art workshop with Storytelling with Saris for the new public art project “SUSTAIN”. We will meet at Unity Park, opposite the Line Hotel. The workshop is led by Monica Jahan Bose. It is preferred that everyone be fully vaccinated against Covid-19. Please bring your vaccine card or a negative Covid-19 test taken within 72 hours. We will be planting seeds and taking small pots home to grow indoors. Please bring gardening or rubber gloves if you have any. Everyone age 15 or older who joins at least two workshops will receive a small stipend. We will be holding 4-6 workshops, some of which will be in person and others on Zoom. If you have joined prior Storytelling with Saris workshops, please bring your folder of materials — journal, pencil etc. Looking forward to seeing you!

ASL interpretation will be provided. Please email storytellingwithsaris@gmail.com with any questions or accommodation needs.

Metro: Woodley Park-Zoo (Red Line); bus 90, 96, 42 and many more.

This project is funded the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.

“Dreaming in Green” a film by Leena Jayaswal about the Storytelling with Saris project and its work with Project Create was commissioned by the Smithsonian for its FUTURES exhibition at the Smithsonian Arts & Industries building in Washington, DC. The 3-minute film film is part of a series of 8 short films “The Futures We Dream” shown in a 30-minute loop in the second room with “Futures that Unite” written on the arch, directly behind the main entrance after the central rotunda. Dates from November 21, 2021 to July 6, 2022. Free and open daily from 10 am to 5:30 am (EXCEPT TUESDAYS).  Until 7 pm on Fridays and Saturdays.

The final closing party is all day long until 11 pm on July 6, 2022.  Details and registration here.

Please join us for an online poetry and art workshop with Storytelling with Saris. The workshop is led by Monica Jahan Bose. We will have a special guest presentation on indoor gardening by Geo Edwards, an herbalist, artist, and educator currently based in Detroit. We will be working on poetry and art inspired by plants and urban gardening. Our art and poetry will be part of a public art project called SUSTAIN, which will be installed at the Line Hotel DC and Unity Park in June 2022.

Everyone age 15 or older who joins at least two workshops will receive a small stipend. We will be holding 4-6 workshops, some of which will be in person and others on Zoom. If you have joined prior Storytelling with Saris workshops, please have with you your folder of materials — journal, pencil etc. Looking forward to seeing you!

ASL interpretation will be provided. Please email storytellingwithsaris@gmail.com with any questions or accommodation needs.

This project is funded the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.

Join us for this year’s final farmer’s market at Unity Park and a preview of SUSTAIN, a new public art project exploring climate justice, farming, and food insecurity.  We will be sharing information about this latest Storytelling with Saris community public art project and featuring a short live performance with a 50+ foot sari.   Lead artist Monica Jahan Bose and curator Sarah Tanguy will be present along with several of our project members from Washington DC.   Come join or watch our performance and pick up some fresh produce or an xmas tree at the market!

Do support local growers like Licking Creek Bend Farm, which has been coming to Adams Morgan for over 40 years and also has a farmer’s market in Anacostia.  Read about their work on environmental and social justice in this Pathways article.

SUSTAIN is a collective response to sustainability and the climate crisis featuring community-sourced poetry and art on saris. Made by women farmers from Bose’s ancestral island village in Bangladesh and DC participants of public sari and urban gardening workshops, the saris will wrap around the six grand columns of LINE DC’s façade, and create a welcoming passageway at Unity Park. Other highlights include a soundwalk, poetry slam, and film screenings about sustainable practices and the impacts of climate on agriculture and food security. SUSTAIN marks ten years of the collaborative climate justice project Storytelling with Saris.

ASL will be provided.  Please email storytellingwithsaris@gmail.com with any questions or accommodation needs.

Metro: Woodley Park-Zoo (Red Line); bus 90, 96, 42 and many more.

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