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.
Bangladeshi-American artist and climate activist Monica Jahan Bose will lead a hands-on sari workshop with high school students at Georgetown Day School addressing environmental and gender justice. Participants will discuss strategies for climate action and gender justice and draw, paint, and write on a hand-woven cotton sari from Bangladesh. For over ten years, Bose has been co-creating saris with communities as part of her Storytelling with Saris art and advocacy project. The sari will be used in installations and performances and worn by Bangladeshi women. This is a private workshop for students at the school.
Bangladeshi-American artist and climate activist Monica Jahan Bose will lead a hands-on sari climate pledge workshop as part of the exhibition To Live and to Breathe: Women and Environmental Justice in Washington, D.C. Participants will discuss strategies for climate action and draw, paint, and write climate pledges and climate injustice stories on a hand-woven cotton sari in solidarity with women farmers of coastal Bangladesh, who are on the frontlines of climate change. For over ten years, Bose has been co-creating saris with communities as part of her Storytelling with Saris art and advocacy project. The sari will be used in installations and performances and worn by Bangladeshi women, creating a direct physical and emotional connection that links communities together to fight climate injustice.
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.
Location: Entertainment + Culture Pavilion, Expo City, Blue Zone B7, Building 90 (same building as Women & Gender and Youth Pavilion), Ground Floor.
If you are going to COP28 in Dubai and have a Blue Zone pass, please join us at The Entertainment + Culture Pavilion (Blue Zone) and check out my sari installation and all the amazing programming. I will also be doing a performance for the opening ceremony of the E+C Pavilion at around 10:30 am on November 30th and a multimedia storytelling and interactive sari workshop on December 2 at 4:30 to 5:30 pm.
Monica Jahan Bose is a Bangladeshi-American artist and climate activist whose work spans painting, printmaking, film, performance, and installation. Her socially engaged work highlights the intersection of climate, racial, gender, and economic injustice through co-created workshops, art actions, installations and performances. Monica 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 including solo exhibitions at the Bangladesh National Museum and MACRO Museum of Contemporary Art Rome. Her decade-long collaborative project STORYTELLING WITH SARIS with women farmers from her ancestral island village has traveled to eight countries and 11 US states, engaging thousands of people. 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.
Monica Jahan Bose will be presenting at the Bangladesh Pavilion on December 1 at 3:30 to 5 pm.
The Pavilion is in Blue Zone B2, Building 21, ground floor.
Join internationally-acclaimed artist and climate activist Monica Jahan Bose for multimedia storytelling and art-making on a six-meter-long Bangladeshi sari
Storytelling with Saris connects people around the world through art with action steps to address climate change in solidarity with women farmers from artist Monica Jahan Bose’s ancestral village on Barobaishdia Island, Patuakhali District, Bangladesh. Monica is working to preserve the intangible heritage of these women’s folk dances and oral tradition Bangla songs, which may be lost due to climate change. She will show images and video and share stories about climate impacts in coastal Bangladesh and the resilience of these communities even in the face of losing crops, land, and intangible heritage. Everyone will join in drawing and writing on a sari. This hands-on art workshop builds cross-border community and climate resilience.
Monica Jahan Bose is a Bangladeshi-American artist and climate activist whose work spans painting, printmaking, film, performance, and installation. Her socially engaged work highlights the intersection of climate, racial, gender, and economic injustice through co-created workshops, art actions, installations and performances. Monica 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 including solo exhibitions at the Bangladesh National Museum and MACRO Museum of Contemporary Art Rome. Her decade-long collaborative project STORYTELLING WITH SARIS with women farmers from her ancestral island village has traveled to eight countries and 11 US states, engaging thousands of people. 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.
Please join us for the online launch of SWIMMING, a new public art project that explores the deep and essential connections we have to water as our world faces increased flooding and rising sea levels due to climate change. When installed in June 2024 at the Marie Reed Community & Aquatic Center in Washington DC, SWIMMING will feature a “pool” of art-embellished saris, along with a sound walk, performances, film screenings, and poetry readings. During the launch, artist and climate activist Monica Jahan Bose will introduce the project and then lead a poetry and art workshop where we will create poetry and art inspired by the. healing properties of water and swimming and inequities in access. SWIMMING is part of Bose’s. art and advocacy project Storytelling with Saris. Started over a decade ago, the project has fostered collaboration with women from Bose’s ancestral island in Bangladesh as well as residents of DC and people around the world.
To learn more and become part of this exciting venture, please register using the Eventbrite link.
Here is the Zoom link for the workshop on December 13 at 4:30 PM (Eastern time): https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85156753263?pwd=RlRlY0Y1a25HVDR3eTIzUC9TN2xnUT09
If you have joined prior Storytelling with Saris workshops, please have with you your folder of materials — journal, pencil etc. In the spring we will be having in person workshops to finish the saris. Looking forward to seeing you! Here is a link to our workshop.
ASL interpretation will be provided. Please email storytellingwithsaris@gmail.com with any questions or accommodation needs.
Curator: Sarah Tanguy. Film/livestream: Paris Preston Music & Sound Design: Sonia Herrero.
Community partners: Marie Reed Elementary School and Community & Aquatic Center, Adams Morgan Partnership BID, DC Arts Center, Calvary Women’s Services.
This project is funded by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.
Please join us for a community workshop to create SWIMMING, a new public art project that explores the deep and essential connections we have to water as our world faces increased flooding and rising sea levels due to climate change. When installed in June 2024 at the Marie Reed Community & Aquatic Center in Washington DC, SWIMMING will feature a “pool” of art-embellished saris, along with a sound walk, performances, film screenings, and poetry readings. Artist and climate activist Monica Jahan Bose will introduce the project and then lead a poetry and art workshop where we will create poetry and art inspired by the healing properties of water and swimming and inequities in access. SWIMMING is part of Bose’s art and advocacy project Storytelling with Saris. Started over a decade ago, the project has fostered collaboration with women from Bose’s ancestral island in Bangladesh as well as residents of DC and people around the world.
To learn more and become part of this exciting project, please register using the Eventbrite link.
ASL interpretation will be provided. Please email storytellingwithsaris@gmail.com with any questions or accommodation needs.
Curator: Sarah Tanguy. Film/livestream: Paris Preston Music & Sound Design: Sonia Herrero.
Community partners: Marie Reed Elementary School and Community & Aquatic Center, Adams Morgan Partnership BID, DC Arts Center, Calvary Women’s Services.
This project is funded by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.
Monica Jahan Bose is a Bangladeshi-American artist and climate activist whose work spans painting, printmaking, film, performance, and installation. 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. She has exhibited her work extensively in the US and internationally (22 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 decade-long collaborative project STORYTELLING WITH SARIS with women farmers from her ancestral island village has traveled to eight countries and 12 US states, engaging 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 the Japan Times, Prothom Alo and all major newspapers in Bangladesh. The Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum has acquired and group of her paintings, saris, and archival materials for its collection. Monica 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 will be doing workshops and talks and an exhibition in Dhaka and Patuakhali, Bangladesh. Stay tuned for details.
