Events
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.
Shift, 2021
Woodblock, writing, and painting on handwoven-cotton saris, rice, dal, brass vessels
Approximately 10＇ x 22＇ x 6＇
Arts and Industries Building
900 Jefferson Drive, SW
Washington, DC
Part exhibition, part festival, FUTURES presents nearly 32,000 square feet of new immersive site-specific art installations, interactives, working experiments, inventions, speculative designs, and “artifacts of the future,” as well as historic objects and discoveries from 23 of the Smithsonian’s museums, major initiatives, and research centers. Of the nearly 150 objects on view, several are making their public debut: an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven rover from Alphabet’s X that could transform agriculture; a Planetary Society space sail for deep space travel; a Loon internet balloon; the first full-scale Buckminster Fuller geodesic dome built in North America; the world’s first controlled thermonuclear fusion device; and more.
“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.
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 in the DC ara who joins at least two workshops will receive a small stipend. We will be holding 4-6 hybrid 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, Public Art Building Communities Grant Program.
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 in the DC area 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.
We will be doing daily workshops in Katakhali on sari art, climate justice, climate advocacy writing, recording intangible heritage, and climate photo journalism. The culmination will be a performance with over a dozen girls on bikes on the banks of the Darchira River.
March 8 is International Women’s Day. We will be creating climate and food justice saris in solidarity with women farmers of Katakhali Village, Bangladesh. Please join us for an in person sari art & poetry workshop with Storytelling with Saris. The workshop is led by Monica Jahan Bose. We will be working on poetry and art inspired by plants and urban gardening. Our sari 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 in the DC area 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.
Looking forward to seeing you! In order to allow social distancing and reduce risk of Covid-19 exposure, this workshop is limited to a max of 15 people. You must wear a mask during the workshop. The workshop will be live-streamed and recorded so that more people can be engaged.
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.
Please join us for an online poetry and art workshop with Storytelling with Saris. The workshop is led by Monica Jahan Bose. 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 in the DC area 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.
STORYTELLING WITH SARIS EARTH DAY 52 CLIMATE ART EVENT
April 22, 2021 11 am – 1 pm EDT, 9 pm Bangladesh, 4 pm London, 5 pm Paris/Rome, 6 pm Athens, 11 pm Bangkok/Manila. Live from Washington DC, Storytelling with Saris celebrates Earth Day 52 through a hybrid event featuring artist Monica Jahan Bose, curator Sarah Tanguy, and climate leader Elizabeth Brandt of Mom’s Clean Air Force. We will discuss the impact of the ten year long Storytelling with Saris project and the upcoming June 2022 SUSTAIN public art installation and work on sari art and concrete actions to address urgent climate and environmental issues. The studio audience will be working on sari art for the SUSTAIN installation, and the online audience will also be able to participate in the discussion and add their voices to the sari.
Storytelling with Saris was launched by Bose ten years ago and continues to highlight stories of climate injustice and resilience from Katakhali Village, Bangladesh to Washington DC, engaging thousands of people around the world through co-creation labs, performances, films, and public art installations.
See it live on Youtube at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9CDxIRZgcc
Event Links: http://storytellingwithsaris.com/events/
This project is supported by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Public Art Building Communities Grant Program, along with community and media partners The Line Hotel, Adams Morgan BID, Mom’s Clean Air Force, We Act Radio, and Boathouse.
About Monica Jahan Bose: Monica Jahan Bose is a Bangladeshi-American artist and climate activist whose work spans painting, printmaking, performance, film, and interdisciplinary projects. Her socially engaged 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. She is the creator of STORYTELLING WITH SARIS, a longterm art and advocacy project with her ancestral village of Katakhali, Bangladesh. 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.
About Sarah Tanguy: Washington, DC-based Sarah Tanguy is an independent curator and arts writer, who believes in hands-on, face-to-face collaboration with artists and the power of art to connect with the general public and our lived experience. Beyond generally themed exhibitions and collections, many of her projects have explored the intersection of art with such topics as science, food, tools, and books, inspiring new ways to engage the world around us.
Recent exhibitions include Reveal: The Art of Reimagining Scientific Discovery at the American University Art Museum and Traces at The Kreeger Museum, both Washington, DC; and Synergy Unbound, the last of an ongoing series at the American Center for Physics, College Park, MD. Sarah is the curator for the upcoming SUSTAIN public art project. From 2004-2019, Sarah was a curator for Art in Embassies, U.S. Department of State, where she curated over 100 exhibitions and 12 permanent collections featuring U.S. and host country artists for U.S. diplomatic facilities overseas. The daughter of a U.S. diplomat, Tanguy holds a B.A. in Fine Arts from Georgetown University, and a M.A. in Art History from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
About Elizabeth Brandt: Elizabeth Brandt is National Field Manager for Mom’s Clean Air Force. She and Mom’s have been partnering with Storytelling with Saris for several years. As the DC field organizer for Moms Clean Air Force from 2017 to 2019, Elizabeth Brandt fought the Trump administration’s dismantling of the Clean Power Plan, championed the passage of the Clean Energy DC Act, and tirelessly advocated for clean air and children’s health on Capitol Hill. As national field manager, she remains a fixture on the Hill, while managing field staff across the US. Elizabeth’s work has been featured in the New York Times, the Washington Post, BBC America, The Hill, and NowThis.
Before working for Moms Clean Air Force, Elizabeth worked in social work and public health in Oregon, Washington, and Alaska. Elizabeth grew up in the shadow of a copper smelter that covered her neighborhood with arsenic and other chemicals. She is determined to ensure that other families do not experience the devastating impacts that living close to underregulated industrial sites can cause. A mother of two daughters, Elizabeth became increasingly concerned about the impact of climate change after the birth of her first child. Elizabeth holds a master’s degree in social work.
