Events

Nov
9
Tue
2021
Sustain Planting & Poetry Workshop @ Unity Park
Nov 9 @ 2:00 PM – 3:30 PM
Sustain Planting & Poetry Workshop @ Unity Park

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.

Dec
7
Tue
2021
Sustain Planting & Poetry Workshop @ Zoom
Dec 7 @ 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM
Sustain Planting & Poetry Workshop @ Zoom

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.

Dec
18
Sat
2021
SUSTAIN: A Preview Performance @ Unity Park
Dec 18 @ 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM
SUSTAIN: A Preview Performance @ Unity Park

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.

Jan
11
Tue
2022
Sustain Planting & Poetry Workshop @ Zoom
Jan 11 @ 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM
Sustain Planting & Poetry Workshop @ Zoom

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.

Feb
3
Thu
2022
Sustain Planting & Poetry Workshop 3 @ Zoom
Feb 3 @ 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM
Sustain Planting & Poetry Workshop 3 @ Zoom

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.

Feb
16
Wed
2022
Art, Climate Journalism, and Performance Workshops
Feb 16 @ 7:25 PM – Feb 22 @ 8:25 PM
Art, Climate Journalism, and Performance Workshops

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.

 

Mar
8
Tue
2022
Women’s Day Sari Art & Poetry Workshop @ Eaton Hotel, Chrystal Room
Mar 8 @ 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM
Women's Day Sari Art & Poetry Workshop @ Eaton Hotel, Chrystal Room

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.

Mar
17
Thu
2022
Sustain Planting & Poetry Workshop 4 @ Zoom
Mar 17 @ 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM
Sustain Planting & Poetry Workshop 4 @ Zoom

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.

Apr
22
Fri
2022
Storytelling with Saris Earth Day 2022 Event @ online
Apr 22 @ 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM

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.

 Storytelling with Saris Earth Day Event 2022 image
 Storytelling with Saris Earth Day Event 2022 image

 

May
19
Thu
2022
Climate Can’t Wait @ Corner of 1st St NE and D Street NW
May 19 @ 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Climate Can't Wait @ Corner of 1st St NE and D Street NW

Storytelling with Saris has joined forces with Moms Clean Air Force and will be leading a Climate Art Action Thursday, May 19 at 4-6 pm near the Senate offices.  The address is: corner of 1st St NE and D St NE, Washington DC near Lower Senate Park. Metro: Union Station.  Join us for a performance with saris and recitation of climate justice poetry.

Join Moms Clean Air Force and the Climate Action Campaign for a climate art action in support of climate solutions outside of the US Senate Office Buildings! In collaboration with Bangladeshi-American artist and activist Monica Jahan Bose, we will host a climate art action as part of a public art experience from Storytelling with Saris.

Sign up here:  https://www.mobilize.us/climateactioncampaign/event/457362/?referring_vol=180856&rname=Monica&timeslot=3203060&share_medium=email_link&share_context=email_3