Please join us for Climate and Actions: Storytelling with Saris. Exhibition dates: May 8 to June 6, 2015. This cumulative exhibition of saris and prints on paper evolves as participants create art on saris pledging to reduce carbon footprint.

Opening reception and workshop: May 8, 6 -8 pm.

Participants will write and print on saris their personal stories and pledges to reduce carbon footprint. The saris will be added to the exhibition during the course of the show. The workshops will culminate in a public performance in fall 2015 using the pledge saris, which will later be returned to Bangladesh to be worn by coastal women.

Workshop dates: Thursdays May 14 and 21, 11 am to 1 pm and Saturdays May 23, May 30, and June 6 from 11 am to 2 pm.

The project and exhibition are funded in part by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities​, which is partially supported by the National Endowment on the Arts.

Photo: “Surge 2,” Woodblock and watercolor on paper, Monica Jahan Bose 2015.

Join artist/activist Monica Jahan Bose for an inspiring and empowering Sari Pledge Workshop. Dates: Saturdays May 23, 30, and June 6 from 11 am to 2 pm. The workshop includes an audio/visual learning session on climate change and its impacts in coastal Bangladesh followed by hands-on woodblock printing with Bangladeshi blocks and writing with paint on handwoven cotton saris. Learn how you can make a difference to global warming by pledging to reduce your own carbon footprint. Participants become part of Storytelling with Saris and can add their experiences to the project website and are also invited to join in a public performance in the fall using the saris. The saris will ultimately be returned to Bangladesh to be worn by coastal women. The workshop is 1 -1/2 hours and participants for Saturday workshops should plan to join at 11 am or 12:30 pm. The workshop is designed for adults and teens but children 10 and older may join with parent supervision.

Free workshop but please sign up with Eventbrite.

Monica Jahan Bose will screen a new performance video as well as a short excerpt from Her Words: Storytelling with Saris, followed by a talk about her project with audience talk back.

Join artist/activist Monica Jahan Bose for an inspiring and empowering Sari Pledge Workshop. The workshop includes an audio/visual learning session on climate change and its impacts in coastal Bangladesh followed by hands-on woodblock printing with Bangladeshi blocks and writing with paint on handwoven cotton saris. Learn how you can make a difference to global warming by pledging to reduce your own carbon footprint. Participants become part of Storytelling with Saris and can add their experiences to the project website and are also invited to join in a public performance in the fall using the saris. The saris will ultimately be returned to Bangladesh to be worn by coastal women. The workshop is 1 -1/2 hours and participants for Saturday workshops should plan to join at 11 am or 12:30 pm. The workshop is designed for adults and teens but children 10 and older may join with parent supervision.

Free workshop but please sign up with Eventbrite.

Join artist/activist Monica Jahan Bose for an inspiring and empowering Sari Pledge Workshop. The workshop includes an audio/visual learning session on climate change and its impacts in coastal Bangladesh followed by hands-on woodblock printing with Bangladeshi blocks and writing with paint on handwoven cotton saris. Learn how you can make a difference to global warming by pledging to reduce your own carbon footprint. Participants become part of Storytelling with Saris and can add their experiences to the project website and are also invited to join in a public performance in the fall using the saris. The saris will ultimately be returned to Bangladesh to be worn by coastal women. The workshop is 1 -1/2 hours and participants for Saturday workshops should plan to join at 11 am or 12:30 pm. The workshop is designed for adults and teens but children 10 and older may join with parent supervision.

Free workshop but please sign up with Eventbrite.

Join artist/activist Monica Jahan Bose for an inspiring and empowering Sari Pledge Workshop. The workshop includes an audio/visual learning session on climate change and its impacts in coastal Bangladesh followed by hands-on woodblock printing with Bangladeshi blocks and writing with paint on handwoven cotton saris. Learn how you can make a difference to global warming by pledging to reduce your own carbon footprint. Participants become part of Storytelling with Saris and can add their experiences to the project website and are also invited to join in a public performance in the fall using the saris. The saris will ultimately be returned to Bangladesh to be worn by coastal women. The workshop is 1 -1/2 hours and participants for Saturday workshops should plan to join at 11 am or 12:30 pm. The workshop is designed for adults and teens but children 10 and older may join with parent supervision.

Free workshop but please sign up with Eventbrite.

Join artist/activist Monica Jahan Bose for an inspiring and empowering Sari Pledge Workshop. The workshop includes an audio/visual learning session on climate change and its impacts in coastal Bangladesh followed by hands-on woodblock printing with Bangladeshi blocks and writing with paint on handwoven cotton saris. Learn how you can make a difference to global warming by pledging to reduce your own carbon footprint. Participants become part of Storytelling with Saris and can add their experiences to the project website and are also invited to join in a public performance in the fall using the saris. The saris will ultimately be returned to Bangladesh to be worn by coastal women. The workshop is 1 -1/2 hours and participants for Saturday workshops should plan to join at 11 am or 12:30 pm. The workshop is designed for adults and teens but children 10 and older may join with parent supervision.

Free workshop but please sign up with Eventbrite.

Monica Jahan Bose along with other DC residents presents an interactive performance to raise awareness about climate change and the global implications of our individual use of energy. The performance uses saris made in collaboration with coastal women from her native Bangladesh (who stand to lose their homeland as a result of climate change) as well as new ones made in collaboration with DC residents.  Join the sari procession and make a climate pledge on a sari, which will all be sent back to Bangladesh to be worn as garments by coastal women.

The performance will start at 3:45 pm at the stage near the 7 Eleven (957 H Street NE). Please come and meet us by 3:30 pm to join the performance and make a pledge.

The saris have been featured in performances around the US, including Art Basel Miami Beach, the Dumbo Arts Festival, Simpson College in Iowa, and the Brooklyn Museum, and recently at the Bangladesh National Museum.   Follow the project on storytellingwithsaris.com.

Monica Jahan Bose has been selected to perform in Art All Night (Nuit Blanche) DC. The performance will speak to climate change and its global impacts. The performance will be at the fountain in the center of Dupont Circle starting at 7 pm.

Performance assistant: Sree Sinha, Mayur Dance Academy

INUNDATION: Storytelling with Saris
a performance/installation by MONICA JAHAN BOSE

The multi-media performance INUNDATION speaks to climate change, using a 216-foot sari, water, bicycles, and video projections. Images are projected onto saris, the fountain, and the bodies of performers. Inspired by the two female and one male statues on the fountain, representing water, wind, and the cosmos, the movement of the performers and saris suggests storms, waves, and disruption of our ecosystem. The performance uses saris and video from STORYTELLING WITH SARIS, a long term collaboration with coastal women in Bangladesh who may be displaced by climate change. Audience members will be invited to join the performance and create a circle around the fountain with the sari, which creates a sheer screen. Performers will also bicycle around the circle carrying climate pledges to show their commitment to reducing use of fossil fuels.

INUNDATION explores connections between water and displacement, offering the hope of cleansing, rebirth, and change. “Inundation” refers to floods, immersion, and sea level rise and also to its cause, the overwhelming consumption by richer countries. In South Asian culture, water symbolizes cleansing, death and rebirth.

Save the date for Samhati’s annual fundraiser at the Embassy of Bangladesh. This is the non-profit organization that is behind the Katakhali project and all the eco-empowerment, educational scholarships, literacy classes, and skills training in that community. Please support this important work by coming to our fun annual benefit.

Saturday, October 3, 2015, From 6:30 to 10:00 pm

The Embassy of Bangladesh
3510 International Drive NW
Washington, DC 20008 [Metro: Van Ness/UDC (Red Line)
Street parking is available.

Admission per person:
$75 ($35 students)
If you send in your check, a ticket will be reserved for you and your name will be on the guest list at the door. Please make your check payable to “Samhati” and mail to:Samhati, 8602 Aqueduct Rd,Potomac, MD 20854, USA
You can donate or buy tickets on paypal through this link.
Tickets will also be available at the door.