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.

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

Performance assistant: Sham-e-Ali Nayeem

RISING is part of perform(art)ive, a performance art festival organized and curated by Twelve Gates Gallery

RISING speaks to climate change, using a 216-foot sari, water, and video projections. Images are projected onto saris and the bodies of performers. The movement of the performers and saris suggests storms, waves, and disruption of our ecosystem. The performance uses worn saris and video from STORYTELLING WITH SARIS, a long term collaboration with 12 coastal women in Bangladesh who may be displaced by climate change. Audience members will be invited to join the performance and create a circle with the sari, which creates a sheer screen.

RISING explores connections between water and displacement, offering the hope of action and change. In South Asian culture, water symbolizes cleansing, death and rebirth.

Photo credit: Tony Hitchcock.

Please join us for a Holiday Party/Open Studio and Performance Salon on Saturday December 12th from 4 to 8 pm. I will show images of recent public performances using the saris (amazing photos by Tony Hitchcock, Mir Elias, and Regina Catipon!) followed by a discussion and sharing of experiences from friends who joined or observed INUNDATION at Dupont Circle or RISING in Philadelphia.

There will be drinks and snacks and everyone is welcome.

I would love to see you before I depart for Bangladesh on December 20th! Things are looking more promising that we will actually be able to get to Katakhali Village this time because I managed to book seats on a sea plane, which lands in water and runs even during strikes and political unrest. Earlier this year, we were unable to reach Katakhali due to transportation blockades and terrorism. It has been a very difficult and sad time around the world including in my beloved Paris, but we must continue to celebrate life and art.

Performance Salon and Holiday Open Studio
Saturday December 12, 2015
4 pm to 8 pm [slides and discussion starting at 5:00 pm]
2017 Belmont Road, NW

Photo credit: Tony Hitchcock.

CLIMATE CHANGE AND BANGLADESH

Cinema Green is screening the performance film JALOBAYU (Climate.Water.Wind.) and an excerpt from HER WORDS: STORYTELLING WITH SARIS along with a world premiere of a brand new film about Bangladesh and climate change called THIRTY MILLION by Daniel Price and Adrien Taylor, which includes an interview of Monica Jahan Bose. There will be Q & A with artist/activist Monica Jahan Bose.

WHAT DO MIAMI & BANGLADESH HAVE IN COMMON? They are amongst the most vulnerable regions in the world to the effects of storm-related flooding and sea-level rise caused by climate change: Bangladesh – millions of people at risk. Miami – billions in assets at risk.

Award-winning artist/activist Monica Jahan Bose, in partnership with ECOMB’s Cinema Green Project and Haven South Beach, will screen three short documentaries on the impact of climate change on Bangladesh and on its low lying communities. The screening is free and will be followed by a talk-back session with Monica Jahan Bose.

HER WORDS: STORYTELLING WITH SARIS by Monica Jahan Bose and New York-based Bangladeshi filmmaker Nandita Ahmed (http://storytellingwithsaris.com/about/)
A short excerpt will be screened from this documentary about a collaborative printmaking and story project highlighting the achievement of literacy by women in the remote island community of Katakhali, Bangladesh, which is artist/activist Monica Jahan Bose’s ancestral village and part of an eco-empowerment program started by Samhati, a US-based non-profit group of Bangladeshi-American women. Katakhali village is located on the island of Barobaishdia in Patuakhali District and is one of the southernmost islands of Bangladesh, an area severely impacted by climate change.

JALOBAYU (Climate. Water. Wind.) by Monica Jahan Bose.
http://storytellingwithsaris.org/
JALOBAYU is a 7 minute film about a performance art installation during Miami Basel 2014. JALOBAYU juxtaposes Bangladeshi coastal women’s words and their worn saris against the backdrop of the rising ocean in Miami Beach. Women from Miami, including members of One Billion Rising – Miami, joined the performance. By physically and emotionally linking coastal communities, JALOBAYU speaks to the global problem of climate change and our need to work together to address it. Videography and photography: Ambika and Peter Samarthya-Howard.

THIRTY MILLION by Daniel Price and Adrien Taylor.
http://thirtymillionfilm.org/
This 35-minute film references the estimated 30 million individuals who may be displaced in Bangladesh due to climate change. Bangladesh is often described as the most vulnerable country on the planet in the face of a changing climate. This film, funded by United Nations Development Fund and the Global Environmental Facility, takes a close look at the human impact of climate change. THIRTY MILLION is being screened on April 1 for the first time worldwide.

Photo: cover image from JALOBABU, 2014 (photo credit: Peter Samarthya-Howard).

“Water” a solo exhibition by Monica Jahan Bose in Richmond, Virginia.
Curated by Naoko Wowsugi. Please email the artist and RSVP to attend the opening and workshop on May 31, 2016.

Bangladeshi-American artist and activist Monica Jahan Bose uses painting, performance, video, photography, printmaking, and community engagement to address climate change. She references mythology, personal histories, and everyday objects and garments to create fragmented, symbolic narratives. She uses the sari and sari blouse to refer to women’s lives. Water is an enduring theme in her work, speaking to life, climate, sustenance, death, and renewal.

Water is the source of life but also causes destruction through increasing cyclones, storm surges, and rising sea levels, all resulting from climate change and our excessive consumption of energy. Bose is the creator of Storytelling with Saris, a longterm collaborative art and advocacy project highlighting the resilience of women in Katakhali, Bangladesh, a remote island community severely impacted by climate change and expected to disappear unless the world takes action now. She is working with 12 women from Katakhali, her ancestral village, and bringing their stories to the world. The project includes printmaking and writing on saris, journal writing, as well as research, education, adaptation training, and advocacy on climate change. Bose is conducting climate pledge workshops around the US, where participants learn about the impacts of climate change and make pledges directly on saris to reduce their carbon footprint. These climate pledge saris are transported to Bangladesh and shared with (and ultimately worn as garments by) the coastal women of Katakhali. Bose will be holding climate pledge workshop on May 31, 2016.

About the artist: Monica Jahan Bose is an artist, lawyer, and activist based in Washington, DC and Bangladesh. She studied art at Wesleyan University and Santiniketan, India, and has a law degree from Columbia University. In addition to more than 20 years working as a visual artist, Bose has founded and run several non-profits and practiced and taught environmental and human rights law. She has exhibited her artwork extensively in the US, Bangladesh, France, Japan, and India. Her paintings were recently selected to represent the US in “1 in 3,” the World Bank’s global exhibition on gender-based violence, which featured 30 international artists. In 2014, she was invited to present Storytelling with Saris at the US EPA, the Brooklyn Museum, the Edward M. Kennedy Center in Bangladesh, and SELECT during Art Basel-Miami Beach. In 2015, she had a solo exhibition at the Bangladesh National Museum. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including grants from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, supported by the National Endowment on the Arts. Bose serves on the board of Samhati, a US-based Bangladeshi women’s organization that creates eco-empowerment projects for low-income women in Bangladesh. She is also a board-member of the New York-based South Asian Women’s Creative Collective.

Please join us in New York for the premiere of the UN-funded film “Thirty Million” at the UN Secretariat, followed by a panel discussion with film director Daniel Price and artist/activist Monica Jahan Bose. The film is about the impacts of climate change on Bangladesh. Monica appears in the film to speak about some of those impacts. You must RSVP to Carl Mercer to attend at carl.mercer@undp.org