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.

Please join me at this exhibition, for which two of my works have been commissioned. Five leading Bangladeshi artists are sending a message to GE and demanding a fossil fuel free future, with a new Boston-based art exhibition titled ‘Electric Bangladesh: Fossil Free Futures’.  DETAILS HERE

Through our artwork, we are calling on GE to end its greenwashing – claiming to be green while backing massive fossil gas projects – and instead back clean renewable energy in Bangladesh.

Presented by Climarte and commissioned by Market Forces, the exhibition will run from 1-4 August at the Point Gallery at @CambridgeFoundry in Boston – right around the corner from GE’s new headquarters.

Please join us at the DC Boimela (Bangla Bookfair) for a 30 minute performance/talk by Monica Jahan Bose showcasing the “Prokash” community scroll on gender and identity created in 2021 with intergenerational Bangladeshi residents of New York City.  The scroll was created as the final project after six workshops discussing gender, identity, pronouns, sexuality, immigration/racism in bilingual workshops led by Monica Jahan Bose.  The project was supported and organized by Arts & Democracy with funding from the Asian Women’s Giving Circle and the City of New York. Read more about Prokash here.

The DC Boi Mela is a two-day event from 10 am to 10 pm on August 26 and 27 with books, poetry, music, workshops, lectures, art, dance, food stalls, and more! Come and see the Prokash performance on Sunday August 27 at noon and stay for lunch and more performances and attractions.

The performance is inspired by the Patuas of West Bengal, who unroll patachitra scrolls and perform songs from village to village.  Sangeeta Mookherji will be assisting with the performance.

“প্রকাশ “ পটচিত্র পারফরমেন্স

মনিকা জাহান বোস

মনিকা জাহান বোস একজন বাংলাদেশী-আমেরিকান শিল্পী, আইনজীবী ও মানবাধিকারকর্মী। তার কাজের মধ্যে চিত্রাঙ্কন, ভাস্কর্য, ফিল্ম ও ছাপচিত্র। ওয়েসলিয়ান বিশ্ববিদ্যালয় এবং ভারতের শান্তিনিকেতনে তিনি শিল্পকলা বিষয়ে অধ্যয়ন করেন এবং কলাম্বিয়া বিশ্ববিদ্যালয় থেকে আইন বিষয়ে ডিগ্রী লাভ করেন। তার শিল্প প্রদর্শনী বিশ্বের বিভিন্ন দেশের গ্যালারি ও মিউজিয়ামে অনুষ্ঠিত হয়েছে- বাংলাদেশ, ফ্রান্স, জাপান, ভারত, গ্রিস, ইতালি, যুক্তরাষ্ট্র। বর্তমানে মনিকা যুক্তরাষ্ট্রের রাজধানী ওয়াশিংটন ডিসি-তে বসবাস করছেন, তবে প্রত্যেক বছর তিনি বাংলাদেশে আসেন এবং শিল্পকর্ম করেন। মনিকা ২০১২ তে ‘নারীর কথা: শাড়ীর মধ্যে জীবনগাথা’ প্রকল্পটি আরম্ভ করেন। এখানে শিল্পের মাধ্যম হিসেবে ব্যবহার হয় শাড়ী- একটি চিত্রপট, একটি গল্পের খাতা। মনিকা ২০২১ সালে ব্রুকলিনের বাংলাদেশীদের সাথে “প্রকাশ” প্রকল্পে কাজ করেন জেন্ডার / লিঙ্গ , মানসিক স্বাস্থ্য, এবং অভিবাসন বিষয় নিয়ে। সার্বিক সহযোগিতায় – আর্টস অ্যান্ড ডেমক্রেসী এবং তহবিল অনুদানে এশিয়ান ওমান’স গিভিং সার্কেল।

Nourish: Storytelling with Saris

Exhibition Dates: September 10-November 4, 2023

Opening Reception with Poetry Slam:  September 10 from 4-6 pm

Artist Talk: October 21 from 2-3 pm

Gallery Hours: Wednesdays 2-6pm + Saturdays 12 noon – 4pm

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.

The opening reception is from 4-6 pm on September 10 and will include a poetry slam at 5 pm. Poets include Sonja Berry, Sherri Gales, Lala Forbes, Rashika Johnson, Philip Mecham, Marjorie Thomas, Lia Totty, Demetria Willis, and others. ASL will be provided. There will be a concurrent opening of an 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.

Monica Jahan Bose will be participating in the the third annual Women’s Environmental Leadership (WEL) summit taking place from Thursday September 14 through Sunday September 17, 2023, in Washington D.C. The summit is a signature program of The Center for Environmental Justice at the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum (CEJ). Launched this past Earth Day, the Center builds on the work of the Urban Waterways Project, which for twelve years explored and documented the relationship between urban waterways and their surrounding communities. WEL was launched in 2018 to build capacity for future women environmental leadership. Through summits, community forums, lectures, and oral histories, a national network of environmental leaders and young women have explored the importance of mentorship, various educational and career opportunities, and the multitude of ways in which leadership is enacted. The launch of the Center and the WEL summit are part of our museum’s focus on Our Environment,

Our Future, a year-long celebration of programming which includes the exhibition To Live and Breathe: Women and Environmental Justice in Washington D.C., and the first cohort of our Environmental Justice Academy. Over the course of the summit, we will welcome attendees for an opening Dinner & Discussion, two days of panels and workshops, and a day of field trips, all designed to empower the next generation with the knowledge, skillsets, and inspiration they need to take the next steps in their personal and professional pathways.

Monica will be a panelist on September 16, for the session, The Arts, Environmental Advocacy, and Activism. Discussion will explore the role of the Arts in environmental advocacy and activism through an exploration of how the environmental experiences of artists inform media and messaging, the various spaces such work can inhabit, and how such engagement serves to make environmental practice more accessible.

Image:  This digital artwork by Amir Khadar has been commissioned as a mural by the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum for the exhibit To Live and Breathe: Women and Environmental Justice in Washington, D.C.

Asian American Arts Alliance (A4) welcomes you to attend and participate in September’s Town Hall on Fashion and Textiles in celebration of Textile Month and Fashion Week in NYC. We’ll be hosted by Mercury Store in Brooklyn, NY.

The history of textile arts is as old as human civilization; our textiles tell stories and serve many purposes, including as the underpinning of fashion. What we wear, how we wear it, and how it’s designed or made holds cultural significance and is one of the most visible forms of expression. As a trillion-dollar global industry, fashion reaches all of us and impacts our climate, well-being, and relationship to our bodies.

We invite you to learn about the diverse and exciting creative projects and opportunities coming out of the Asian American textile arts and fashion community at Town Hall’s rapid-fire line-up of pitches, and meet our featured presenters: artist Monica Jahan Bose and Rebecca Hui, CEO and Founder of Roots Studio!

After the presentations, we’ll host a potluck, so please bring something to share; homemade or store-bought goods are welcome. Tell us what you’re bringing when you RSVP. A4 will provide drinks.

This event is FREE and open to the public. RSVP is required to pitch and/or attend, but you do not have to pitch to attend.

Accessibility: The building is completely ADA accessible. If you need ASL interpretation, large print, or any other accommodations for this event, please email jlee@aaartsalliance.org at least one week before this event.

To keep everyone safe and healthy, if you are not feeling well or have been exposed to COVID-19, please stay home. We will provide masks.

Interested in pitching? Please carefully read about the pitch process below.

About the Pitch Process

A4 Town Halls are a forum to share an upcoming project or exhibition, promote an event or opportunity, find collaborators and venues, or simply introduce yourself to the community. There are two ways to pitch at an A4 Town Hall: a two-minute pitch which requires pre-registering, and a thirty-second pitch which you can sign up for at the event.

Two-minute pitches

Sign up ahead of time for a two-minute pitch by completing the following steps:

1. Register for a “Pitch” ticket via Eventbrite (either with or without a donation), and
2. Complete this pitch form with details about your pitch at least three days before the event.

If you do not complete the form by the deadline, you risk not being included in the line-up.

In your pitch form, please include any images, video, or slides you would like presented during your pitch. We encourage you to share your website and social handles so that we can promote on the event page and in the slides – which we share with all attendees after the event. Slides will be presented in the order in which they are uploaded. If you would like to ensure your slides appear in the correct order, please number them. A4 Staff will be compiling and driving the master slideshow. Presenters will not be able to use their devices to present.

We cap the two-minute pitches to 14 total presenters on a first come, first served basis which we will manage through Eventbrite. If we reach capacity, and you would like to be put on the waitlist, please email jlee@aaartsalliance.org.

Thirty-second pitches

After the featured presentations and two-minute pitches, we invite anyone from the audience to provide a thirty-second pitch. This requires signing up at the event via an online form we provide.

About A4’s Town Hall

Town Hall is A4’s bi-monthly community gathering event that features presentations, pitches, and power networking! We welcome artists of all disciplines, as well as arts organizations, to pitch upcoming projects, find collaborators, or discover new opportunities in a lively space.

About Monica Jahan Bose

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.

About Rebecca Hui

Rebecca Hui is an entrepreneur and artist passionate about bridging cultures globally through beauty and wonder. She is the CEO of Roots Studio, a collective of future-forward creatives, technologists, and indigenous creatives reimagining cultural sustainability onto new formats through equitable bridging. Roots Studio represents 31 indigenous communities globally, bridging indigenous arts and knowledge to partnerships with groups like Patagonia, Chanel, Cartier, amongst others. Roots Studio has been featured in The Business of Fashion as “The Antidote to Cultural Appropriation,” and also in Forbes, Vogue Business, PBS, WWD, TechCrunch, MIT Technology Review, Stanford Social Innovation Review, amongst others.

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.

Excited to be back at GDS for an assembly for the entire high school.  I will give an interactive talk and poetry performance!

Thank to the students for inviting me.

-MJB