CONCRETE DREAMS Poetry and Art Workshop

Join us for Zoom workshop with Storytelling with Saris

By Monica Jahan Bose/Storytelling with Saris

Date and time

Friday, December 18, 2020 · 7am - 8:30pm PST

Location

Online

About this event

Please join us for a Zoom poetry and art workshop for the public art project CONCRETE DREAMS. The workshop is led by Monica Jahan Bose and co-facilitated by artist Maps Glover. Future workshops will be mostly on Zoom. Those who fully participate in at least two workshops will receive a small stipend if age 15 or older. If you do not have access to internet or devices to participate on Zoom, please let us know by emailing storytellingwithsaris@gmail.com.

What is CONCRETE DREAMS? It's a temporary public art project that involves the public in Washington DC and Katakhali Village, Bangladesh. CONCRETE DREAMS is led by Monica Jahan Bose in collaboration with light artist Robin Bell and the public and will drape cotton saris and project images and poetry on the facade of the DC Arts Center, 2438 18th Street, NW, Washington DC. The duration of the installation will be three days in May 2021. There will also be small movable sculptures or "steles" on the sidewalk with poetry phrases written on them. The public is invited to join zoom and outdoor workshops led by Monica Jahan Bose and co-facilitated by artist Maps Glover in Fall/Winter and Spring 2021 to compose poetry and art on themes of the pandemic, race, gender, and climate justice. We will also work on "concrete poetry" or visual arrangement of the words that enhances their meaning. These poems will be placed on the saris, used in projections, and in the movable sculptures. All materials will be supplied.

ASL interpretation provided. Please email storytellingwithsaris@gmail.com if you need ASL or other language interpretation or any other accommodation.

This project is supported by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities' Public Art Building Communities Grant Program.

Organized by

Monica Jahan Bose/Storytelling with Saris

Storytelling with Saris is a collaborative art , advocacy and climate justice project. It uses woodblock prints on 18-foot-long saris, writing, oral history, performance, installation, and film to empower communities in North America and Europe to address climate change in solidarity with the women of Katakhali Village, an island community in Bangladesh on the frontlines of this crisis. Artist and activist Monica Jahan Bose, whose maternal roots are in Katakhali, collaborates with 12 women from Katakhali who have recently acquired literacy and climate adaptation skills and are valiantly fighting climate change. Through performance art, film, books, exhibitions, and advocacy workshops in Bangladesh, North America, and Europe, communities are inspired to take action in solidarity with our planet.

The project commenced in 2012 with a public talk and discussion at the 39th Street Gallery in Maryland, conversations via mobile phone with women in Katakhali, and research and planning in the US and Bangladesh. In January 2013, Monica went to the island to start work with the Katakhali women. The project continues with further writing in journals, sari printing, performances using the saris, events around the world. It includes research and community education on climate change and adaptation, and continued advocacy for and documentation of this community.

Katakhali Village and other islands and low lying areas may well disappear unless urgent global action is taken. Funded in part by the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, an agency supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. Website: Storytelling with Saris Twitter @saristory Instagram: @mjbose @storywithsari

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