SUSTAIN: Online Planting and Poetry Workshop 2

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