Story Telling With Saris

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Date/Time
Date(s) - 19/07/2014
17:00 - 19:00

Location
EMK Center

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About

On July 19, an exhibition and book launch event titled ‘Her Words: Storytelling With Saris’ will be inaugurated at the EMK Centre in Dhanmondi where Bangladeshi-American artist/activist Monica Jahan Bose will create a site-specific installation of saris and video in collaboration with women from her ancestral village and Brooklyn-based filmmaker Nandita Ahmed. United States Ambassador to Bangladesh Dan W Mozena will be the chief guest. Dr Saleemul Huq will be present as a special guest at the event along with Art Critic/Professor Moinuddin Khaled, Dhaka City College; Enayet Khan, Chairman, Cosmos Group and Cosmos Gallery. The speakers will be guided by Rafiqul Islam of the Liberation War Museum as the moderator. Both Monica Jahan Bose and filmmaker Nandita Ahmed will be present at the opening/book launch.

‘Her Words’ presents for the first time in Bangladesh the ongoing, collaborative art and advocacy project, Storytelling with Saris, highlighting the achievements of literacy and climate adaptation by the women of the remote island community of Katakhali, Patuakhali District, an area threatened by climate change.  Katakhali is Bose’s ancestral village and part of an eco-empowerment program started by Samhati, a US-based non-profit group of Bangladeshi-American women founded by her mother Noorjahan Bose. In Storytelling with Saris, Bose collaborates with 12 Katakhali women who have survived successive cyclones, learned to read, adapted to climate change, and rebuilt their lives as they continue to improve their community. Through this project, Bose expanded her interest in printmaking to learn woodblock printing from the women of Katakhali. In January 2013, she travelled to Katakhali to organize writing workshops, create 24 collaborative woodblock prints on saris, and interview the women of Katakhali. New York-based Bangladeshi filmmaker Nandita Ahmed accompanied Bose to document the project using photography and video. The stage two of the project includes research and community education on climate change, monitoring of sea level rise, and continued advocacy and documentation. Through exhibitions, a book, lectures, workshops, and performances, Storytelling with Saris presents the stories of a resilient, inspiring community.  The project has been featured in prominent venues in Washington, DC and New York, such as the (e)merge art fair, the Brooklyn Museum, and the US Environmental Protection Agency.

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