Tea Time with the Artists at Braids & Threads Exhibition

Join us for hot tea and conversation with artists Monica Jahan Bose and Autumn Spears and get a personal tour of this groundbreaking show

Join the artists for hot tea and conversation every Friday from 3-5 pm at the Washington Project for the Arts' new space in Dupont Circle (1350 Connecticut Ave. NW, Ground Floor; metro: Dupont Circle, South Exit). Braids & Threads: Connecting Legacies is organized by artists Monica Jahan Bose and Autumn Spears.

Both Bose and Spears lean into their diasporic heritage in their practices, incorporating skills they learned from their elders: sewing/textiles (Bose) crocheting and hair braiding techniques (Spears). Their ongoing conversations—across generations, between Gen X and Gen Z—have opened up new energy and direction in both of their practices. This is their first collaboration.

For this project, Bose and Spears engage in a series of conversations—some recorded as podcasts—about the relevance of exploring connection with heritage, mothers, and ancestors. Together, they consider how weaving inherited knowledge into contemporary work can promote resilience.

Using the concepts, stories, and ideas arising from these conversations, the two artist-organizers created new work and a site-specific installation in WPA’s project space using multilingual text, embroidery, braiding, sewing, crochet, fiber art, and printmaking. It will be an evolving exhibition and work-space, where other artists and community members are invited to drop in and contribute with their own stories and art-making.

Attendees are invited to bring vintage vinyl to play along with the artists’ selection of intergenerational grooves.

Exhibition dates: December 13, 2025–March 8, 2026

Gallery hours: Wednesday–Friday, 12:00–6:00pm, and Saturday, 1:00–5:00pm

This project is a part of our open call project series, “Lineages: Generations of Creative Resilience in the District,” which invited DC-area artist duos to submit proposals for projects that center intergenerational collaboration. Conceived in concert with WPA’s 50th Anniversary and the recent launch of its digital archive, this prompt reflects on the potential of intergenerational community-building among artists in the District as a way to carry forward vulnerable histories and imagine resilient futures.

A regular weekly Tea Time with the artists, on Fridays from 3:00–5:00pm, will welcome visitors to join in conversation and collaborate on the evolving installation. Workshops focused on crocheting and block printing will also occur onsite throughout the project’s duration. Follow us on Instagram for weekly updates.Additional public programming will take place offsite, to be announced soon.

Monica Jahan Bose is a Bangladeshi-American artist and activist whose work spans performance, painting, printmaking, film, and installation. Her socially engaged work highlights the intersection of climate, racial, gender, and economic injustice through co-created workshops, installations, and performances. She has exhibited her work extensively in the US and internationally including solo exhibitions at the Bangladesh National Museum and MACRO Museum of Contemporary Art Rome. She has been awarded five large-scale public art grants in DC, each centering community co-creation and featuring multiple workshops, film/projections, performances, and site-specific installation.

Her ongoing collaborative art and advocacy project Storytelling with Saris, started in 2012 with women farmers from her ancestral island village, has traveled to eight countries and 13 US states, engaging thousands of people. Her work has appeared in The Miami Herald, The Washington Post, BBC, Art Asia Pacific, The Milwaukee Sentinel, The Honolulu Star Advertiser, The Japan Times, Prothom Alo and all major newspapers in Bangladesh. The Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum has acquired a collection of her paintings, saris, woodblocks, and archival materials. She has a BA in studio art and mathematics from Wesleyan University, a diploma in art from Santiniketan, India, and a JD from Columbia Law School. She lives and works in Washington, DC.

Autumn Spears is a DC native whose art serves as a powerful medium for reimagining Black histories and diasporic narratives. Her upbringing within communities of color, alongside her experiences navigating predominantly white institutions, has deeply shaped both her identity and artistic vision. Moving between these contrasting spaces sparked her commitment to exploring Black representation and identity across the African diaspora.

In 2020, she received her BFA in Art Education from Albright College. In 2023, Spears held her inaugural solo exhibition, Becoming, at the Freedman Gallery in Reading, Pennsylvania. This milestone event showcased her distinctive style and marked the beginning of a promising artistic journey. Additionally, Spears’ work has been featured in local cultural institutions such as the MLK Memorial Library, Charles Sumner School, Anacostia Arts Center, and the Anacostia Community Museum. Spears is also a 2024 DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities grant recipient and 2025 Art Bank finalist.

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Host or Publisher Monica Jahan Bose/Storytelling with Saris