aja monet is a Grammy-nominated Surrealist Blues Poet. In 2007, she won the legendary Nuyorican Poet’s Cafe Grand slam poetry award title. She follows in the long legacy and tradition of poets participating and assembling in social movements. aja monet has collaborated across mediums and disciplines helping to shape and shift culture working with many internationally established artists, scholars, activists, and organizers. Her first full collection of poems entitled, my mother was a freedom fighter is a testament to all mothers, women, and girls who struggle to live, love, and move freely in the world. Her poems explore migration, spirituality, and femininity. In 2018, her book was nominated for a NAACP Image Award for Poetry and in 2019 she was awarded the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Award for Poetry.

aja monet also serves as the Artistic Creative Director for V-Day, a global movement to end violence against all women and girls. In 2022, she created an audio play called, VOICES, showcasing the stories and experiences of Black women across the diaspora and the African continent.

aja monet’s debut poetry album, when the poems do what they do was released on June 9, 2023, on drink sum wtr, a new Secretly Canadian imprint and nominated for a Grammy Best Spoken Word Poetry Album. Collaborators on the album include esteemed musicians Lonnie Holley, Christian Scott, Marcus Gilmore, Samora Pinderhughes, Weedie Braimah, and more.

In 2024 she will be launching her next full collection of poems called Florida Water with Haymarket Books.

 

Press Links

Afropunk – aja monet debuts new single & short film  “The Devil You Know”

The Creative Independant – aja monet On the power of showing up and speaking your truth

Clash Music– aja monet launches debut album “when the poems do what they do”

The Fader – watch aja monet’s collage visuazlier for new song “why my love?”