Collection: aja monet

aja monet describes herself as a surrealist blues poet, and the lineage she's working in is specific - Sonia Sanchez, Nikki Giovanni, Amiri Baraka and Audre Lorde, who understood jazz as belonging to the same tradition as poetry and proved it by performing alongside musicians rather than in spite of them. Monet was born in Brooklyn to parents of Cuban and Jamaican descent, grew up in East New York, began writing at eight, joined Urban Word NYC as a teenager, and at nineteen became the youngest winner of the Nuyorican Poets Café Grand Slam in 2007. Her debut album "when the poems do what they do" (drink sum wtr, 2023), recorded at Westlake Recording Studios in Los Angeles, placed her work alongside Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah on trumpet, Samora Pinderhughes on piano, Elena Pinderhughes on flute, Luques Curtis on bass, Weedie Braimah on djembe and Marcus Gilmore on drums. She performed at Newport Jazz Festival the same year. Monet remains active, based in Los Angeles.