Aja Monet: Surrealist Poet Reclaims Culture

Aja Monet, a Los Angeles-based musician and poet, identifies as a surrealist blues poet and is dedicated to reclaiming culture's radical possibilities amidst exploitation. Her latest album, 'The Color of Rain,' draws inspiration from surrealism's historical use as a response to fascism, blending experimental jazz, rhymes, and rhythms to create a psychedelic quality. The lead single, 'Hollyweird,' critiques Los Angeles as a surreal, apocalyptic landscape. Monet cites inspirations from the Négritude movement and the Harlem Renaissance, viewing surrealism as a space for insurgent consciousness shaped by enduring colonialism's impacts.

As Barbican's artist in residence, Monet performed a sold-out show at the London Jazz Festival, integrating poetry and music into a powerful, cohesive experience. She critiques how poetry and art forms like hip-hop are often taught in academia or manipulated by institutions and algorithms for control and profit, rather than fostering self-determination and community understanding. Monet, whose background includes Jamaican, Cuban, and Puerto Rican roots, identifies as Black and speaks to the struggles of minority ethnic people, drawing from personal experiences with systemic injustice.

Monet's journey with words began in a church community, where poetry served as testimony and ministry. She later found her 'church' in poetry cafes, engaging with crucial issues like rape, assault, and gender justice, which mainstream culture often avoided. Her work extends globally, addressing inequality in Sudan, the DRC, and Palestine, inspired by early encounters with Palestinian poet Tahani Salah. Alongside her artistic career, Monet is the artistic creative director for V-Day, an organization dedicated to ending violence against women and girls, and is developing an audio play for US prisons.

Monet emphasizes love as a core value for confronting adversity, highlighting its role in fostering mutual care and support. She shares a deep friendship and professional partnership with her best friend and manager, Daphne, whose support has been crucial. Their shared experiences with family health issues and frustrations with the pharmaceutical industry forged a bond that became both personal and political. For Monet, poetry provides structure, freedom, and a lens through which to understand relationships and the world, aiming to embody the poem she strives to create throughout her life.