Aja Monet

Aja Monet

Aja Monet is an American contemporary poet, writer, lyricist and activist based in Los Angeles, California. She is sometimes styled in all lowercase. She has published many books and poems, and her recorded work is mainly spoken word poetry set to music.

Recorded work and collaborations

In 2019, Monet collaborates with Eryn Allen Kane on Kane’s album A Tree Planted by Water. In 2021, she releases The FREE Tape with Smoke Signals Collective, a hip-hop-oriented project made with the group’s singers, poets and multi-instrumentalists and described as a soundtrack for liberation. Her debut solo album, when the poems do what they do, arrives in 2023 and features Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah, Samora Pinderhughes, Marcus Gilmore, Lonnie Holley, Eryn Allen Kane and Novena Carmel.

Style

Her work spans blues, folk, jazz, poetry and soul, and she is associated with the label metaphor mermaid.