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Aja Monet
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Aja Monet
Aja Monet Bacquie (/ˈɑːʒə moʊˈneɪ/ AH-zhə moh-NAY; sometimes stylized in all lowercase) is an American contemporary poet, writer, lyricist and activist based in Los Angeles, California.
Monet was raised in East New York, Brooklyn. She began writing poetry at age 8, due to her fascination with storytelling and typewriters. She started performing poetry in high school at Baruch College Campus High School in Manhattan. One of her first poetic memories was when she wrote a poem for a class that compelled the teacher, who encouraged Monet to continue writing. Monet competed with a poem for her high school talent show, and won, bringing her teachers to tears. She created the club SABA, Students Acknowledging Black Achievements, and got involved with the organization, Urban Word NYC, who taught Monet that poetry could be a career. She was invited by Mahogany L. Browne to a poetry workshop at a group home for pregnant teens in Inwood, which exposed her to how poetry could be used for community empowerment. When she was 17, she attended Brave New Voices, Youth Speaks' national poetry competition, which politicized her by showing her what issues teens were facing around the country. Her longtime collaborator, Saul Williams, has known Monet since she was 14.
Monet was in class at BCC High School when the 9/11 attacks occurred.
Monet has stated that she was more afraid of the police growing up than any other people in her community. According to the Village Voice, "Growing up in Brooklyn, Monet witnessed first-hand the mounting tensions between the police and the Black community in New York City. She remembers the pain she felt watching the heads of young Black boys being lowered into the backs of police cars, the anger that rose up when officers would "taunt" her uncle and brother during their patrols through her neighborhood."
Monet was the youngest poet to ever hold the title Nuyorican Poets Café Grand Slam Champion at the age of 19 in 2007, and is the last woman to have won this title since.
She earned her certificate of Bachelor of Arts from Sarah Lawrence College and MFA in writing from Art Institute of Chicago.
Not far from her graduation, she published two E-books, Black Unicorn Sings (2010) and Inner-City Chants and Cyborg Ciphers (2014). She also did co-editing and arrangements of the spoken word Chorus: A Literary Mixtape (2012).
Monet was nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work – Poetry for her collection My Mother Was a Freedom Fighter. A starred review in Publishers Weekly praised Monet's "stunning and evocative language" as she "strikingly illustrates the passage from girlhood to womanhood".
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Aja Monet
Aja Monet Bacquie (/ˈɑːʒə moʊˈneɪ/ AH-zhə moh-NAY; sometimes stylized in all lowercase) is an American contemporary poet, writer, lyricist and activist based in Los Angeles, California.
Monet was raised in East New York, Brooklyn. She began writing poetry at age 8, due to her fascination with storytelling and typewriters. She started performing poetry in high school at Baruch College Campus High School in Manhattan. One of her first poetic memories was when she wrote a poem for a class that compelled the teacher, who encouraged Monet to continue writing. Monet competed with a poem for her high school talent show, and won, bringing her teachers to tears. She created the club SABA, Students Acknowledging Black Achievements, and got involved with the organization, Urban Word NYC, who taught Monet that poetry could be a career. She was invited by Mahogany L. Browne to a poetry workshop at a group home for pregnant teens in Inwood, which exposed her to how poetry could be used for community empowerment. When she was 17, she attended Brave New Voices, Youth Speaks' national poetry competition, which politicized her by showing her what issues teens were facing around the country. Her longtime collaborator, Saul Williams, has known Monet since she was 14.
Monet was in class at BCC High School when the 9/11 attacks occurred.
Monet has stated that she was more afraid of the police growing up than any other people in her community. According to the Village Voice, "Growing up in Brooklyn, Monet witnessed first-hand the mounting tensions between the police and the Black community in New York City. She remembers the pain she felt watching the heads of young Black boys being lowered into the backs of police cars, the anger that rose up when officers would "taunt" her uncle and brother during their patrols through her neighborhood."
Monet was the youngest poet to ever hold the title Nuyorican Poets Café Grand Slam Champion at the age of 19 in 2007, and is the last woman to have won this title since.
She earned her certificate of Bachelor of Arts from Sarah Lawrence College and MFA in writing from Art Institute of Chicago.
Not far from her graduation, she published two E-books, Black Unicorn Sings (2010) and Inner-City Chants and Cyborg Ciphers (2014). She also did co-editing and arrangements of the spoken word Chorus: A Literary Mixtape (2012).
Monet was nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work – Poetry for her collection My Mother Was a Freedom Fighter. A starred review in Publishers Weekly praised Monet's "stunning and evocative language" as she "strikingly illustrates the passage from girlhood to womanhood".
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