aja monet
when the poems do what they do
Using jazz, poetry and elements of hip-hop, this American artist speaks about love, joy and resistance. Discover her at the new El Molino.
She has been writing poetry since the age of eight and she always knew she would be a wordsmith. In fact, she continues to publish poetry collections regularly, such as Florida Water, which is set to be released in June 2025. However, music ended up crossing her path as a poet and activist. In 2019, she collaborated on Eryn Allen Kane’s album a tree planted by water, and in 2021, she joined the Smoke Signals Collective on The Free Tape, a collaborative creation of poets and multi-instrumentalists. In 2023, she released her début album when the poems do what they do, which she is now bringing to Barcelona. Nominated for a Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album in 2024, it is an album of poems filled with urgency and desire, committed verses calling for the overthrow of the insidious systems that seem to determine our future. And yet her poetry is open, generous and accessible to anyone who breathes feelings, encourages rebellion and heralds hope. You will hear her in a concert organised at El Molino, the result of a three-way collaboration between this musical venue, the Cruiïlla festival and the 2025 Barcelona Grec Festival.
Raised in New York and now living in Los Angeles, aja monet has received the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Poetry Award (2019), the Nelson Mandela Changemaker Award (2024), the Harry Belafonte Voices for Social Justice Award (2024) and the EBONY 100 Artist in Residence Award, among others. In 2022, she created Voices, an audio work that amplifies the stories of Black women from the diaspora and the African continent.
A collaboration between El Molino, the Cruiïlla Festival and the 2025 Barcelona Grec Festival.
Discipline
- Music
Dates and times
Space
Language
- Anglès
Prices
Other criteria
- Essentials
- Summer nights
- International
Artistic sheet
Music performed by: aja monet, Christian Scott (trumpet), Samora Pinderhughes (piano), Elena Pinderhughes (flute), Luques Curtis (bass), Weedie Braimah (djembe) Marcus Gilmore (percussion)
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