Aja Monet

Aja Monet Bacquie (born August 21, 1987) is an American contemporary poet, writer, lyricist and activist.

Aja Monet
Monet in 2017
BornAja Monet Bacquie
(1987-08-21) August 21, 1987
Brooklyn, New York, United States
OccupationPoet, writer, lyricist, activist
Website
www.ajamonet.com

Biography

Aja Monet is of Cuban-Jamaican descent from Brooklyn, New York. She is known to be the youngest poet to have ever become the Nuyorican Poets Café Grand Slam Champion at the age of 19 in 2007 and is the last woman to have won this title since.[1][2][3] Monet is also known for her activist work, and has been an active participant of the SayHerName campaign, which has highlighted police brutality against black women.[4] She is a contributor to the 2019 anthology New Daughters of Africa (edited by Margaret Busby), with poems "about love and intimacy as a primary aspect of freedom fighting".[5]

Monet was nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work – Poetry for her collection My Mother Was a Freedom Fighter.[6] A starred review in Publishers Weekly praised Monet’s “stunning and evocative language” as she “strikingly illustrates the passage from girlhood to womanhood”.[7]

Bibliography

Poetry
  • My Mother Was a Freedom Fighter (2017)
  • The Black Unicorn Sings
  • Chorus
  • Say Her Name

References
  1. "Verbs On Asphalt – 2007 Nuyorican Grand Slam Champion". Nuyorican Poets Café. Archived from the original on February 19, 2014. Retrieved February 2, 2014.
  2. "Verbs on Asphalt – The History of Nuyorican Poetry Slam". Archived from the original on February 19, 2014. Retrieved February 2, 2014.
  3. Zhou, Kathy (January 16, 2014). "MLK celebrated with open stage for spoken word". The Chronicle. Duke University. Archived from the original on February 20, 2014. Retrieved February 2, 2014.
  4. Crum, Maddie (July 7, 2016). "Poet Aja Monet Confronts Police Brutality In Stunning Spoken Word Performance". The Huffington Post. Retrieved March 20, 2017.
  5. Perry, Imani (March 29, 2019). "New Daughters of Africa — a new anthology of a groundbreaking book". Financial Times. Retrieved October 25, 2020.
  6. Segura, Olga M. (May 8, 2018). "The Love and Fearlessness of 'My Mother Was a Freedom Fighter'". Shondaland. Retrieved March 3, 2021.
  7. "My Mother Was a Freedom Fighter". Publishers Weekly. May 15, 2017. Retrieved March 3, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)


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