ICA LIVE: aja monet

“Who’s got time for poems when the world’s on fire?”

Surrealist blues poet and community organizer aja monet brings her “Why My Love” tour to the ICA, performing selections from her debut album when the poems do what they do, which was recorded with a roster of esteemed musicians, including Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah, Samora Pinderhughes, and Lonnie Holley. Centered around themes of Black resistance and joy, her performances channel the legacy of jazz and blues greats and the revolutionary spirit of poets such as Audre Lorde, June Jordan, and Sonia Sanchez.

For her ICA appearance, aja will be joined by pianist Javier Santiago and local Richmond musicians The Charles Owens Trio. Following the performance, aja will be joined for a conversation and Q&A with Valerie Cassel Oliver, the Sydney and Frances Lewis Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

ICA Live is guest curated by David Riley.

About The Artist:

aja was the youngest poet to ever win the title of Grand Slam Champion at the Nuyorican Poets Café, and went on to co-edit Chorus: A Literary Mixtape alongside poet-actor-director Saul Williams, found the Smoke Signals music collective in Miami, and publish her first full length book of poetry, My Mother was A Freedom Fighter with Haymarket Books.

View aja’s instagram here