Haymarket Books
Inspired by the cleansing water often used in spiritual baths, Florida Water is an ode to the myriad ways a poem can rinse, reflect, reveal, and unravel us.
Inspired by the cleansing water often used in spiritual baths, Florida Water is an ode to the myriad ways a poem can rinse, reflect, reveal, and unravel us.
An honest meditation on migrating to South Florida for love, connection, and community, these poems lay bare the challenging dance between the role of the artist, lover, and organiser. aja monet confronts the interpersonal truths of community organising while also uncovering the state's fraught history with racial prejudice, maroon communities, and natural disasters. This intimate collection of lyrical poems are the artifacts of her search for belonging and healing as she wades through the rising tides of climate change, heartbreak, and systemic violence.
“This is aja monet at her most lucid and vulnerable, offering an intimate portrait in love, drowning in it, and kissing us each time she comes up for air. The politics of love and memory betrothed to a poet's passion to touch and be touched by perspective—and in real ways—she holds herself in her own arms, yet somehow we, all our loved ones and blessed ancestors, fit in her embrace. Here is where maturity and grace never forgets to remind us of its edge, its pain, and unanswered questions—where a moment in time finds its timelessness. Here is a poet ripening beyond her bruises, clear-eyed and lovingly, sprinkling holy water on angels and demons alike.”
—Saul Williams
“aja monet always opens the portal. Her open-hearted, wisdom-thick voice takes us backwards into a soul movement where everything felt possible and forward into the loving future we deserve at the same time. Read her work and prepare to time travel into the possibilities of your own heart and our beloved community.”
—Alexis Pauline Gumbs
“The stewards of this land and the Africans dragged here tell us water is life. Channeling ancestral wisdom, aja monet shows us water is also love, power, reflection, blue(s), bodies. Water heals, cleanses, blesses; it gives life and can take it away. Water is older than history and yet never forgets. aja monet’s poems are water, and these poems were born at the crossroads of the world, where Turtle Island meets the Caribbean Sea. In this death-dealing world, Florida Water will quench our collective thirst for living.”
—Robin D. G. Kelley
“aja monet is a poet’s poet. She uses the language like a painter. Her pen is a brush creating pastel colors of remembrance and how the world is now. There is pain, hope, and love in her work. You can almost taste and truly feel it. She is true to the very idea of what poetry does. She speaks to the mind and soul of the reader. She breaks down the simple truths of the flaws of America and the bitter taste it leaves in your mouth. She believes in community and the tenderness of being loved. Her poetry demands that you think and be honest with yourself. She is a revolutionary with an arsenal of things to do to bring about change. Her love and grief for humanity is paramount. Her hopes and dreams are for a better world. Her childhood innocence makes her guilty of fighting for justice.”
—Abiodun Oyewole
aja monet is a surrealist blues poet, storyteller, and organiser born and raised in Brooklyn, NY. She won the legendary Nuyorican Poets Cafe Grand Slam poetry award title in 2007 and aja monet follows in the long legacy and tradition of poets participating and assembling in social movements. Her first full collection of poems is titled My Mother Was a Freedom Fighter, from Haymarket Books. Her poems explore gender, race, migration, and spirituality. In 2018, she was nominated for a NAACP Literary Award for Poetry and in 2019 was awarded the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Award for Poetry for her cultural organizing work in South Florida. aja monet co-founded a political home for artists and organisers called Smoke Signals Studio. She facilitates 'Voices: Poetry for the People', a workshop and collective in collaboration with Community Justice Project and Dream Defenders. aja Monet also serves as the new Artistic Creative Director for V-Day, a global movement to end violence against all women and girls.
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