Aja Monet: Championing Afro-Surrealism and Black Resistance Through Art
In a London cafe, Aja Monet, the Los Angeles-based surrealist blues poet, reflects on her artistic journey with a warm, deep voice. Her striking appearance, featuring blue braids in an intricate style, matches the depth of her conversation. Monet, who stayed up late finalising her new album The Color of Rain, explains how surrealism has been a deliberate tool for artists responding to fascism throughout history.
Art as a Balm for Modern Struggles
Monet's work, encompassing performance, poetry, and music, serves as a soothing remedy for the suffering inflicted by establishment powers. Her themes revolve around love, resistance, and the absurdities of contemporary life. In 2026, her second poetry book, Florida Water, earned a nomination from the NAACP, a foundational US civil rights organisation. She also performed alongside Stevie Wonder at Time magazine's Martin Luther King Day event, highlighting her growing influence.
The Color of Rain: A Psychedelic Jazz Exploration
Monet is preparing for a spring show at Carnegie Hall in New York to showcase The Color of Rain. This album, rooted in experimental jazz, plays with rhymes and rhythms to create a psychedelic quality. The lead single, Hollyweird, portrays Los Angeles post-wildfires as a surreal apocalyptic landscape, critiquing hypocrisy and pampered celebrities. Monet asserts, "African people are surreal," explaining that Black experiences often navigate absurdities like racism and sexism through a surrealist lens.
Influences from Afro-Surrealism and Historical Movements
Monet draws inspiration from Afro-surrealism, seen in works like Get Out and Atlanta, as well as figures from the Négritude movement and the Harlem Renaissance. She describes surrealism as "where insurgent consciousness takes shape," cultivated in response to colonialism's limitations. As the Barbican's artist in residence, her sold-out London jazz festival show blended disciplines, making jazz and poetry accessible and transformative for audiences.
Poetry as Spiritual Warfare and Cultural Critique
Monet criticises how poetry is often taught as elitist in academia, calling it a form of "spiritual warfare." She believes culture should foster self-determination and new ideologies, but instead, institutions and algorithms control it, producing manipulable individuals. Citing hip-hop as an example, she laments how great art forms have become mere entertainment under capitalism, focused on engagement and consumption rather than empowerment.
Personal Identity and Activism
Born to parents with Jamaican, Cuban, and Puerto Rican roots, Monet identifies strongly as Black, noting that systemic issues target Blackness, not specific ethnicities. Her early life involved grappling with family struggles and finding community in church, where poetry became a "place of testimony and ministry." She later turned to poetry cafes, where discussions on rape, assault, and gender justice were more open than in mainstream culture.
Global Perspectives and Advocacy Work
Monet's work addresses race, colonialism, and inequality globally, including in Sudan, the DRC, and Palestine. Her teenage friendship with Palestinian poet Tahani Salah ignited a passion for liberation movements. Beyond her art, Monet works full-time with V-Day, an organisation ending violence against women and girls. As artistic creative director, she created an audio play for US prisons, finding spiritual and material support in this role amid the challenges of being a touring artist.
Love as a Core Value in Adversity
Amid life's pressures, Monet emphasises love as essential for resisting adversity. She shares the story of her best friend and manager, Daphne, whose support during legal and personal crises strengthened their bond. Their shared experiences with family health issues and critiques of the pharmaceutical industry turned personal pain into political action, fostering a deep, collaborative friendship.
Poetry has provided Monet with structure, freedom, and family, shaping her worldview and relationships. She aims to "be the poem you've been trying to write your whole life," a philosophy embodied in The Color of Rain, released on 22 May.
