Agia Monet

Surrealist blues poet Aja Monet took her first steps in poetry clubs and bars on New York's Lower East Side, where — on the stages of the burgeoning, grassroots poetry movement — she honed her voice and craft. The artist follows the long tradition and legacy of poets who organized themselves in social movements for change. Thanks to this, she was able to collaborate with renowned artists, scientists and activists, alongside whom she changes and shapes culture.

Aja Monet is the youngest recipient of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe Grand Slam. Her poetry books “My Mother Was a Freedom Fighter” (2017) and “Florida Water” (2025) earned NAACP Image Award nominations, and her debut album “When the Poems Do What They Do” was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Poetry Album in 2024. She has performed at festivals, concert halls and theatres around the world, to name only the Guggenheim Museum and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York, the Barbican Centre in London, the Newport Jazz Festival, the Montreal International Jazz Festival and the North Sea Jazz Festival. The artist also serves as artistic director of the V-Day project, a global movement working to combat violence against women and girls. In 2022, she created the radio station “VOICES”, the aim of which was to build solidarity and deepen human ties.

Aja Monet is coming to Katowice with her latest, moving material from her second album “the color of rain” (2026). On the album, the artist builds vast, picturesque landscapes, carefully choosing words, using unconventional metaphors, at the same time creating a clear and accurate message. The songs correspond to each other and merge into a coherent whole. Aja Monet recites, sings, hums and coos, and everything is enveloped by music that oscillates between calm and chaos, moving smoothly between different styles and genres — all grips become allowed; unusual noises appear like the clatter of a typewriter, and the sound of a typewriter. The noise intensifies to suddenly shut up.

Katowice's Rialto Cinema will feature: aja monet (vocals), Dominique Sanders (double bass and bass guitar), Brian Hargorve (keyboards) and Brian Collier (drums).

More details at: arscameralisfestiwal.pl

Fig. Daniel N. Johnson