{"id":2395,"date":"2014-07-05T15:14:24","date_gmt":"2014-07-05T15:14:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/?p=2395"},"modified":"2014-07-03T22:11:15","modified_gmt":"2014-07-03T22:11:15","slug":"the-pentecostal-trance-aja-monet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/?p=2395","title":{"rendered":"The Pentecostal Trance – Aja Monet"},"content":{"rendered":"

All the waving arms belonged
\nto women distraught with
\nlow-income dreams and men
\nwith ashy knees bent
\nbefore the only God
\nknown to worry himself
\nwith the prayers of a little
\nblueberry-curled brown girl
\nsitting in the pews
\nas if a St. Catherine\u2019s park bench
\nas if a John Jay park swing
\nas if an Orchard beach dock<\/p>\n

shoeless feet swaying beneath her,
\nwatching the Holy Spirit
\nsinge her mother\u2019s body
\ninto a smoldering Phoenix<\/p>\n

there were mangled tongues
\ninside the dusted house
\nworshipping about us
\nin the voice of hurling rain<\/p>\n

the piano plays for wailing
\ndancers with flames screaming
\nfrom their mouths,
\na musical stream of tears<\/p>\n

eyes
\nextinguish
\nthe tongue<\/p>\n

if this is how we speak
\na language, only a God
\ncan understand–
\nshift us into fire,
\nmake us dance
\nuntil we hail.<\/p>\n

\n

Slow Season in Titusville<\/strong><\/p>\n

Early this morning,
\njust after homemade coffee
\nyou drove me to Playalinda beach
\nwith your right hand on my left knee
\nand the other, limp wristed on the steering wheel
\non our way from the bridge
\nbetween the highway and the hammock trail,
\nhalf my body soaring out the sunroof
\nwith my arms spread wide, pelican-like,
\nopen palms toward the blue topaz sky,
\nsquinting at the grinning sun
\nthe wind lashing against my breasts,
\nhissing across my shoulders
\ncheeks crumbling into tugs and tears of dimples
\nand the road stretched endless for our tires
\na rolled out carpet of tar for our love
\nand the night before is but a blur
\nyou pulling your face away
\ntowards the edge of the bed
\nus bickering into each other
\nand we play like an ol\u2019 Josh White tune
\ncoating Mr. Pirtle\u2019s antique garage
\nwarm, static, and full of bass
\nlike someone speaking close to you
\nin a summertime pitch
\nof piedmont blues.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n

\"nn,\u201cThe true definition of an artist\u201d is how the iconic Harry Belafonte describes Aja Monet who\u00a0\u00a0is a poet, performer, and educator from East NY, Brooklyn. She is best known as the youngest individual to win the legendary Nuyorican Poet\u2019s Caf\u00e9 Grand Slam title. \u00a0An internationally established poet, she is recognized for combining her spellbound voice and powerful imagery on stage, captivating audiences across the United States, France, the UK, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Bermuda, and Cuba.<\/p>\n

She has showcased at world-renowned venues including On Broadway at the Town Hall Theater, Apollo Theater, Paradiso in Amsterdam, and countless others. Aja Monet was invited by the UN Youth Delegates to perform for ambassadors, national politicians, diplomats, and directors of various agencies at the United Nations in New York City. As well, she was invited to perform for NAACP\u2019s Barack Obama Inaugural event in Washington DC.<\/p>\n

Aja Monet\u2019s work has philosophical impact on perspective and critical thinking as she seeks to pose questions about the power of the imagination and metaphor in developing transformative visions\u00a0on internal worlds and how we engage with global issues. Largely influencing the spoken word community, Aja Monet uses poetry to empower and encourage holistic healing in youth education. She works with inner-city youth as a Teaching Artist for Urban Word NYC as well as Urban Arts Partnership in NYC where she encourages her students to delve into creative outlets to harness meaning in the world and to transform it by transforming selves.\u00a0She was invited by Cook County Commissioners of Illinois to perform for elected officials and visited numerous youth institutions, developing voices as an alternative to violence using poetry as a transformative force.<\/p>\n

Influenced by all areas of the Arts, Aja Monet has worked closely with visual artists as well and was invited by contemporary artist Hank Willis Thomas and scholar Deborah Willis to speak at Musee du Quai Branly for NYU\u2019s Black Portraitures Conference in Paris, France where she addressed international scholars, artists, and performers on the role of the poet in contemporary society.<\/p>\n

A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College (2009), Aja Monet received her BA in Liberal Arts and was awarded the The Andrea Klein Willison Prize for Poetry which was established to recognize undergraduate students whose work in poetry \u201ceffectively examines relationships among women, especially in the context of justice for everyone.\u201d She then went on to receive an MFA in Creative Writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2011). Her Graduate thesis was also her first compilation of music and poetry. Entitled Scared to Make Love\/Scared Not To, it is a testament to her creative lens and a social commentary on the discussion of love.<\/p>\n

Aja Monet independently published her first book of poetry, The Black Unicorn Sings (2010). In 2012, she collaborated with poet\/musician Saul Williams on a book entitled, Chorus: A Literary Mixtape (MTV Books\/Simon & Schuster). She is currently working on new music and a ebook of poems to be released online June 1st, 2014 entitled, \u201cInner-City Chants & Cyborg Cyphers.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All the waving arms belonged to women distraught with low-income dreams and men with ashy knees bent before the only God known to worry himself with the prayers of a little blueberry-curled brown girl sitting in the pews as if a St. Catherine\u2019s park bench as if a John Jay park swing as if an [&hellip<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1991,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2395"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2395\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2401,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2395\/revisions\/2401"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}