{"id":4957,"date":"2017-06-27T15:51:56","date_gmt":"2017-06-27T15:51:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/?p=4957"},"modified":"2017-07-31T14:33:21","modified_gmt":"2017-07-31T14:33:21","slug":"a-portrait-aja-monet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/?p=4957","title":{"rendered":"A PORTRAIT – Aja Monet"},"content":{"rendered":"

for Carrie<\/em><\/p>\n

grace is a stretch you walk
\nsitting or kneeling after a stroll,
\nan exhale at a sanctuary of sounds
\nthe string, the harp, the woodwind quartet,
\na rhythm section plays for you
\na cacophony cuddled in a chest
\narms or wings blazing a poetic field
\nof tone, the forlorn sound of a trumpet
\na constant refrain of resist
\nall daughters in movement
\nthe gods of grief
\na stream visited by wringing hands
\nat the foot of thirst, a wild mare on wounded knee
\ntending to self
\nnot knowing to accept or let go
\nsister in the pews,
\nfanning, prayers, holding space
\na skirt tail between fingers
\noverlooking, shredding,
\nwhatever frets the eye
\n 
\n 
\n\"\"A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, Aja Monet received her BA in Liberal Arts and was awarded the The Andrea Klein Willison Prize for Poetry to recognize undergraduate students whose work in poetry \u201ceffectively examines relationships among women, especially in the context of justice for everyone.\u201d She received her MFA in Creative Writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2011. Co-founder of Smoke Signals Studio, Aja Monet currently lives in Little Haiti, Miami and dedicates her time merging arts & culture in community organizing with the Dream Defenders and Community Justice Project. She spearheads an arts & activism initiative, \u201cVoices: Poetry for the People\u201d that provides free poetry workshops for grassroots leaders & organizers in South Florida. As well she continues to organize artist delegations, cultural, and political exchanges with communities at home and abroad. Aja Monet was a featured speaker at the Women\u2019s March on Washington, D.C. in 2017 where she delivered the title poem, my mother was a freedom fighter from her first book, a collection of poems available of Haymarket Books.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

for Carrie grace is a stretch you walk sitting or kneeling after a stroll, an exhale at a sanctuary of sounds the string, the harp, the woodwind quartet, a rhythm section plays for you a cacophony cuddled in a chest arms or wings blazing a poetic field of tone, the forlorn sound of a trumpet [&hellip<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[217],"class_list":["post-4957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry","tag-art-by-seema-kholi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4957","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=4957"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4957\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5031,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4957\/revisions\/5031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}