Aja Monet Analysis

Aja Monet is a writer and performance poet. Monet is of Cuban American descent and focuses on activism through her poetry. Monet is an advocate of the Say Her Name Campaign, a project devoted to eliminating police brutality, and she also works on community organizing with The Community Justice Project and The Dream Defenders. Monet's VICE interview titled Aja Monet is not OK with your Apathy is revealing and compelling. In it she shares her early love of writing and poetry. She says “I started when I was in high school. I was in love with Langston Hughes. Then I learned about Maya Angelou, and some of the [other] ones you learn in school”. Monet later describes the beginnings of her own work saying; “then I had written a poem for a poetry class, and it really compelled the teacher and they encouraged me to continue writing”. Monet also discusses that her passion for producing and reading poetry turned into a deeply political and activist based process. In this interview she also discusses her role in the women's march where she recited poetry. Monet said “I was inspired by poets that never saw their work as separate from activism and organizing.” Monet has many pieces of poetry involving activism and politics. One piece that focuses on policing culture is …show more content…
In her rhythmic reciting of this poem she conveys a powerful message about her first interaction with police. Told from her own point of view as a child, she describes the traumatic event of encountering the police while with her older brother. In this eloquent phrase; “like moonlight and stars on humid nights those days he lead and I followed” Monet describes her relationship with her brother. The imagery about her brother is broken by the brutality inflicted by police and society saying “I was fighting them we were always fighting them all those people out their fighting us doing everything to remind us of our