i am celebrating a woman i love...
a poem for Sonia Sanchez on this first day of April.
sometimes comparison is not the thief of joy. comparison can season the skillet of your process and open the air in a room. it informs the context of our conversations and yet is often used to imprison, to stifle, or to diminish. but when done in good faith with care and compassion, comparison can guide us toward the soft flame of our own voice. sonia sanchez was the first poet i was ever compared to. i was 15 and attending a youth poetry workshop by Urban Word NYC at Teacher’s & Writers loft on Union Square. i didn’t know about the black arts movement then or our poets organizing as a movement. all i knew is i wanted to be a forever poet. i ate, slept, and drank poetry. my very breath. i emerged myself in the study of poets and all their poems. i was a junkie for poetry. i would hover around the poetry venues of the lower east side afterschool for hours. passing the time with no money. pacing away hunger with my imagination. circling the blocks of open mics with poems on the frontlines of my tongue. i was still searching out my voice. i gravitated toward resonance. whatever felt sincere and confronting. i was a lost loveless girl seeking community in poems. i was desperate even. for conviction and the home of a language that loved me back. at times i mocked what i heard and wore the very scars of abuse on the sleeves of every stage. sometimes i embarrassed myself with vulnerability. more naked than i was prepared for. i am grateful for the wisening ways of time, of choosing to heal, and to poem. i learned to embody the very poem i wanted to write. to be the poem.
today is the first day of poetry month. sweet spring of April. as the flowers are summoned and the trees sing, the breeze remembers, and we are grateful. nature’s creatures buzz about us. though we face the treacherous lack of political imagination at the hands of current leaderless-ship—we carry on with one another. we chart a path forward and listen for what resonates. i am taking each day at a time. grateful for the not so small things that colors our days. in honor of the day to day living of poetry i choose to acknowledge the role Sonia Sanchez has played in all our lives while she is still living. to commemorate, to document, and to give thanks. to bare withness and be encouraged by our shared many approaches to feeling through this country. i struggle with the necessity of our poems at times and then i read Sonia and im reminded. i want to share with you all the visual for the live performance of a poem called, “for Sonia.” we filmed a whole set last fall in Paris and because of the length of this poem it never aired on the French television program. it feels meaningful to share with you all here because it’s the most honest performance i have filmed of this poem and well, when i watch it, i feel stronger than i am most days. this is a shared secret between us. the intimacy of our influences as part of a continuum. im here to do this poetry thing for the rest of my life and im grateful for each and every poet that has paved the way for us. though we may not know what lay ahead we must know who we’ve been and who we are so that we may be. thank you for your listening heart.
for the poems that continue to hold us through trying times. we give eternal thanks.
always,
aja
“For Sonia” is a poem featured on the debut Grammy Nominated album “when the poems do what they do” available on vinyl & ALL STREAMING PLATFORMS
The poem also appears published in my forthcoming poetry collection, “Florida Water” available June 3, 2025.
For more info:
www.ajamonet.com
https://ajamonet.komi.io/
𝗕𝗹𝘂𝗲 𝗨𝗽 is a series of musical performances around alternative jazz filmed by in a unique space design.
→ @ajamonet’s full performance is up on youtube at 𝗯𝗶𝘁.𝗹𝘆/𝗯𝗹𝘂𝗲𝘂𝗽-𝗮𝗷𝗮𝗺𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘁
powered by @walterfilms, airing on @francetvculture
directed by @antoine___carlier and hosted by @nathaliepiole
shot at @theatredelaciteinternationale on November 4th, 2024
photo captured by @ladarkroom
We are going to be in Europe for a few dates in April with a band. Please join me!
April 4th Antwerp, BE - Blue Print Hip Hop Festival @desingelartscentre
April 5 Cully, CH - Cully Jazz Festival @cullyjazz
April 6 Bern, CH - Bee-Flat @beeflatbern
April 9 Basel, CH - Kaserne Basel @kasernebasel
this was so powerful. Thank you thank you thank you, the raw power of a poet who is in fact a healer and a warrior and who knows it in its fullness. thank you for inspiring me and for teaching me.
“For Sonia” is a personal favourite of mine, I still go back to listen occasionally.