Aja Monet, Fay Victor's Herbie Nichols Sung, Sophye Soliveau at Winter JazzFest at Le Poisson Rouge

aja monet is a Grammy-nominated Surrealist Blues Poet. She follows in the long legacy of poets assembling in social movements. Her poems are a work of gravity. At any given time you’ll hear the revolutionary spirit of Audre Lorde and the Last Poets, the feel of June Jordan, Amiri Baraka, Jayne Cortez and even the expressive ephemerality of a passing blue note. Organizing and activism manifest as part of her process toward liberation, with the poems, the music, and the art serving as a scribe of the time. Her first full collection of poems entitled, my mother was a freedom fighter is a testament to all mothers, women, and girls who struggle to live, love, and move freely in the world...

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aja monet is a Grammy-nominated Surrealist Blues Poet. She follows in the long legacy of poets assembling in social movements. Her poems are a work of gravity. At any given time you’ll hear the revolutionary spirit of Audre Lorde and the Last Poets, the feel of June Jordan, Amiri Baraka, Jayne Cortez and even the expressive ephemerality of a passing blue note. Organizing and activism manifest as part of her process toward liberation, with the poems, the music, and the art serving as a scribe of the time. Her first full collection of poems entitled, my mother was a freedom fighter is a testament to all mothers, women, and girls who struggle to live, love, and move freely in the world. Her debut poetry album, when the poems do what they do was nominated for a Grammy for Best Spoken Word Poetry Album. She explores migration, spirituality, and femininity while centering Black resistance, love and the inexhaustible quest for joy. The songs throughout are insistent and unrelenting, with some reminiscent of jazz club virtuosity and melee while others act as a healing balm in gilead, moving like that of the call to intercessory prayer. Tonight aja monet performs with Mariah Davenport, Malcolm Javier Santiago, Justin Brown, Logan Richardson, and Benjamin Williams.Singer-soundartist-lyricist-bandleader Fay Victor performs Herbie Nichols SUNG — a loving celebration of jazz composer Herbie Nichols' rich legacy & powerful work. Victor's innovative arrangements are brought to vibrant life by a gifted quintet of veteran jazz artists Michaël Attias, Anthony Coleman, Ratzo Harris, and Tom Rainey. Sophye Soliveau is a singer, harpist, and choir conductor with a deep-rooted passion for African-American music, spanning R&B, soul, and gospel. Her classical training shapes a unique sound where creative improvisation meets a pursuit of healing and freedom.

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