When The Poems Do What They Do

Aja Monet's poems are a work of gravity. They are a fundamental for which all things are attracted, considered upon and enacted towards. Her work moves, constantly, between origin and outcome, allowing them to exist in converse.

In her debut album when the poems do what they do, we glimpse her indefatigable commitment to speak. Those thematic origins of this album at times center around Black resistance, love and the inexhaustible quest for joy. In when the poems do what they do Aja Monet appears as a woman of letters and storm, her poems do not roar in pentameter - but rather in storm surge because, "Who's got time for poems when the world is on fire?!." And this work isn't one to pull apart into one liners, these are poems of things felt. There is a fullness here that can't be encapsulated in even the boundaries that language offers. Aja Monet is a griot, a storyteller, a chronicler, and your grandmother telling you about her first love all at once. These are baby making poems - literally the spring enacting upon the cherry trees. These are poems of urgency and want and the rallying cry to demolish the insidious systems from which our futures seem to be wrought, in other words,"If we had a sense of humor we'd be more radical. More migrant than citizen we'd breathe the air clean and ration our resources... we would melt ALL the guns." You will find yourself readying arms because of these poems, and simultaneously mourning the unstoppable loss of names already destined to be immortalized. Aja Monet crafts a work as she always does, that can be entered from many doors. These aren't poems for poets, but poems for everyone.

- Disc 1 -

1. I Am
2. Why My Love?
3. Black Joy
4. Unhurt
5. Weathering
6. The Perfect Storm
7. The Devil You Know

1. What Makes You Feel Loved?
2. For Sonia
3. Yemaya
4. Castaway
5. Give Thanks
6. For the Kids Who Live

Executive Produced by: aja monet
Produced by: aja monet and Chief Adjuah
Assistant Production: Def Sound
Recording Engineer: Dave Weingarten
Mixing Engineer: Dave Weingarten
Assistant Engineer: Brodie Means
Mastering Engineer: Paul Blakemore
Recording Studio / Location: Westlake Recording Studio (Los Angeles)
Written by: aja monet, Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah, Weedie Braimah, Luques Curtis, Marcus Gilmore, Elena Pinderhughes, Samora Pinderhughes
Cover photography: delphine diallo
Vinyl design: Rob Lewis
Record Label: drink sum wtr

Instrumentalists:
Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah - Chief Adjuah’s Bow, Adjuah Trumpet
Weedie Braimah - Percussion
Luques Curtis - Bass
Marcus Gilmore - Drums
Elena Pinderhughes - Flute
Samora Pinderhughes - Piano