Aja Monet: Live From KCRW HQ

From the creator

When Aja Monet arrived in the Annenberg Performance Studio, a hush fell over the audience. They leaned in, and Monet took her place – performing not behind a micstand, but behind a podium. Flowers burst from every surface of the instruments. Giant tapestries provided a feel both regal and contemporary. Monet’s work is far from the stuffy image “poet” elicits in your head. Even without the band accompanying her, her work has a lilt and lyrical nature that lends to music. On pieces like “For The Congo,” she grounds her writing in the highly contemporary. Monet has been at KCRW before, arriving for a Guest DJ set around her 2024 release when the poems do what they do. “When reading poetry on the page, the writer’s voice is more of an imagined vision,” says KCRW DJ Tyler Boudreaux. “But when you combine the art of spoken word and jazz, it elevates poetry to a new and purely Black art form.” Aja Monet performs, in order: 00:00 I Know That I Don’t Know 03:18 Withness 07:05 Song of Myself 12:01 Hollyweird 17:37 Skinfolk (short intro) 19:10 For The Congo 22:55 Weathering/Love is a Choosing 28:19 Working Class 36:15 For Sister 41:24 Every Media Minute 49:28 Elsewhere Credits: Artist: Aja Monet - Vocals Brian Hargrove - Keys Brian Collier - Drums Micah Collier - Bass KCRW: Audio Dept. Katie Gilchrest — Lead Audio Engineer & Mix Engineer Nick Lampone — Audio Engineer (A2) Hope Brush — Audio Engineer (A3) Video Dept. Beau Delmore — Director, Editor & Camera Operator Luis Peña — D

Published 2026-08-12 · Watch on YouTube ↗
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