Recently, our Middle and Upper School students had the incredible opportunity to hear from special guest aja monet! A Grammy Award-nominated, self-described surrealist blues poet and word musician, monet was one of this year’s Clark Fund Artists in Residence in a collaborative program hosted by the art, English, and music departments as well as Student Voices. She kicked off the assembly by performing a few of her poems followed by a Q&A facilitated by Upper School ASB Art Head Abby H. '25. There, monet spoke of art as a craft. “Artists need to keep doing the work because it is a craft,” she said. “Practice your craft—so when inspiration comes, you can let it flow through you.” 

After the assembly, interested Middle and Upper School students as well as faculty and staff gathered in Braun for a lyric and poetry writing workshop, where the students and monet discussed the art of writing original lyrics—including where to draw inspiration from and how to form the lyrics. Of her own inspiration, monet encouraged students: "Never stop learning—never stop being a student." In an exercise meant to remove their inner editor and get their thoughts out, students were asked to close their eyes and write about a something or a day in their lives that didn’t go well. After the exercise, students looked at what they wrote (written messily across the page, overlapping words, sometimes indecipherable), participating in an almost-meditative, freeing experience as the format allowed them to examine their memory anew and with grace. 

“You are the magician, the architect, the author of your story,” said monet. “You get to own it.”  

"I reached out to aja after seeing her Tiny Desk concert then going down a rabbit hole online of her performances," said Upper School Art Teacher Lorri Deyer. "She spoke of love and connection and was funny and clever. And the way she painted words—wow." She then approached the other departments about the visit to really make the visit interdisciplinary, "just like [aja] is" per Deyer.  

More on aja monet: monet, a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, released her debut album “when the poems do what they do” in 2023—which was then nominated for a 2024 Grammy Award in the Best Spoken Word Poetry Album category. In addition, monet is the recipient of several prestigious awards, including the EBONY Power 100 Artist in Residence Award, the Tribeca Film Festival’s Harry Belafonte Social Justice Award, and the Nelson Mandela Changemaker Award. She also serves as the artistic creative director for V-Day, a global movement to end violence against girls and women. Her latest collection of poems—“Florida Water”—will release June 3; read more about the collection launch here.