Register 61 Seats Remaining

FLORIDA WATER by aja monet – Book Release

With poet and essayist Vanessa Angélica Villarreal

Burbank Public Library proudly presents an evening with celebrated poet and activist aja monet, discussing her new collection Florida Water!

“This is aja monet at her most lucid and vulnerable, offering an intimate portrait in love, drowning in it, and kissing us each time she comes up for air. The politics of love and memory betrothed to a poet's passion to touch and be touched by perspective—and in real ways—she holds herself in her own arms, yet somehow we, all our loved ones and blessed ancestors, fit in her embrace. Here is where maturity and grace never forgets to remind us of its edge, its pain, and unanswered questions—where a moment in time finds its timelessness. Here is a poet ripening beyond her bruises, clear-eyed and lovingly, sprinkling holy water on angels and demons alike.” 
—Saul Williams

“aja monet always opens the portal. Her open-hearted, wisdom-thick voice takes us backwards into a soul movement where everything felt possible and forward into the loving future we deserve at the same time. Read her work and prepare to time travel into the possibilities of your own heart and our beloved community.”
—Alexis Pauline Gumbs

“The stewards of this land and the Africans dragged here tell us water is life. Channeling ancestral wisdom, aja monet shows us water is also love, power, reflection, blue(s), bodies. Water heals, cleanses, blesses; it gives life and can take it away. Water is older than history and yet never forgets. aja monet’s poems are water, and these poems were born at the crossroads of the world, where Turtle Island meets the Caribbean Sea. In this death-dealing world, Florida Water will quench our collective thirst for living.”
—Robin D. G. Kelley

* 

Florida Water is a collection of poems that, like the cleansing waters of spiritual baths, rinse, reflect, and reveal the raw truths that lie within.

In this vulnerable meditation, aja monet reflects on her migration to South Florida in search of love, connection, and belonging, unearthing the delicate balance between the poet, lover, and community organizer. These poems lay bare the tender dance of relationships, entwining the personal with the political, as they confront the state’s fractured history of racial prejudice, marooned peoples, and the unruly forces of nature.

In Florida Water, each poem is an artifact—an offering from her time spent wading through the rising tides of climate change, heartbreak, and systemic violence. With each line, monet immerses us deeper into the water, where the currents of memory, struggle, and survival pull us toward both despair and hope.

Copies of Florida Water will be available for purchase and signing by the author.

Upcoming events