I realized I was irrevocably attached to When the Poems Do What They Do as I snapped my fingers to a line I ordinarily would have considered irredeemably cringey.
On “For Sonia,” a track at the midpoint of the 83-minute album, Aja Monet recalls “when I first showed up to the community organizing meeting I uttered the word ‘poetry’ and their faces sunk with confusion.”
My face is illuminated with elation. Partly because the self-described “surrealist blues poet” collaborates with elite musicians on When the Poems Do What They Do, I’m invested in each of Monet’s lines.
Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah, the trumpeter formerly known as Christian Scott, bassist Luques Curtis and drummer Marcus Gilmore transform an otherwise dicey proposition into consequential art.