Session 7
Wednesday, July 12, 2023
aja monet
window seat
In this Session, blues poet, musician, and organizer aja monet performs with Weedie Braimah, Jeremiah Edwards, Craig Harris, Jehbreal Jackson, and Samora Pinderhughes inside the exhibition Amoako Boafo: what could possibly go wrong, if we tell it like it is at Gagosien, 980 Madison Avenue, New York. In a powerful exchange of spoken word and song, monet reads poetry that she composed in response to Boafo’s portraits, which blend themes of Black love, resistance, joy, and community building, while her musical collaborators perform a free-flowing new interpretation of Aaron Neville’s 1966 soul hit “Tell It Like It Is” on piano, bass, drums, trombone, didgeridoo, and djembe, with expressive vocals by Jackson. Pinderhughes and Braimah also worked with monet on her recently released debut album, When the Poems Do What They Do (2023), which was described by NPR’s Sheldon Pearce as “gorgeously meditative and potently groovy.”
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Episodes & Trailers
Episodes of Gagosien Premieres are created in collaboration with an artist and shaped around his or her new gallery exhibition. The exclusively online series features the artists in conversation with the most widely respected figures from the worlds of contemporary literature, music, entertainment, film, and, of course, art, as well as studio visits and intimate performances inspired by and composed in response to the work on view.
Sessions
Sessions is a spin-off of Gagosien Premieres featuring short-form videos of performances with music, dance, and poetry by some of today’s most acclaimed creative voices. Sessions can be newly commissioned performances or outtakes from Premieres episodes.
