Aja Monet's Poem Perfectly Captures Why #SayHerName Is So Necessary

"There is no mountaintop worth seeing without us."



Aja Monet created the poem in conjunction with #SayHerName, a movement focused on remembering Black women and girls killed at the hands of police violence. Monet's delivery is powerful and moving. It's when she starts to list names of women and girls like Rekia Boyd, Aiyana Jones, Kayla Moore, Miriam Carey, and Tarika Wilson that her voice begins to falter. Monet wrote and delivered the poem for a vigil before performing it again at Huffington Post.



#SayHerName demonstrations were held in cities across the nation including Chicago, Columbus, New York, Miami, Ann Arbor, New Orleans, Oakland, Los Angeles, Lexington, Louisville, and Charlotte.

Joneka Percentie is a rising junior studying Mass Media Communications, Africana Studies, and Women’s and Gender Studies at UNC Charlotte. When she’s not working with SPARK Movement, or tweeting @jpercentie, she enjoys singing, dancing, and sleeping. Email her at joneka.percentie@forharriet.com

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