JJJJJerome Ellis: Aster of Ceremonies

Live music and book launch in partnership with Milkweed Editions
Sat, Oct 7, 7 pm
Open Book Performance Hall

Pre-order Aster of Ceremonies here.

“A lyrical celebration of and inquiry into the intersections of blackness, music, and disabled speech.” —Claudia Rankine

Liquid Music joins forces with Milkweed Editions to present a multidisciplinary book launch event celebrating JJJJJerome Ellis’s forthcoming Aster of Ceremonies—a work exploring what rites we need now and how poetry, astir in the asters, can help them along.

What is the relationship between fleeing and feeling? How can the voices of those who came before—and the stutters that leaven those voices—carry into our present moment, mingling with our own? Through the grateful invocations of ancestors and their songs, Ellis rewrites history, creating a world that blooms backward, reimagining what it means for Black and disabled people to have taken, and to continue to take, their freedom.

The evening will feature live music and readings from Ellis, followed by a conversation facilitated by neurodivergent poet Chris Martin—curator of Milkweed Edition’s Multiverse, a literary series devoted to different ways of languaging.

Attendees will have first access to purchase Aster of Ceremonies ahead of its publication in October. JJJerome will be available to sign books after the event at a post-reception social hour with refreshments.

Tickets are free with a suggested donation of $10. All proceeds will go towards supporting the artist's visit to Minneapolis.

Access Information:

There are two designated accessible parking spots for those with disabilities at the rear of the building near the backdoor entrance and one in the side parking lot closer to the front door.
The doors at the front and the back of the building have push-button access to open.
An elevator in the building takes visitors to all levels of the space.
There are accessible nongendered restrooms on each floor of the building.
A quiet room is available for visitors; inquire at the desk in the lobby to gain access to this space if you need it for medical purposes or for prayer.
JJJJJerome will verbally describe his movements throughout the performance.
Audience members are encouraged to arrive scent-free.
Audience members are encouraged, but not required, to wear masks. Masks will also be available at the venue.

For questions and concerns about access, please contact Morgan LaRocca, morgan_larocca@milkweed.org.

JJJJJerome Ellis is the author of Aster of Ceremonies. He is an animal, proud stutterer, and artist. JJJJJerome was born in 1989 to Jamaican and Grenadian immigrants, and lives in Tidewater, Virginia with his wife, ecologist-poet Luísa Black Ellis. He is also the author and composer of The Clearing, an audio-textual project that investigates how stuttering, blackness, and music can be practices of refusal against hegemonic governance of time, speech, and encounter. JJJJJerome dreams of building a sonic bath house!

Chris Martin is a tilted listening animal languaging. He teaches and learns at Unrestricted Interest and is the curator of Multiverse, a series of neurodivergent writing from Milkweed Editions. His most recent book of poems is Things to Do in Hell (Coffee House, 2020) and his first book of nonfiction is May Tomorrow Be Awake: On Poetry, Autism, and Our Neurodiverse Future (HarperOne, 2022). He lives on the edge of Bde Maka Ska in Minneapolis, among the mulberries and bur oaks, with Mary Austin Speaker and their two bewildering creatures.

Milkweed Editions is an independent publisher of literary fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Our mission is to identify, nurture, and publish transformative literature, and build an engaged community around it.

Liquid Music is one of the world’s leading producers of special projects in contemporary music, an internationally recognized laboratory for artists from across genre and disciplinary spectrums. This creative institution serves as a safe place for performers, composers and audiences to stretch and challenge their comfort zones while experiencing cathartic, lifegiving performances.