"I speak with a stutter, I am Black, and I am a musician." With this, composer, poet, and performer JJJJJerome Ellis lays out three intersecting facets of his own identity in the song "Jede Krankheit ist ein musikalisches Problem”. On his 2021 album The Clearing, Ellis defines his own block stutter as an artistic principle; demonstrating that such a stutter should not be considered an illness, but rather an aesthetic and political space of possibility in which normative notions of language and speech can be questioned. JJJJJerome Ellis's compositions, performed on stage with a saxophon, piano and hammered dulcimer, oscillate between the genres hip-hop, house, ambient, and jazz and, despite their theoretical underpinnings, remain captivating and immediately accessible, tied together by the presence of his voice. Ellis poetic yet political art demonstrates a way to exist outside of an institutionalized understanding of linearity and will take center stage at Pfauen – adding a facet to this historical location as a place of the spoken art.
After the concert there will be an informal talk with JJJJerome Ellis. There will also be the opportunity to purchase his book The Clearing and the album of the same name as a record.
Related links
In the short film, courtesy of the Evans Center for African American Studies at the SCAD Museum of Art, JJJJerome Ellis talks about his (artistic) practice and how it connects to the world.
A portrait of JJJJJerome Ellis in The Guardian