Milkweed Editions and Liquid Music present an evening of music, poetry, and conversation with JJJJerome Ellis.

“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 Editions‘ Multiverse series, 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. JJJJJerome 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.

Tickets available at this link. More information available here.