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"Aster of Ceremonies asks what rites we need now and how poetry, astir in the asters, can help them along"--
List of contents
I.
Octagon of Water, Movement 2
Prayer to My Stutter #2
Octagon of Water, Movement 3
Prayer to My Stutter #4
Prayer to My Stutter #6
Translation of Music #1
Octagon of Water, Movement 4
II. Liturgy of the Name
III. Benediction
WINTER
Movement 2: In Honor of Ancestor John Smart
Movement 3: In Honor of Ancestor Lucy
Movement 4: In Honor of Ancestor Harry
SPRING
Movement 6: In Honor of Ancestor Bob
Movement 7: In Honor of Ancestor Paro Movement 8: In Honor of Ancestor Nanny
SUMMER
Movement 9: In Honor of Ancestor Adam Movement 10: In Honor of Ancestor Fanny Movement 12: In Honor of Ancestor Paro
FALL
Movement 13: In Honor of Ancestor Rose
Movement 14: In Honor of Ancestor Hannah
Movement 15: In Honor of Ancestor Lucy
Movement 16: In Honor of Ancestor Betsey (Octave)
IV. Astering the Stutter
V. Benediction
Movement 17: In Honor of Ancestor Neptune
Octagon of Water, Movement 5
Notes
Acknowledgments
About the author
JJJJJerome Ellis is the author of
Aster of Ceremonies. JJJJJerome was born in 1989 to Jamaican and Grenadian immigrants. JJJJJerome lives in Tidewater, Virginia with their wife, ecologist-poet Luísa Black Ellis. JJJJJerome dreams of building a sonic bath house!
Summary
A polyphonic new entry in Multiverse—a literary series written and curated by the neurodivergent—JJJJJerome Ellis’s Aster of Ceremonies beautifully extends the vision of his debut book and album, The Clearing, a “lyrical celebration of and inquiry into the intersections of blackness, music, and disabled speech” (Claudia Rankine).
Aster of Ceremonies asks 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? When Ellis writes, “Bring me the stolen will / Bring me the stolen well,” his voice is a conduit, his “me” is many. Through the grateful invocations of ancestors—Hannah, Mariah, Kit, Jan, and others—and their songs, he 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.
By weaving a chorus of voices past and present, Ellis counters the attack of “all masters of all vessels” and replaces it with a family of flowers. He models how—as with his brilliant transduction of escaped slave advertisements—we might proclaim lost ownership over literature and history. “Bring me to the well,” he chants, implores, channels. “Bring me to me.” In this bringing, in this singing, he proclaims our collective belonging to shared worlds where we can gather and heal.
The Aster of Ceremonies audiobook read and performed by JJJJJerome Ellis is available everywhere you listen to audiobooks.
Foreword
- Digital galley campaign, with outreach targeted at major, poetry, disability and Black media, as well as booksellers and librarians; digital galley available for download on Edelweiss
- Media outreach
positioning this as a singular addition to the Multiverse literary series of
poetry by neurodivergent artists - Advertising with the
Academy of American Poets - Newsletter promotion
via the publisher to readers, sales and academic lists of more than 30K contacts - Academic outreach to
seed book in poetry, disability and Black studies courses - Launch in New York City
