Open Studio: JJJJJerome Ellis

Floor 3, Theater

For families with kids of all ages

JJJJJerome Ellis is a poet, composer, performer, and founder of the collective People Who Stutter Create. For the 2024 Biennial, Ellis was invited to score the exhibition, responding to its sounds, artworks, and spaces to create a musical composition. 

People Who Stutter Create (PWSC) is a collective led by JJJJJerome Ellis alongside Jia Bin, Delicia Daniels, Conor Foran, and Kristel Kubart. PWSC believes that stuttering (also called stammering) can create room for deep listening and collaboration. Through repeated sounds, prolonged sounds, and blocks with no sound, the group aims to describe social reality while also being able to change it through the act of description. Their contribution to the Biennial is a billboard that states “Stuttering Can Create Time.”

These powerful words are seen by thousands of people passing by on the street every day. What message would you share if you could create a billboard? Families with kids of all ages are invited to join Ellis in the Hess Family Theater to contribute to a community “billboard” and create your own works of art with a message that is important to YOU! 

We will be joined also by teaching artists from SPACE to support our program.

SPACE is a nonprofit organization creating a more inclusive and accessible world for people who stutter. They are founded on the belief that when we learn to listen better to people who stutter, we are learning to listen better to everyone. SPACE harnesses the power of the arts to directly support people who stutter and reshape society’s understanding of stuttering. 
 
Stuttering is a neurological speech disability affecting approximately five percent of all children, and one percent of the total population: seventy-nine million people worldwide. There is no cure for stuttering and people who stutter often feel significant pressure to hide the way they speak due to societal pressure and stigma.