The Connection Between Blackness, Fluency and Music

Singer-songwriter Stutter talks about the connection between black history and disfluency in his new album, loops in retreat. He also discusses how stuttering is a form of disability that can be marginalized spatially through time. "I wanted to speak about these three things, you know, these three dimensions," he says. 'Stutter' airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on NPR One.

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Episode notes

JJJJJerome Ellis talks with Maya and Cynthia about the intersections of being a black person who stutters and a musician, how his views of his disability evolved since childhood, and why it was so important for him to connect his stutter to his ancestral history of slavery in his work. He also highlights how the stage is a safe space for stuttering and music is a source of healing the pain he experienced as a child.

“Growing up I felt so much of the pain and also the beauty of the stutter. Over time I’ve come to feel the stutter alters time, and music is another way that we can alter time. Part of what I was trying to do with The Clearing is to try to undo some of the things that have been told to me about stuttering and to transform the stuttering narrative through poetry, music, history, and philosophy.”

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