Loading the player... Time has always been complicated for JJJJJerome Ellis. (Mr. Ellis uses this spelling of his first name because it’s the word he stutters on most.) As a composer, poet, and performer who stutters, he comes up against time limits that most people take for granted. “A time limit assumes that all people have relatively equal access to time through their speech. Which is not true,” says Mr. Ellis. “I can rehearse something as many times as I want,” he says, “but I don’t actually know how long it will take to say anything until I have to say it.”