In Jazz (1992), Toni Morrison uses the city — especially Harlem in the 1920s — not merely as a backdrop, but as a living, breathing organism that is constantly changing. The city in her novel is described as something that cannot be pinned down: it is both seductive and dangerous, always full of energy and in constant motion.

Cities can make us proud and give us hope. Whether they are existing, imagined, or desired cities, their architecture, landscapes, and distinctive ways of living together do not have a single fixed meaning, but are continuously recomposed by the people who inhabit them—much like jazz emerges from interplay and variation.

In dialogue with the sonic soundscapes of Kerem Özilhan, we listen to the favorite examples of world-building by Pierre Ajawaila, Surya Nahumury, and Saffa Khalil. Drawing from their chosen literary fragments, they explore how language and text can contribute to shaping ideas about the city, and about the justice that should be central within it (and in the future—and perhaps in the world).”