Propeller In July
When: July 8, 2026 - 19.30
PROPELLER IN JULY
Ilia Kitup returns to ivallan’s with Propeller publishers. Join us for a three-part evening, where Ilia and four other writers will present new Propeller books and zines.
PROPELLER publishers was launched in Moscow in 1991 by Ilia, who has resided in Berlin since 1997. Around 160 books and 100 magazine issues have been published to date using a copying machine — and, in the last 15 years, a mid-sized Brother printer. The magazines and books (A6-A5 formats, 16-120 pages) are assembled and stapled together by hand: every copy is unique. The pressing starts with 30-50 copies, with the run-on sometimes reaching several hundred impressions. Propeller has published poetry and prose collections in 16 languages, and many books are bi- or even trilingual. Propeller is an offline enterprise, with readings and launches taking place across Berlin.
Part One: Sorcery Salah Yousif THE MAGICIAN
Part Two: Maggie Break Jake Schneider ANTIGRATED CHICKEN (1-2) Ilia Kitup The GAF (62-66)
Part Two: Bookie Time and Sound Engineering Alexander vom Dorp ESKAPADEN Jordan Lee Schnee PIECE PROCESS
About
Born in 1964 in Russia, Ilia Kitup is a founding member of the Soviet comics fanzine, Kitup’s Own Propeller Comics. Kitup also writes poetry and prose, paints, and plays ska music. He lives in Berlin, and continues to promote alternative comics in Russia.
Salah Yousif was born and raised in Sudan. He came to Berlin in the 1970s. He worked in various fields, most recently dealing in antiques and African art. He has been writing poems in Arabic since his youth; they have been translated into German, English, and Danish. He has published five volumes of poetry and contributed to three other books. Yousif lives and works in Berlin.
Jake Schneider is a Yiddish writer, translator, journalist, and cultural activist. He organises Yiddish-language events with Yiddish.Berlin, Shtetl Berlin and the social club Shmues un Vayn, and writes poetry, reportage and microfiction. He also gives talks and walking tours on queer and immigrant history. His writing has appeared in Yiddish literary journals, been translated into seven languages and forms part of a growing Yiddish cultural scene in the city.
Jordan Lee Schnee is a German-American writer, musician, and translator. He teaches English literature at the Freie Universität Berlin and curates readings for Haus für Poesie. His doctoral thesis was entitled Exploding the Alphabet: Georges Perec, the Kabbalah of Names, and the Worlds within Letters (2025). His publications include the prose work Dispatches from the Southern Conelands (2025) and the poetry books Unapprehension (2019) and Entfassung(2021) at Propellor Berlin. He edited the anthology Flores de vidrio / Flores de vidro (2024) by Yiddish-language poet Debora Vogel for Milena Caserola Buenos Aires and Jabuticaba São Paolo.
