Mr. A.B. Spellman Jr.

• 
  www.thehistorymakers.com/biography/biography.asp?bioind - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 5/29/2009    Last Visited: 5/29/2009  

  Biography (A.B. Spellman, Jr.)
  ...
  A.B. Spellman, Jr. Biography
  
  Alfred Bennett (A.B.) Spellman, Jr. was born on August 12, 1935 in Elizabeth City, North Carolina.
  ...
  In 1956, Spellman earned his B.S. degree in political science from Howard University. While at Howard, he was active in the chorus, the Howard Players, and he began his writing career. After graduating, Spellman enrolled in the Howard University Law School. In 1959, Spellman worked as a writer, reviewing jazz artists and music for various magazines such as Metronome and Downbeat. In 1964, he published his first and only book of poems entitled The Beautiful Days.
  
  In 1966, Spellman's writing career took off when he published his first full-length book, Four Lives in the Bee-Bop Business, an in-depth look at the lives of jazz musicians Cecil Taylor, Ornette Coleman, Herbie Nichols and Jackie McLean. The following year, Spellman joined a group of black poets touring the nation's historically black colleges. From 1968 until 1969, he worked as a political essayist and poet for Rhythm Magazine, and in 1969, Spellman conducted a lecture series throughout the country teaching at various colleges including Morehouse, Emory and Rutgers. In 1972, Spellman was hired to teach African American studies at Harvard University, where he remained until 1975. That year, he became director of the Arts in Education Study Project for the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) in Washington, D.C. In 1978, Spellman became the director of the NEA's Arts Endowment Expansion Program, a position he held until 1993. Continuing his work with the NEA, Spellman next became the special assistant to the chairman and acting deputy chairman for programs. Between 1994 and 1996, he served as associate deputy for program coordination at the NEA, and then became the director of the NEA's Office of Guidelines and Panel Operations. In 1998, Spellman was appointed the deputy chairman for the Office of Guidelines, Panel and Council Operations for the NEA.
  
  Spellman continues to be an avid writer, and he serves on numerous arts panels and is a member of the Rockefeller Panel on arts, education and Americans, the Jazz Advisory Group and the Advisory Group on the African-American Museum of the Smithsonian Institute
  
  Spellman was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on December 7, 2004.

• 
  www.thehistorymakers.com/biography/category_details.asp - [Cached Version]
  Last Visited: 5/29/2009  

  A.B. Spellman, Jr. Writer & NEA Executive
  
  1900 South Michigan Avenue Chicago, IL 60616 312-674-1900 312-674-1915 (fax)

• 
  ltte.charlestonjazz.net/latestnews.php - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 1/22/2008    Last Visited: 12/24/2008  

  The proceedings feature the writing of internationally-recognized jazz historians, musicians and critics ... Dan Morgenstern, A.B. Spellman, Larry Ridley, Jeffrey Green, Wolfram Knauer and the late Alvin Batiste, and includes exciting anecdotes and stories by local residents.
  ...
  The award is named for A.B. Spellman, a former NEA Deputy Chairman and also a CJI Circle Member.

• 
  www.blackprwire.com/display-news.asp?id=3388 - [Cached Version]
  Last Visited: 10/12/2007  

  Featured presenters include Shirley Franklin, Mayor, City of Atlanta; Doudou Diene, Special Rapporteur, United Nations High Commission for Human Rights; Patricia J. Francis, Executive Director, International Trade Centre; Howard Dodson, Chief of the Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture; and A.B. Spellman, Author and Former Deputy Chair of the National Endowment for the Arts.

• 
  www.carolinapeacemaker.com/News/article/article.asp?New - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 12/7/2007    Last Visited: 12/8/2007  

  Lynette and Joseph Johnson, professors at Florida A&M University in Talahassee, FL; Karen Spellman, a large events producer and A.B. Spellman, poet and retired Deputy Director of the National Endowment of the Arts, in Washington DC; Dr. Cheryl Edmonds, pediatrician, and Dr. Thomas Chapman, President and CEO of the Hospital for Sick Children and HSC Foundation; Rep.

• 
  www.westaf.org/taac2007/agenda.php - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 1/1/2007    Last Visited: 3/8/2007  

  Presenters: Louis LeRoy, Suzanne Benally, and A.B. Spellman
  ...
  A.B. Spellman
  
  (return to top) A.B. Spellman is an author, poet, critic, and lecturer.He was a poet-in-residence at Morehouse College, in Atlanta, Ga.He taught various courses in African-American culture, offered courses in modern poetry, creative writing, and jazz at Emory, Rutgers, and Harvard Universities.Spellman is an occasional television and radio commentator.He offered reviews and commentaries on National Public Radio's Jazz Riffs series, including the NPR Basic Jazz Record Library program.Mr. Spellman is a graduate of Howard University.
  
  He has published numerous books and articles on the arts, including Art Tatum: A Critical Biography (a chapbook), The Beautiful Days (poetry), and Four Lives in the Bebop Business, now available as Four Jazz Lives (University of Michigan Press).Mr. Spellman has served on numerous arts panels including the Rockefeller Panel on Arts, Education and Americans; the Awards Panel of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP); the Africa Diaspora Advisory Group, the Jazz Advisory Group, and the Advisory Group on the African-American Museum for the Smithsonian Institution.
  
  Between 1975 and 2005, Mr. Spellman worked at the National Endowment for the Arts, first as the Director of the Expansion Arts Program and, for the last decade of his term at the NEA, as Deputy Chairman.In recognition of Mr. Spellman's commitment and service to jazz, the National Endowment for the Arts in 2005 named one of its prestigious Jazz Masters awards the A.B. Spellman NEA Jazz Masters Award for Jazz Advocacy.Also in 2005, the Jazz Journalists Association voted to honor Mr. Spellman with its "A Team" award.

• 
  www.outpostspace.org/node/655 - [Cached Version]
  Last Visited: 8/17/2009  

  Meet The Artist: A.B. Spellman & Jimmy Heath
  ...
  Continuing a New Mexico Jazz Festival tradition, A.B. Spellman, the highly respected retired National Endowment for the Arts Deputy Chairman (for whom, in 2005, the NEA named one of its prestigious Jazz Masters awards the "A.B. Spellman NEA Jazz Masters Award for Jazz Advocacy"), jazz historian (Four Lives in the Bebop Business and Art Tatum: A Critical Biography) and poet (The Beautiful Days and in 2008, Things I Must Have Known), meets with NEA Jazz Master Jimmy Heath for an informal but highly engaging and informative on-stage interview and Q&A.

• 
  www.coffeehousepress.com/thingsimusthaveknownbio.asp - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 6/3/2008    Last Visited: 6/3/2008  

  A.B. Spellman began his thirty-year tenure at the National Endowment for the Arts in 1975.Before that, he was an active poet, radio programmer, and essayist in New York, the poet-in-residence at the Morehouse College in Atlanta, and a visiting lecturer at Emory, Rutgers, and Harvard universities.He has also been a regular jazz commentator for National Public Radio and has published numerous books and articles on the arts, including The Beautiful Days, a poetry chapbook, published by Diane di Prima, and Four Lives in the Bebop Business, a classic in the field of jazz criticism that is now available as Four Jazz Lives (University of Michigan Press).
  
  In recognition of Spellman's commitment and service to jazz, the NEA created the A.B. Spellman NEA Jazz Masters Award for Jazz Advocacy.Additionally, the Jazz Journalists Association voted to honor Mr. Spellman with its "A Team" award, and he received the Benny Golson Award from his alma mater, Howard University.He lives in Washington, DC.

• 
  www.washblade.com/2009/4-3/calendars/scene/14318.cfm - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 4/5/2009    Last Visited: 4/5/2009  

  ESTEEMED JAZZ SCHOLARS AND POETS Michael Harper and A.B. Spellman will speak and read tonight at 7:30 at Folger Shakespeare Library (201 East Capitol Street S.E.) as part of Folger's Poetry Reading Series.

• 
  www.thehistorymakers.com/biography/category_details.asp - [Cached Version]
  Last Visited: 5/29/2009  

  A.B. Spellman, Jr.
  ...
  A.B. Spellman, Jr. Writer & NEA Executive

Page:  1 2 3 4 5