A. B. Spellman Book Reading

The Harper College Cultural Arts Committee presents a reading from Between the Night and Its Music by acclaimed poet, jazz critic, arts administrator, Grammy-winner, and leading figure in the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s, A. B. Spellman.

Between the Night and Its Music (2024) brings together A. B. Spellman’s early work with a collection of powerful new poems. Spellman's literary career took flight in 1965 with his debut poetry collection, The Beautiful Days, which introduced his distinctive voice blending elements of jazz, blues, and African oral traditions. In addition to poems from The Beautiful Days (1965) and Things I Must Have Known (2008), this book contains a trove of new and uncollected poems, confirming Spellman's continued centrality to contemporary American literature.

A. B. Spellman won a Grammy in 2024 for Passion for Coltrane and Bach, a composition by Jeff Scott wherein Spellman reads his poetry before an orchestra. As a young man, Spellman left Elizabeth City, N. C. in 1952 to attend Howard University. Among his friends at Howard was LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka). In 1957, following Jones to New York City, Spellman spent the next ten years as an active participant in the Downtown arts scene as a poet, jazz critic, radio programmer, and a founder of the Black Arts Movement. In 1967 he moved to Atlanta where he was active in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, founded the Atlanta Center for Black Arts, and started Rhythm magazine. After Atlanta, he taught at various universities until he accepted a position at the National Endowment for the Arts. For half that time he directed a program that assisted arts organizations in underserved communities; for the other half he was Deputy Chairman. Spellman retired from the NEA in 2003 to concentrate on writing poetry. His poetry books include The Beautiful Days (1965), Things I Must Have Known (2009), and Between the Night and Its Music (2024), which was named one of the ten best poetry books of 2024 by the Library Journal.

For additional information, contact Kurt Hemmer, Professor, Liberal Arts
khemmer@harpercollege.edu