Los Angeles, CA – Poet and jazz critic A.B. Spellman will present a poetry reading featuring works from his recently published first, full-length collection of poems, Things I Must Have Known (Coffee House Press), as part of Cal State L.A.’s National Poetry Month celebration. The reading and book-signing will be held Thursday, April 17, 6:30 p.m., at the University’s Music Hall. 

Sponsored by Cal State L.A.’s Center for Contemporary Poetry and Poetics, the free celebration will also include “Jazz In Paris Between the Wars: How Jazz Influenced 20th Century Western Culture,” a presentation by Spellman and the Cal State L.A. Jazz Band, Wednesday, April 16, at noon in the University’s Band Room (Music 150). Additionally, he will be meeting with students at Cal State L.A. and Chester W. Nimitz Middle School to discuss the art of poetry writing.

Recognized as a “towering figure of the African American poetic avant-garde since the 1960s,” Spellman is a founding member of the Black Arts Movement and one of the fathers of modern jazz criticism. Before beginning a 30-year tenure at the National Endowment of the Arts, Spellman 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.   

A long-time commentator on jazz for National Public Radio, he has published numerous books and articles on the arts, including The Beautiful Days, a collection of poems first published in 1965, and Four Lives in the Bebop Business, a jazz-criticism classic now available as Four Jazz Lives (University of Michigan Press). 

Between 1975 and 2005, Spellman worked at the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), first as the director of the Expansion Arts Program and, for the last decade of his term, as deputy chairman. In recognition of Spellman’s commitment and service to jazz, the NEA established its A.B. Spellman NEA Jazz Masters Award for Jazz Advocacy. The Jazz Journalists Association honored Spellman with its “A Team” award, and his alma mater, Howard University, bestowed upon him its Benny Golson Award for his service to jazz.

The Cal State L.A. Jazz Band is directed by James Ford, a faculty member in the CSULA Department of Music since 2003. Ford, an accomplished all-around trumpet player, is adept in a range of musical settings, including orchestral, chamber, big band, salsa, small groups, musicals and early music.

Cal State L.A. is at the Eastern Avenue exit, along the San Bernardino Freeway, near the interchange of the 10 and 710 freeways. Public permit dispenser parking is available at Lot 5 or upper level of Parking Structure C.

Spellman’s residency is also cosponsored by the University’s Department of English and College of Arts and Letters. For details on the CSULA National Poetry Month celebration, call Lauri Ramey, director of the Center for Contemporary Poetry and Poetics, at (323) 343-4165 or go to www.calstatela.edu/academic/english/nspellman.htm

CALENDAR LISTING:

“Jazz In Paris Between the Wars: How Jazz Influenced 20th Century Western Culture”
Wednesday, April 16, 12 noon, CSULA Band Room (Music 150)
As part of CSULA’s celebration of National Poetry Month, A.B. Spellman will give a presentation with the Cal State L.A. Jazz Band, under the tutelage of CSULA Professor James Ford, about the influence of 20th-century jazz. For more details, call (323) 343-4165.

Poetry Reading and Book-signing: “Things I Must Have Known”
Thursday, April 17, 6:30 p.m., Music Hall on the Cal State L.A. campus
As part of CSULA’s celebration of National Poetry Month, A.B. Spellman will offer a poetry reading to launch his new book, Things I Must Have Known (Coffee House Press, 2008). A book-signing will follow the reading. For more details, call (323) 343-4165.

Working for California since 1947: The 175-acre hilltop campus of California State University, Los Angeles is at the heart of a major metropolitan city, just five miles from Los Angeles’ civic and cultural center. More than 20,000 students and 200,000 alumni—with a wide variety of interests, ages and backgrounds—reflect the city’s dynamic mix of populations. Six colleges offer nationally recognized science, arts, business, criminal justice, engineering, nursing, education and humanities programs, among others, led by an award-winning faculty. Cal State L.A. is home to the critically-acclaimed Luckman Jazz Orchestra and to a unique university center for gifted students as young as 12. Among programs that provide exciting enrichment opportunities to students and community include an NEH- and Rockefeller-supported humanities center; a NASA-funded center for space research; and a growing forensic science program, housed in the Hertzberg-Davis Forensic Science Center. www.calstatela.edu