Saturday, July 12, 10 A.M. (9:30 seating): Community Conversations: Coffee with A. B. Spellman, moderated by Sean Peterson and presented by Oregon Bach Festival

(Free)

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A.B. Spellman’s book of poetry “Things I must Have Known,” is the basis for the 2024 Grammy Award winning “Passion for Bach and Coltrane” (Best Classical Compendium), which will be performed Saturday night, July 12, at The Soreng Theater. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaTiRJziwUA

Copies of Spellman’s poetry will be available for sale

Ticket link to Saturday Night’s Concert at the Soreng: https://hultcenter.org/events/obf-passion-for-bach-and-coltrane/

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Biographical Note:
A.B. Spellman is both a founding member of the Black Arts Movement and a nationally recognized jazz scholar. He worked at the National Endowment for the Arts for thirty years, ten of those as Deputy Chairman. Before beginning his tenure at the NEA, Spellman was an active poet and regular commentator on jazz for National Public Radio.

Description:
A.B. Spellman sacrificed poetry publication when he began working for the National Endowment of the Arts, where he soon became a hero to struggling arts organizations and countless writers--all of whom are thrilled to help his new book succeed. It is no exaggeration to say that this new book is eagerly and enthusiastically awaited. Touching on jazz and friendship, fatherhood and racism, urban violence and workplace politics, his confident and animated poetry addresses the most important personal and public events of the last sixty years--of how it felt to grow up black in a Jim Crow world; of hearing John Coltrane soar through space on his cascading scales; and the compromises of a long marriage and a richly lived life. Not only a legend in Arts circles, A.B. Spellman is one of the country's leading jazz scholars. He has been a regular commentator on jazz for National Public Radio and is the author of Four Lives in the Bebop Business, a classic in the field of jazz criticism that is now available as Four Jazz Lives. In recognition of Spellman's commitment and service to jazz, the NEA named one of its prestigious Jazz Masters awards the A.B. Spellman NEA Jazz Masters Award for Jazz Advocacy.
https://www.eugenecascadescoast.org/event/community-conversation%3A-coffee-with-a-b-spellman/58476/

Coffee and pastries will be provided by Palace Bakery.