Shakespeare N. Haarlem

Your enjoyment is guaranteed in this uplifting, elevating and enriching one-of-a-kind Broadway bound & beyond poetic comedy. In this Homage Poemedy, Summer Hill Seven paints a picture of a contemporary spoken word artist, Shakespeare N. Haarlem, that is sentenced to death by lethal injection for lyrical terrorism and four poetic-prophetic figures share the stage and come to his aid: Langston Hughes, Just B. Simple, Lou Shen (the Reverend) and Summer Hill Seven.

“This is a profound work of art by a very talented and gifted poet. I highly recommend it to all who appreciate the spoken and written word.”
-Sekou Molefi Baako,Executive Director,
Langston Hughes Community Library and Cultural Center-Queens Public Library. President, Black Caucus of the American Library Association

“Incredible bursts of acting.”
-NEW YORK TIMES

“Summer Hill Seven’s ebullient "neo-beat-hip-hop" verse explodes from the page to the stage with a powerful multicultural message! Delightful!”
-Phil Hubbard, Chair of Performance Studies Department. University of Nevada Las Vegas

“Summer Hill Seven is an exceptionally gifted writer and performer whose work is both entertaining and thought provoking.”
-Sanford Robbins. Director, Professional Theatre Training Program University of Delaware

“Fiercely powerful!”
-Jennifer Weaver, Daily News of Southern Utah

“Well played by Seven…touching and powerful.”
-Kay Kipling, Sarasota Magazine

“There’s nothing at all lacking in Summer Hill Seven’s portrayal.”
-Mark E. Leib, CREATIVE LOAFING – SARASOTA

“A Powerful Director.”
-Linda Armstrong, THE AMSTERDAM NEWS

Summer Hill Seven’s work demonstrates an aesthetic integration of neoteric material, style and rhythms with traditional stage techniques to create a form of theater that can only be called: Poemedy. This powerful one person Poemedy pushes the envelope on the hip-hop theater and spoken word genre by asking you to question the limits of philosophical, political and even poetic speech.

“Summer Hill Seven, Actor, Author, Director and Attorney is one of the chief engineers of the post-hip-hop theatrical movement and now working with the creator of the cult-classic – Platanos – he pushes the boundaries of the genre even further with an updated version of Shakespeare N. Haarlem by bringing classical stage technique and approaches to neoteric material that samples or references the works of Shakespeare, Hughes, Baraka and Pinero.”

“This homage to these great writers, as Emund Kraus of Germany wrote in Ex-Berliner magazine, is evidence that "[t]he poetic essays of Summer Hill Seven are an indication of true sensitivity, pain, and the lust for life. They are the best example of mature Hip-Hop era literature that has sprouted from the United States since the blues music of Public Enemy and the insight of conscious musicians such as the Roots."

You are guaranteed to be uplifted, elevated and enriched by both the writing and the performance.