Borough Bard Slams at The Yard

Tony award-winning Def Jam poet Lemon Andersen brings his one-man spoken-word show, Excerpts from County of Kings: The Beautiful Struggle, to the intimate barn theatre at the Yard, July 10 and 11. It’s a jarring and poignant coming-of-age stage memoir that flows from hard-edged drama to urban poetry, creating a vivid portrait of growing up in New York city during the birth of hip-hop.

New York Times critic Ben Brantley says County of Kings “electrifies, as it should, like unexpected lightning.”

The Brooklyn-based artist is a veteran of what Brantley refers to as “the youthful, adrenaline-charged rhyme fest, Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam on Broadway.”

Besides writing and performing critically acclaimed poetry, Mr. Andersen recently shot three films with Spike Lee, Sucker Free City, She Hate Me and Spike’s latest, Inside Man, in which he starred opposite Denzel Washington and Clive Owens. His theatre credits include Slanguage, directed by Jo Bonney, The Ride at PS122, and U at the Mark Taper Forum. He has taught performance art workshops at various colleges, universities and institutions including Harvard, Princeton, U Mass, and Sing Sing prison.

County of Kings opens Friday, July 10, at 8 p.m. followed by supper. There is a free family matinee Saturday, July 11, at 4 p.m. and a final performance Saturday at 8 p.m. all at the Yard on Middle Road in Chilmark. Tickets range from $15 to $150; for details, call 508-645-9662 or see onlinedancetheyard.org.