Profile/Background

SummerHillSeven
Author, Attorney, Artist & Actor

Expertise: Performance Poetry, Hip-Hop Theater, African-American Political Philosophy, and Literature.


Summer Hill Seven (born Raymond Bernard Larkins; in 1982 changed to Raymond Abdul-Alim Akbar; as an actor he is known as Sevîn Ákbar) is an author, actor, artist and attorney. “My work screams: if you have a name that doesn’t work – get a new one! A job that doesn’t work – get a new one! A life that doesn’t work – get a new one!”
Summer Hill Seven is the author of the pioneering work of literature that defines an emerging literary trend resulting from post-hip hop performance which he calls essalogues and poemedies. His first book is entitled Notes of a Neurotic! – Poet Tree: Essalogues, Plays & Poemedies. Included in this volume are five of his plays, which have received world-premiere productions in the crucible of creativity for the American theatrical community, off-off-Broadway in New York City.

Although raised in Albany, NY and Trenton, NJ, he has resided throughout the United States in various cities including Los Angeles, New York City, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, and Newark (Delaware and N.J.). He graduated, second in his class, from the historically significant Sister Clara Muhammad School in Philadelphia, PA, the oldest school in the United States for the training of Muslim students.

He began lecturing in jails and correctional facilities while still in high school. Seven graduated with honors from Richard Stockton College of New Jersey with a B.A. in Political Science and New York University School of Law, where he was the National Director of Community Service for the National Black Law Students Association. He has been an adjunct professor in African American Studies at the City University of New York. Currently he is teaching a course in hip-hop performance at the University of Delaware, entitled Acting Black! The Roots of Hip-Hop Theater.

Seven states: “my philosophy of hanging time uses theater to prove that we each have the power to become more than we are in every moment of our lives. If we suspend our disbelief or rather fortify our beliefs with faith we can transcend in every moment. Don’t merely suspend your disbelief. Choose to be a believer.”

Seven began a career as a professional actor while in law school when he realized that theater was a powerful tool for social change. He has created roles for both stage and screen. While a law student he traveled with a national tour of the Pulitzer Prize winning play, A Soldier’s Story. He created the role of Husband in the mid-west regional premier of John Henry Redwood’s, The Old Settler at the Phoenix Theater (Eugene O’Neil Award). He has acted with a diverse group of theater companies including the Phoenix Theater (Indianapolis) the National Black Theater (Harlem), and the Utah Shakespearean Festival. He was the original director for Platanos & Collard Greens, the longest running hip-hop play in the country. He currently resides in Newark, Delaware and is affiliated with the University of Delaware’s Professional Theatre Training Program.

Seven just directed his first film entitled A Poet’s Pilgrimage, a short film about a law student who decides to leave law school after the destruction of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 to pursue his dream of becoming a poet. Seven is currently touring the United States with A Poet’s Pilgrimage and reading from his first book, Notes of a Neurotic!
7 is also the talented director of From Auction Block to Hip-Hop, returning to NYC in 2007 in its newly revised form by the groundbreaking hip-hop novelist and playwright, David Lamb. Lamb’s Platanos & Collard Greens opened in the summer of 2003 and continues to play to sold-out audiences in New York City while simultaneously touring college campuses throughout the United States.

Notwithstanding his commitment to theater as a positive source of personal and social growth, Summer Hill Seven has practiced both commercial and public interest law. In particular: public finance, bankruptcy, consumer advocacy and housing discrimination.
Programs

- The Philosophy of Hanging Time!

- Free Speech Ain’t Free

- Nobody Knows My Name

- Philosophy of The Ater

- Shakespeare N. Haarlem