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The students walking through the doors of Lieberman's University Bookstore Saturday afternoon did not come to peruse the shelves or hassle employees for a used textbook. Instead, more than 30 people gathered to meet and support author Summer Hill Seven and celebrate his book, "Notes of a Neurotic."
"Notes of a Neurotic" is comprised of "essalogues, plays, and poemedies," and applies his personal experiences to everyday issues. Seven, known on stage and screen as Sevin Akbar, said essalogues are essays written for people to hear, not just to be read. Poemedies are not poems, but a mixture of poetic elements including tragedy and comedy.
Ashley Williamson, events coordinator at Lieberman's, said she thought Seven's book sounded interesting and wanted him to share his thoughts with the student body.
"He seemed very enthusiastic and we chose Black History Month because so much of his heritage was included in the book," Williamson said.
Seven, a graduate student in the university's Professional Theatre Training Program, planned an afternoon of performance, readings and book signings. Much of the audience was comprised of PTTP members, some of whom performed selected poemedies and plays.
Damian Thompson, a graduate student with PTTP, read two of Seven's poemedies. Thompson's passion for Seven's work conveyed the political, socioeconomic and racial concerns that dominate Seven's book.
"His work is heavily geared toward African-Americans, but I like the way he is still speaking about universal topics," Thompson said.
Seven said he is simply following his dream by publishing his ideas. After graduating from New York University School of Law and practicing housing services law in New Jersey, he decided law was not his true calling.
He said he left his practice to pursue acting and writing in New York City and found himself in a similar situation as many of his clients - homeless.
"If it came down to choosing between a job and a performance, I chose performing," Seven said. "Working with homeless people sort of eliminated my fear of it, so I stayed with friends and wrote in my notebooks."
He said his writings became a plan for a book on the morning of September 11, 2001, when he overslept and missed his 9 a.m. meeting in the World Trade Center.
"That fundamentally was when I decided I had to write this book," Seven said.
A few years later, he went back to school to earn another degree and plans to teach Hip-Hop Theater class this summer at the university. Seven said he is putting the finishing touches on "Hang Time," his second book, which is scheduled to be published in June.
Since the 2004 publication of "Notes of a Neurotic," Seven has traveled nationwide to discuss and perform his work.
Senior Kyana Williams said she had not seen Seven perform before, but was very impressed.
"It was a different experience, because I've been to book readings before, but I had never been to one that had readings within the speech," she said. "I liked how he opened the floor to others."
Seven said his writings about race, religion, politics and identity are meant to be read aloud, performed and felt. He wants his audience to relate to his work and to feel the power of his message of universality.
"Many people reading this book are not black. I think that's a good thing," he said. "We're different for the purpose of knowing about each other."
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