Word up Digging into the Def Poetry Jam tour BY JOHNETTE RODRIGUEZ

When the Tony Award-winning Russell Simmons’ Def Poetry Jam moved from HBO to Broadway two years ago, audiences were blown away by this dynamic combination of poetry, storytelling, theater, and hip-hop. I had a similar reaction when I saw five young performers from the Bronx at the Carriage House in 2002. This group, called Universes, presented an amazing piece titled Slanguage, which pulled together similar elements of story, poetry, and song for a stunning theatrical evening, which ranged from a Dr. Seuss rap about street gangs to a gospel-styled number in Spanish that lifted the rafters. Two of those performers, Flaco Navaja and Lemon, are part of the nine-member multi-ethnic, multi-talented cast currently touring Def Poetry Jam, which comes to the Providence Performing Arts Center this Saturday, October 16 (call 421-ARTS).

Lemon Andersen has presented spoken word and poetry across the country for the past eight years, from Sing Sing to Harvard, from Indianapolis to Princeton. He’s done voice-overs for Nike, SOBE drinks, and Miller Lite; appeared in Spike Lee’s She Hate Me; and received a Drama Desk nomination as an original cast member of Def Poetry Jam. He spoke by phone from his apartment in New York City.

Q: I can’t help asking: Why the name Lemon?

A: Basically, it comes from being a little white boy. My father was Norwegian and my mother Puerto Rican but my brothers were 100 percent Puerto Rican, and they were a little darker than me, so I just stuck out like a lemon and I had really blonde, white hair. There’s also a rude side to me. That’s why they call me Lemon — I’m good for the soul.

Q: How did you get into poetry?

A: It saved my life — it really did. It gave me an opportunity to work, an opportunity to get out of my neighborhood or to understand other things while I was in my neighborhood, like studying and reading, understanding literary poets, literary writers. I read everybody; I hung out with all the authors I read. I traveled every day to hang out with Universes. I learned with Steven [Sapp] and Mildred [Ruiz]; they went to school for theater. All that information they had, I soaked it up like a sponge, and then one thing led to another, and we were putting on these shows like Slanguage.

Q: What other people were influential for you?

A: I studied under Reg E. Gaines; he basically took me on. He was teaching me to not memorize these poems but to know them by heart, in case an older poet comes up and tries to test my literary studies. But then I wound up doing Universes stuff, strong. So, after that, I started to become an ensemble artist. Slanguage went well until 9/11 came and made the theater scene look really bad for a second ’cause nobody was workin’ and that’s when Russell Simmons picked me up. Actually, Mos Def saw me on tape and told Russell that "if you ain’t got Lemon, you ain’t got def poetry."

Q: So what did you bring into the mix?

A: When Russell hired me, I felt I had a responsibility to teach these poets who were great writers and great club performers and great café performers how to own their space. It’s a little different this time, ’cause now you’re on a proscenium stage, what are you gonna do, without a microphone in front of your face?

Q: Tell me about the piece you do about the black stoker on the Titanic.

A: The story of Shine the Stoker has been a signifying toast for 67 to 70 years in prisons in Indiana. My favorite writer in the world, Etheridge Knight, wrote that version, and when I was reading his book, I always wanted to translate it to my friends, not just the café crowd. And that poem always worked because it had a message behind it that was: "Never give up, no matter what, don’t listen to what people say. Keep swimming, keep swimming, keep swimming."

Q: What about the Tito Puente piece with Mayda del Valle?

A: When we came to Def Poetry, we were all single artists, basically. I’m the only one who came from a group. To make it seem theatrical, to give it that Broadway feel, [director] Stan Lathan wanted some ensemble work. So I had this piece about Tito Puente that I just wrote, ’cause I was watching an A&E biography of Tito Puente, and it flowed like a musical, ’cause it had history, economy — all those things that make musicals work, right? So, I thought that’d be a great musical — Tito Puente, about Spanish Harlem and all of a sudden, that piece turned into a poem — so it still made it to Broadway!

Q: What’s your favorite piece to perform?

A: I wrote seven new pieces during the summer, so I’m gonna change it up. A whole lotta people wanna know ’bout my life, and I don’t really do that in the show —only in the love poem piece, where I really let people in, where I have a punch line about me being an ex-con. But this time, it’s gonna be more personal and let people know about my mom and my dad.

Q: What would you like audiences to come away with?

A: You know, it’s funny. We were ridiculed for being so honest two years ago on Broadway and now it’s hip, and we called it. We were all saying, "We’re gonna make the truth go pop, be the popular art" and it’s happening right now.

Q: What gets you going to write your poems?

A: Discipline and diligence. It’s kinda like a workout. Some people workout to try to take care of their body. I gotta take care of my writing. Even if I only write two or three lines a day, it adds up at the end of the month. Give it two years, and it’ll turn into a book, you know?

Q: And your first book was published just a couple weeks ago, wasn’t it?

A: Yeah. It’s a book of poems called Ready Made Real, not from concentrate but ready-made. I’m so excited. It’s the first thing on my own that I own. It just feels great. I’ve never felt that feeling. Now I understand why people wanna be bosses — they wanna own stuff.