Friday night I tried my luck by waiting on a rush line for 30 minutes hoping extra tickets would become available to the sold out screening of LEMON, a documentary on the trials and triumphs of Brooklyn bred poet Lemon Andersen. As luck would have it, I was fifth on line when six tickets became available and was one of the first to see the doc debut in NYC. While Lemon is known and loved for his poems Poor People and Experience as seen on HBO’s DEF Poetry Jam I became a fan after checking out his one man show “County of Kings” at the PUBLIC Theatre 2 years ago and was impacted by the amount of power and inspiration in his story. Lemon who grew up poor and Puerto Rican in Brooklyn was orphaned as a child after both parents died of AIDS and was left to be raised by the streets. He learns to fight adversity only equipped with heart and hope and later discovers his worth is in his words.

Russell Simmons, Executive Producer of the film explains its importance.

LEMON, The Trailer

“Poetry is gonna be my meal ticket outta the hood. There’s nothing to lose, everything to gain at this point”

Below is the Q&A session w/ the Filmmakers and Lemon after the screening.