Bryonn

Named one of the 30 Visionaries Under 30 Who are Changing Your Future by UTNE Reader Magazine, Bryonn has been described by noted public intellectual Cornel West as not only a poet who "speaks his truths with a power we desperately need to hear," but also as "one of the leading legal minds of his generation." Bain has performed and lectured at over 50 colleges and correctional facilities nationwide, and overseas in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, sharing stages with icons such as Maceo Parker, the Last Poets, Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, DJ Red Alert, Dana Dane, Poor Righteous Teachers, and Dead Prez. Bain is a regular host of the BET-J talk show "My Two Cents." ************************************************************ ***************************** In May 2000, an article Bryonn wrote about being racially profiled and wrongfully arrested was published as the cover story for the nation’s most widely-read progressive weekly--The Village Voice. Bain’s now famous essay, championed by his mentor and pioneering legal scholar Lani Guinier, was entitled: Walking While Black: The Bill of Rights for Black America, and received over 100,000 replies from around the world-- the largest response in the history of The Voice. Bryonn was subsequently interviewed on CBS’ 60 Minutes by Emmy award-winning journalist, Mike Wallace, a segment seen by over twenty million viewers. ************************************************************ ***************************** During his first year at Harvard Law School, Bain was crowned Boston's 1999 Slam Poetry Champion, and then went on to win the 2000 Grand Slam Poetry Championship at the world renowned Nuyorican Poet’s Cafe'. Bryonn’s poetry is featured on the album NYC Slams: 13 Hottest Poets in New York City. At only 25 years old, he became the youngest adjunct professor at New York University’s Gallatin School where he teaches The Spoken Word. He is featured in director Jane Han’s spoken word poetry documentary Urban Scribe, and stars in the independent film Hunting In America, written and directed by Sundance Film Festival finalist Kona Khasu. ************************************************************ ***************************** In 1990, before becoming the only four-time president of his class in Columbia University history, Bryonn formed Diorgen (DEE-or-jhen), a Brooklyn-based band which has performed its fusion of hip hop, rhythm & blues, and spoken word poetry at correctional facilities and community venues nationwide. While completing a masters degree at New York University, Bain organized the group of pioneering activists who founded the Blackout Arts Collective in 1997 to empower communities of color through the arts, education, and activism. For the past five years, BAC's Lyrics On Lockdown campaign has used hip hop, spoken word, theater, dance, and visual art to raise awareness and mobilize action to abolish the prison crisis in America.