Bain, Bryonn Rolly

Bryonn Bain is a prison activist, artist, educator and abolitionist. A hip hop theater innovator and spoken word poetry champion, in his critically acclaimed solo theater production, Lyrics From Lockdown, Bain plays over 40 characters to tell the story of his wrongful imprisonment. Using hip hop theater, spoken word, blues, calypso and comedy, Bryonn exposes how his friend and fellow poet, Nanon Williams, was wrongfully sentenced to Death Row at just 17 years old. His record-breaking performances, executive produced by legendary artist and activist Harry Belafonte, won “Best Solo Performance” from LA Weekly, the NAACP, and featured in the premiere of “LA Stories” which won an Emmy Award.

Wrongfully jailed in his second year at Harvard Law, Bryonn sued the NYPD, and told his story to Mike Wallace on "60 Minutes." His Village Voice cover story “Walking While Black: The Bill of Rights for Black America” received the largest response in the history of the nation's most widely read progressive newspaper. Bain taught for over a decade at Rikers Island, developed the first hip hop and spoken word course in the Dramatic Arts at Harvard, and has lectured and performed at over 300 colleges and universities including Oxford and Cambridge, and prisons in 25 states from Folsom to Sing Sing.

Mentored by visionary legal scholar Lani Guinier for over two decades, Bryonn founded and directed prison education programs at NYU, Columbia and UCLA. Bain teaches courses in law, the arts, and Black Studies at UCLA, and in Los Angeles prisons. Bringing standing ovations to sold-out venues from the U.S. to Africa, Latin America and Europe, Bryonn is developing a feature film based on his life and work with Castle Rock Films. For more information, visit: www.bryonn.com