Public Art – Lyrics on Lockdown

For the past five years, spoken word poet Bryonn Bain has organized workshops and performances in prisons across the country through, his grassroots non-profit, Blackout Arts Collective’s award-winning “Lyrics on Lockdown Tour.”  As an educator, Bain created a course, Lyrics on Lockdown, that explores hip hop, spoken word poetry, the prison industrial complex and, includes an exchange between students and incarcerated individuals at Riker’s Island. He taught Lyrics on Lockdown at Columbia University (2003-2005) and will teach it at the New School for Social Research (2007-2008). The course has also expanded to New York University where it will be taught by Ella Currenne.  Amongst Bain’s numerous artistic endeavors, he hosts BET-J’s leading talk show “My Two Cents” on air each week in 27 million homes nationwide, and has his 2nd spoken word album, Scared of the Dark, dropping in 2008.