"Bryonn Bain's poetry is magic for the soul. Interweaving social justice themes with intricate wordplay, song and soaring stage presence, Bain's performance is truly one to remember! Like Aesop with a new jack swagger, Bryonn is a modern day hip hop fable maker. Never preachy but always on point, Bain's hip hop poetics blend the story of the streets with the struggle of his ancestors and a universal spirituality that supports his righteous call to "rise up." Beyond performance, Bain is an artist who truly loves the community. During his "down time" in Boston, Bain facilitated workshops and performed at youth centers, detention centers, high schools and after-school programs for underserved inner-city youth. Bain truly does "walk the walk" and connects with both children and adults because of his talent, passion, originality, and humility. Bryonn Bain leaves audiences swaying to his music, critically thinking about his challenging words, and dancing in their hearts."
The Center for Latino Arts and Culture
Boston, Massachusetts
*BIOGRAPHY*
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 Cornell West as not only a poet who ã...speaks his truths with a power we desperately need to hear,ä but also as one of the leading legal minds of his generation.ä Bain has lectured at over 50 colleges and correctional facilities nationwide, performed overseas in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, and shared stages with Maceo Parker, the Last Poets, Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, DJ Red Alert, Dana Dane, Poor Righteous Teachers, and dead prez.
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. Bryonn has completed his long anticipated, forthcoming spoken word epic The Prophet Returns and joint album entitled Problem Child to be released 2005.
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 theBlackout Arts Collective in 1997 to empower communities of color through the arts, education, and activism. For the past three years BAC's Lyrics On Lockdown campaign has worked with community based organizations such as The Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, The Prison Moratorium Project, The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Critical Resistance, and Drop the Rock in using hip hop, spoken word, theater, dance, and visual art to raise awareness and mobilize action to abolish the prison crisis in America.
bryonn bain
*REVIEWS*
"One of the leading minds of his generation, Bain speaks his truth with a power we desperately need to hear."
-Cornel West
Author of the acclaimed Race Matters, professor of Religion and Philosophy, Princeton University
"Though he is as Brooklyn as you get, check for the island breeze when he shakes your hand... His parents left Trinidad for opportunity, but carried West Indian work ethic wrapped in roti skin to feed their children. And hence, a poet was born. In Bain's work, cultures and dialects weave together into the language of a new America. By winning the coveted Nuyorican Poets Cafe's Grand Slam Champion title in 2000, this eldest son of an immigrant family joined the company of Reg E. Gaines, who wrote Savion Glover's groundbreaking Bring in Da Noise, Bring in Da Funk, and Saul Williams, who starred in and co-wrote the 1998 Sundance Independent Film Festival winner Slam."
-Suheir Hammad
Poet and star of the Tony award-winning Def Poetry Jam on Broadway, author of Born Palestinian, Born Black
"It is always a pleasure to read a gifted poet... There are so many voices in the wilderness, each screaming at the top of their lungs to be heard, and the Babel becomes confusing to the untrained ear... The gift is to get them to ingest what is being offered... as birds feed their young... There is no doubt (brother Bryonn) has found his voice."
-Jalil Abdul Muntaqim
Former Black Panther Party/BLA member, one of the world's longest held political prisoners
"Shortly after I experienced a concert featuring his hip hop and spoken word band, Bryonn toured the nation with me performing in venues as varied as the Hard Rock Cafe in Miami and the Las Vegas home of the legendary Liberace. In all of my experience as an actor and musician on stage and television, it has been extremely rare for me to meet anyone possessing such a combination of talent, intellect and passion-- in addition to his noteworthy academic credentials and commitment as a community activist and artist"
-Malik Yoba
Playwright/director of What's on the Hearts of Men, star of the television series' New York Undercover and Girlfriends
"As one of the nation's most prominent spoken wordsmiths, Bryonn Bain has performed for more than a decade alongside living legends including black arts pioneers Amiri Baraka and Sonia Sanchez, and hip hop innovators such as the Last Poets and Run DMC. Inspired by the writings of mystics ranging from Rumi to Rakim Allah, his work drawns on both the spiritual teachings of the masters and dances with the artistry of an urban voice that pulsates tangibly in the now."
-Lolita Files
Novelist and bestselling author of Child of God
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