“Lyrics from Lockdown” is based on Bryonn Bain’s experiences with the American justice system. The one-man show recently set a record for sold out shows at The Actors’ Gang Theater in Culver City.
A new professor in UCLA’s African-American Studies department is rallying with students and faculty around increasingly visible injustices in the U.S. criminal justice system.
It’s a topic near and dear to Bryonn Bain’s heart. While attending Harvard Law School, he was wrongfully arrested by the New York Police Department, which he later successfully sued. A writer, actor and hip-hop theater maker, Bain has alchemized his experiences into his role as an educator, activist and artist, regularly performing and lecturing on the prison crisis at colleges and correctional facilities nationwide.
“What drew me here is the fact that Los Angeles is ground zero for mass incarceration,” Bain said. “Los Angeles incarcerates more people than any other city in the world. For years, I’ve worked with activists and artists from throughout California who are at the cutting edge of developing new strategies for moving the country in the right direction, like the leaders behind Proposition 47 and SB 260.”
The recently passed Prop. 47 reclassifies some non-violent crimes as misdemeanors instead of felonies and allows for new sentences, and Senate Bill 260 readdresses life sentences for juveniles who were tried and convicted as adults.
At UCLA, Bain has quickly teamed with the burgeoning UCLA Justice Work Group, a coalition of students and faculty focused on education, awareness and advocacy around the prison system, and developing a university center for justice. The group’s mission of interdisciplinary collaboration and movement building is reflected in its ongoing series of arts events, lectures, symposia, free breakfasts and the Human Caging week being planned for a second year this April.
Learn more at Newsroomucla.edu
