Bryonn Bain is a hip hop poet and prison activist who interweaves social justice themes and spirituality with intricate wordplay, song, and soaring stage presence. Noted public intellectual Cornel West hails him, “…a poet who speaks his truth with a power we desperately need to hear.” As a 24-year-old Harvard law student, Bain was wrongfully imprisoned by the NYPD. Bryonn sued the city of New York, told his story to 20 million viewers in an interview with Mike Wallace on “60 minutes,” and wrote the Village Voice cover story, “Walking While Black,” which drew the largest response in the history of the nation’s leading progressive newspaper. As the founder of the Blackout Arts Collective, he has brought performing artists and popular educators to prisons in 25 states with the “Lyrics on Lockdown Tour.”

	Soon after, Bain was crowned the Nuyorican Grand Slam Champion 2000, taught New York University’s first course in “The Spoken Word” for three years; created a arts-based course bringing Columbia University students into Rikers Island prison to teach incarcerated youth; and has lectured, performed, and facilitated workshops in over 100 universities and prisons nationwide. His acclaimed debut album “Problem Child” fuses the best of Brooklyn’s underground hip hop and spoken word with the world music of rising starts from as far as Bombay. His independent music video, “Ancestors Watching,” executive produced Warrington Hudlin (of “House Party” & “Boomerang” fame), premiered at the H2O Hip Hop Film Festival. Described by bestselling author Lolita Files as “…one of the nation’s most prominent spoken wordsmiths.” Bryonn is producing a special episode of HBO’s Def Poetry Jam at Rikers Island Prison, featuring fellow Brooklyn lyricist, Mos Def.