Bryonn Bain, creator of Lyrics From Lockdown, director Mei Ann Teo
and the musicians of the show.
Bryonn Bain - Creator
Wrongfully imprisoned during his second year at Harvard Law, Bryonn sued the NYPD, was featured on 60 Minutes, and wrote The Village Voice cover story - "Walking While Black" - drawing the largest response in the history of the nation's most widely-read progressive newspaper. His new book, The Ugly Side of Beautiful: Rethinking Race and Prisons in America, will be published later this year by Third World Press. The star of the Off Broadway hip hop theater production Auction Block to Hip Hop, Bain plays a Nat Turner-inspired cult leader in the thriller Pig Hunt alongside rock legend Les Claypool ("Primus"). Directed by Academy Award winner Jim Isaac ("The Fly," "Return of the Jedi"), this feature film is slated for release in 2009.
Bain has lectured and performed at over 100 colleges and correctional facilities in the U.S., Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe. A Nuyorican Grand Slam Poetry Champion, Bain ranked #1 in the nation during the International Poetry Slam in 2000 and has released two albums to critical acclaim: Problem Child and Don’t Be Scared. Bain’s courses at Brooklyn College, New York University, The New School and Columbia University have ranged from workshops in Hip Hop and Spoken Word to seminars exploring critical perspectives on the prison industrial complex. Named resident artist for the National Urban Alliance for Effective Education in 2006, Bryonn founded the Lyrical Minded project -- which brings hip hop, theater and spoken word to high schools in New York and California. Bain's grassroots organization, Blackout Arts Collective, which developed the annual Lyrics on Lockdown Tour, has reached prisons in 25 states, and spawned a series of university courses using the arts to teach critical liter-literacy in correctional facilities.
His one-man show - LYRICS FROM LOCKDOWN - tells the story of his wrongful incarceration through hip hop, theater, spoken word, calypso, lyrics and letters exchanged with a fellow poet and friend -- sentenced to Death Row at only 17 years old. Developed in prisons, public schools, community venues and universities nationwide, Bain's show has been workshopped at staged readings in California, Ohio and New York City's legendary Urban Stages, and is already receiving extraordinary reviews:
- Prison Activist and Spoken Word Poet Visits Pacific Union College -- Spectrum Magazine, April 2008
"Last month a few more ripples of change were set into motion when PUC had the privilege of welcoming Bryonn Bain, a spoken-word poet and prison activist to campus...Bryonn Bain struck a cord at PUC both that continues to ring out and we look forward to hearing more from him..." read more
- First Person - Bryonn Bain -- I-S Magazine, January 22, 2010
"Bryonn Bain (recently in town for the M1 Fringe Festival) made the news when he was wrongfully imprisoned by the New York police in 2003. The Harvard law grad, prison activist, hip hop artist and poet pulls no punches as he talks to us about race, politics and art..." read more
- "Real Grand Slam: Lyrics from Lockdown" -- (review) The Singapore Times, January 29, 2010
"In the post-show discussion after this production, an audience member asked performer Bryonn Bain in an incredulous tone, 'how did you get here?'...there was no doubt that Bain was a skilled chameleon performer and talented physical actor, rapping and singing up a storm in 70 minutes. there seemed little he could not do..."
- Mind Your Body: Poet and actor Bryonn Bain -- The Straits Times, January 21, 2010
"Balance is one of my greatest challenges. I have found my extreme approach to work to be very effective at times and if it isn't broke, why fix it? But I realize that, over tie, a balance between work and play will be increasingly necessary for me if life is to be sustainable."
- Visit Bryonn Bain on Myspace
Mei Ann Teo - Director
Mei Ann Teo is a Chinese Singaporean theater director and filmmaker, based in the San Francisco Bay Area, USA. She is the founding director of Mahjong Films, a film and editorial production company, and the Resident Artist at Pacific Union College where she helms the drama program specializing in ensemble theater work. Teo is an associate artist with award-winning San Francisco companies Crowded Fire Theater, and the Theater of Yugen.
Teo’s directorial credits include: Middle Flight (critically acclaimed world premiere at Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2001- called “an intellectual feast” by Three Weeks, and a “stunning monologue...carefully constructed and paced” by The Scotsman, US/UK tour 2006), Waiting for Godot, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Porcelain (Top Ten List SF BAY TIMES), and Bee-Luther-Hatchee (winner of multiple Dollie Awards, including Best Production and Best Director).
Teo co-produced/wrote/directed Not Here (Mahjong Pictures), a short film made in Singapore and Los Angeles. It received the Short Film Grant from the Singapore Film Commission and was shot by Brian Gothong Tan (Pleasure Factory, Cannes International Film Festival 2007, Un Certain Regard). Not Here was screened at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival 2009, Singapore International Film Festival 2009, L.A. Shorts Fest 2009 (In Competition), Montreal World Film Festival 2009, DC APA Film Festival 2009, and the San Diego Asian American Film Festival 2009.
Mei Ann Teo has been collaborating as director/dramaturg with poet/activist/performer Bryonn Bain for the past 2 years on his one man, autobiographical show LYRICS FROM LOCKDOWN. She is honored to be working on a play with such truth and power that each of the stage readings and performances has received standing ovations, with the talkbacks lasting longer than the show itself. The play has been developed in California and New York, and after being the closing night event of the Hip Hop theater Festival, it is an official selection of the M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2010, and the International theater Festival of Rwanda 2010.
For booking information, please email bookbryonn@gmail.com.
Marco Rizzuto - Guitarist
When not recording in the studio and managing a recording company (Post Partum Productions), Marco can be found teaching a dedicated group of students at the Queens School of Music in Flushing, Queens.
DJane Lois Lane - Video DJ
Rather than being a traditional DJ bound to one trade, DJane Lois Lane balances a multitude of projects, such as providing visuals for live performers and/or musicians as well as nightclub gigs... where most listeners leave at 4AM with their shoes in hand. She can be spotted spinning everything from Bon Jovi to Michael Jackson during "I LOVE THE 80's" night at Vudu Lounge on Manhattan's upper east side. She also works with some of DJ's most legendary talents, showcasing an opening set for Rob Swift from the X-ecutioners for a private party at the Whiskey Ward. Plus, she has earned the opportunity to rub elbows with master instructor DJ Noumenon and instructor DJay Jung as a teacher's assistant at Scratch DJ Academy.
Her determination to continue growing alongside the culture, and her out of the box vision towards the element of VJ'ing, is constantly pushing boundaries in this ever evolving art form.
CelloJoe - Cellist
with beatboxing, he has created a unique genre: classical hip hop.
Combining looped beatboxing beats (vocal percussion) and cello with conscious lyrics, cellojoe spreads joy, laughter and consciousness raising vibrations to all.
Cellojoe's eclectic sound also incorporates the style of jug band and kids's music. He is also the world's first long distance musical bike touring cellist. In 2007-2008, he rode with the pleasant revolution, a 5,000 mile bike tour from north San Juan, California to Palenque, Chiapas, Mexico.
Watch videos at youtube.com/cellojoe
