Bryonn Bain joins UCLA Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance Faculty
Bain now has a joint appointment between WACD and the UCLA Department of African American Studies
The UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture is pleased to announce the appointment of scholar-artist Bryonn Bain as an associate professor in the Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance (WACD). Bain now has a joint appointment between WACD and the Department of African American Studies where he has taught since 2015 while staging productions and cross-listing courses at WACD, and serving as a supervisor for the UCLA School of Law International Human Rights Law Clinic.
The son of Caribbean immigrants to Brooklyn, New York, Bain is a Los Angeles-based performing artist and scholar whose work is motivated by a central focus on using the arts and activism to build movements for justice, criminal justice reform, prison education, and abolition. The founding director of the UCLA Prison Education Program, Bain has drawn on his three decades of work in prisons to establish opportunities for higher education, the arts, and research in two southern California prisons. He is now developing course offerings at two additional facilities where UCLA faculty will teach university students alongside those who are incarcerated.
“Professor Bain’s publications and performances are steeped in the kind of scholarly and artistic activism that is integral to the mission of the Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance,” said Dan Froot, chair of WACD. “Rigorous and engaging, his written work is inseparable from his impressive arts activism and creative projects in the service of prison abolition and social justice.”
Bain is a well-known and highly regarded artist and scholar; a prolific activist, theater director, actor, writer, producer, and spoken word artist. Documentary theater icon Anna Deavere Smith reviews Bain’s production, “Lyrics From Lockdown” by noting that “every moment on stage is filled with a thing of beauty." Hip hop pioneer DJ Kool Herc describes him as “A legend in the making!” New York Times art and culture critic Anita Gates writes, "Mr. Bain has something important to say and says it eloquently.” In addition to performances at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and prisons in 25 states and on three continents, his recent productions include a radical revision of L. Frank Baum’s “The Wizard of Oz” as “What It IZ: A Hip Hop Theater Prison Abolition Remix…”(2017), which FEM Magazine called "an eye-opening journey into the hardships of the justice system."
Bain’s work on television includes features on 60 Minutes and MSNBC, an award-winning talk show on BET, and a nomination for an Emmy-award. His theater and film collaborators include influential artists such as Harry Belafonte, Tim Robbins, Sonia Sanchez, Omari Hardwick, Loretta Divine, Aloe Blacc, and Scott Budnick, among others. An award-winning poet, actor, and author of three books, Bain’s publications are steeped in the artist/activist/scholar tradition. Informed by groundbreaking work in prisons since the 1980s, and revelatory ethnographic research, he offers a powerful attestation to the humanity, brilliance, struggle, and survival of people marginalized by the normalization of police violence and hyper incarceration.
“Joining the extraordinary community of interdisciplinary scholars, artists, and activists in World Arts and Cultures/Dance is for me an incredible honor and privilege,” said Bain. “Without any formal affiliation, my love of spoken word, hip hop/theater, film, prison education and activism has led me over the past three years to build bridges between students and faculty in the Arts & Architecture and the Social Sciences. I can only imagine the powerful collaborations now possible...”
Bryonn Bain with his mentor, Harry Belafonte
More about Bryonn Bain:
Lyrics From Lockdown: NYC Premiere
Lyrics From Lockdown: Pre-Show Video “Fragile” by Sting, performed by Bryonn Bain
The Rachel Maddow Show Interview on Racial Profiling in America
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