Life or death | Charles Sample | TEDxChesterStatePrison 2016
Hip hop performance. Originally from North Philadelphia, Charles Sample is the father of a daughter and two sons. His dream is to one day become a hip hop artist.
Lyrics from lockdown | Bryonn Bain | TEDxIronwoodStatePrison 2014
Bryonn Bain is Brooklyn's own prison activist, actor, hip hop theater innovator, and spoken word poetry champion. Wrongfully incarcerated during his second year at Harvard Law School, Bain was featured on 60 Minutes after writing "Walking While Black: The Bill of Rights for Black Men," which received the largest reader response in the history of The Village Voice. Currently an artist in residence and visiting scholar at NYU, Bain has taught courses on hip hop, spoken word, and the prison crisis at Harvard, Columbia, and Riker's Island. Executive produced by Harry Belafonte and directed by Gina Belafonte, Lyrics from Lockdown is a multimedia, hip hop theater production based on Bain's experience of wrongful imprisonment. Bain's latest project, Life after Lockdown: The Digital Mixtape is executive produced by the legendary first Hip Hop DJ Kool Herc. Working in collaboration with the Center for NuLeadership on Urban Solutions in Brooklyn and the Anti-Recidivism Coalition in Los Angeles, the LAL Mixtape includes music and videos inspired by Lyrics from Lockdown and provides resources for people returning home from prison.