From Wrongful Arrest to Anti-Prison Activist: Bryonn Bain’s Road to ‘Lyrics From Lockdown’
From Wrongful Arrest to Anti-Prison Activist: Bryonn Bain’s Road to ‘Lyrics From Lockdown’ courtesy of / Bryonn Bain
Content warning: This article contains use of the N-word.
Monday, November 25. Dawn. Bryonn Bain is one of several inmates chained together to board a bus to Rikers Island. Once on the bus, the men, rolling 12-deep, are told that they will be heading to a new location, Vernon C. Bain Correctional facility.
“A prison boat named after the white folks who owned my ancestors. Damn,” Bain says to himself. Arriving at the facility, he is ushered into a Manhattan criminal courthouse. There he meets with his court-appointed attorney. Having been detained for three days and two nights in a cell with a feces-clogged toilet, Bain is now being arraigned. Despite his resilience, he is weary and convinced that he will be spending yet another night in lockdown.
The Complex Reality of Black–Jewish Coalitions in Georgia
AT A JEWISH DEMOCRATIC COUNCIL OF AMERICA virtual election celebration on January 17th, newly elected Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock reminded the audience about “the longstanding relationship between the African American community and the Jewish community, our shared values, our sense of justice and struggle for peace in the world,” citing the connection between Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who had once been a pastor at the Atlanta church where Warnock now presides, and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. His fellow Georgia senator-elect, Jon Ossoff, offered a similar sentiment, referencing his mentor Rep. John Lewis’s support for Black–Jewish coalitions. “I know that Congressman Lewis is looking down at us in Georgia right now and smiling . . . the heart of the old Confederacy and the cradle of the Confederacy will be represented in a few days by the Jewish son of an immigrant and an African American pastor of Ebeneze