From Anna B.
Harlemite Joseph “Jazz” Hayden was arrested in December, 2011 by NYPD police officers after an illegal stop and search of his car.This stop was direct retaliation for Mr. Hayden’s work in the Harlem community filming police officers conducting illegal car stops and stop-and-frisks. Several months before, Mr. Hayden filmed the very same officers who arrested him conducting an illegal car stop.
Sign the petition to have Mr. Hayden released here.
For more information on Joseph “Jazz” Hayden, and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance please visit
http://freejazzhayden.wordpress.com/
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Contact: Kelley Williams/646‐358‐2552 or 212‐874‐7272
Bryonn Bain’s One Man Show Speaks for More Than 900,000
Targeted By NYPD “Stop and Frisk” Tactics
New York, NY (July 11, 2012):
On July 21, 2012 at 8PM, Bryonn Bain, Brooklyn’s own Nuyorican Grand Slam Poetry Champion,
will bring his one‐man theatrical and socially relevant performance, Lyrics from Lockdown, to
the Harlem community and the City of New York, both acutely familiar with the struggle for
racial equality on its streets. In the heat of NYC’s stop and frisk policy controversy, Bain’s Lyrics
from Lockdown details his wrongful arrest, interrogation and imprisonment during his second
year at Harvard Law, in an unbelievingly timely and riveting account highlighting the detriments
of racial profiling.
Presented at The National Black Theatre in Harlem and supported by the Open Society
Foundations Campaign for Black Male Achievement and the Criminal Justice Fund, Bain’s story
illuminates the stark reality that education and wealth have their limitations in altering society’s
perceptions and presumptions of black men.
While Bain’s performance is a one man show, the voice and message of his experience is
anything but singular. The undeniable struggle for justice and change is urgently collective. Bain
has partnered with a collective of whose philosophy and frontline work challenge injustices and
empower individuals to triumph over institutional barriers on a daily basis. Prior to the
performance at 7PM, the groups will host a cocktail reception attended by a cohort of elected
officials to candidly facilitate conversation about the impact of racial profiling amongst
community leaders, activists, government agencies and policy makers.
Described by Cornel West as “one of the leading minds of his generation…speak[ing] truth with
a power we desperately need to hear,” Bain’s prolific and strikingly honest story is personal, yet
universal. Thousands of young men have been scarred and traumatized by the current stop and
frisk tactics which have resulted in close to 700,000 stops in 2011 according to the New York
Times. 84% of those stopped were Black and Latino. 96% of those stopped were released
without being charged.
A post‐performance panel and talkback invites the voices of Eddie Ellis, human justice activist
and Attica prison uprising survivor, and Soffiyah Elijah, the first woman to direct the
Correctional Association of New York, to share firsthand insight and expertise of the criminal
justice system as encountered by men of color.
To join in on the conversation and campaign, purchase your event ticket at
http://lyricsfromlockdown.eventbrite.com or visit http://lyricsfromlockdown.com for additional
information.