Overview
In addition to bringing university courses to people in prison, the Justice-in-Education Initiative provides a skills-intensive humanities course for those who have come home from prison or are otherwise court-involved, offered through Columbia’s Department of English and Comparative Literature and conducted on Columbia’s Morningside Campus. Students receive tuition waivers, books and supplies free of charge, complimentary childcare during class times, and transportation assistance as needed.
Through the collaboration of campus organizations, students receive support services including mentoring, peer counseling, writing tutoring, access to social services, employment services, advising, and opportunities to continue their college education. Through a cooperative agreement with the School of Continuing Education, students who successfully complete the course earn transferable credit from Columbia University.
This introductory humanities course addresses the kinds of issues and texts that compose Columbia’s Core Curriculum, while at the same time teaching students skills of critical analysis and providing them with the academic and social support they need to succeed. The Core Curriculum describes its mission in terms that resonate strongly with our own:
Links
This unbelievably true story begins when Brooklyn’s own hip hop theater innovator and spoken word champion, Bryonn Bain (60 Minutes, The Village Voice, BET’s My Two Cents), is wrongly imprisoned in NYC jails — while studying law at Harvard. Weaving together the voices of over 40 characters into a one-man tour de force, Lyrics From Lockdown, produced by Gina and Harry Belafonte, is receiving extraordinary reviews around the world. A groundbreaking multimedia production, this critically acclaimed show uses a live band and video DJ, fusing hip hop, theater, spoken word poetry, rhythm and blues, calypso and classical music, to tell a provocative story exposing racial profiling and wrongful incarceration in a nation imprisoning more people than any other in the world.
This unbelievably true story begins when Brooklyn’s own hip hop theater innovator and spoken word champion, Bryonn Bain (60 Minutes, The Village Voice, BET’s My Two Cents), is wrongly imprisoned in NYC jails — while studying law at Harvard. Weaving together the voices of over 40 characters into a one-man tour de force, Lyrics From Lockdown, produced by Gina and Harry Belafonte, is receiving extraordinary reviews around the world. A groundbreaking multimedia production, this critically acclaimed show uses a live band and video DJ, fusing hip hop, theater, spoken word poetry, rhythm and blues, calypso and classical music, to tell a provocative story exposing racial profiling and wrongful incarceration in a nation imprisoning more people than any other in the world.
This unbelievably true story begins when Brooklyn’s own hip hop theater innovator and spoken word champion, Bryonn Bain (60 Minutes, The Village Voice, BET’s My Two Cents), is wrongly imprisoned in NYC jails — while studying law at Harvard. Weaving together the voices of over 40 characters into a one-man tour de force, Lyrics From Lockdown, produced by Gina and Harry Belafonte, is receiving extraordinary reviews around the world. A groundbreaking multimedia production, this critically acclaimed show uses a live band and video DJ, fusing hip hop, theater, spoken word poetry, rhythm and blues, calypso and classical music, to tell a provocative story exposing racial profiling and wrongful incarceration in a nation imprisoning more people than any other in the world.
This unbelievably true story begins when Brooklyn’s own hip hop theater innovator and spoken word champion, Bryonn Bain (60 Minutes, The Village Voice, BET’s My Two Cents), is wrongly imprisoned in NYC jails — while studying law at Harvard. Weaving together the voices of over 40 characters into a one-man tour de force, Lyrics From Lockdown, produced by Gina and Harry Belafonte, is receiving extraordinary reviews around the world. A groundbreaking multimedia production, this critically acclaimed show uses a live band and video DJ, fusing hip hop, theater, spoken word poetry, rhythm and blues, calypso and classical music, to tell a provocative story exposing racial profiling and wrongful incarceration in a nation imprisoning more people than any other in the world.
