Voice packed with passion
Some students were seasoned veterans. Some were newbies, with jitters. Some had committed their work to memory; others had jotted their thoughts on paper that trembled slightly in their hands. In a sign of the times, many read their compositions from their phones. Undergraduates gathered at Farkas Hall last week to audition for a workshop that taps into the power and poetry of language. Harvard’s new dramatic arts offering “Hip Hop and Spoken Word: Theater Performance Laboratory” is being taught by visiting lecturer Bryonn Bain, an activist, rapper, poet, and musician. Bain is no stranger to campus, having graduated from Harvard Law School (HLS) in 2001. He’s also no stranger to using spoken word to make a point. In 1999, he was arrested and briefly detained for a crime he didn’t commit, an experience he drew heavily on to create “Lyrics from Lockdown.” Bain took the stage first and performed an excerpt from...