Turnstile Freestyle

This video offers a glimpse of budding artists performing in the Astor Place subway station—as part of a midterm exam at NYU. Students in Bryonn Bain's "Microphone Fiends: Hip Hop & Spoken Word" course study text by poets from the Harlem Renaissance, the Black Arts Movement, and beyond—and then work on researching, writing, recording, producing, and performing their own original work. Bain, artist-in-residence and visiting associate professor at the Gallatin School, is a Nuyorican Grand Slam Poetry Champion, prison activist, BET talk show host, and hip hop/spoken word artist known for his one-man show "Lyrics from Lockdown" (executive produced by Gina and Harry Belafonte), a hip hop theater and multimedia production based on his wrongful incarceration. Bain is a graduate of Harvard Law School and NYU's Gallatin School.

"Damn Straight," the music featured in this video, was produced by Jachary, an alum of Bain's "Microphone Fiends" course.