it was bryonn bain, aka bostick. i did not know who that was. they have given up my information and i've done myself in jail again for a crime i did not commit. this time i said, hell no, i am suing everybody. the police, the state of new york. the public defender came to me -- this is the craziest part of the situation. the public defender who is there to defend your constitutional rights -- she came in to see me with plastic cause and a surgical mask. i saw her walking around with all the rest of the brothers. i thought maybe she had something that she did not want to give us. [laughter] that is righteous. i respect that. whenever you have to do. then she got me into the interrogation room and she said to me, you say you have education. where did you go to school, high school? public-school of new york. this does that add up. i skipped two grades before college. where did you go to college? how did you pay for college? you went to grad school? how did you pay for law school? what did that have to do with my case? i was just going with the flow

bryonn bain, i want to ask what has happened since this struggle here and why we are still where we are, beyond the cosmetics. what has led to this situation that you described in new york city? >> i think racism has evolved and adapted. as the movement grew in strength and folks became more conscious, races and became more institutionally embedded. they found new ways to basically sustained slavery. michelle alexander calling it the new jim crow. between the 1960's and 1970's, the prison population across the country doubled. in the 1970's and 1980's, it tripled. in california, and build no new prisons between the 1960's and 1970's, the height of political action. between the 1970's and 1980's, they build more prisons in california alone and in the past 100 years. one thing that has happened is the warehousing of black folks in these facilities. if you think about what slavery is, the parallels, it is not just a metaphor when you talk about modern-day slavery. slavery denied black folks the ability to be mobile. you were trapped on one location, in a plantation. it broke up our familie

and i want to thank helen, who i work with in san francisco unified because she introduced me to bryonn bain, and she always introduces me to the various artists that come in to work in the school district. as i learned about bryonn and experienced his presence and i was thinking about putting together this program, it just clicked -- why not bring the two together to bring this link from the past unsegregated jim crow to what is happening in the 21st century and that has been happening? i think i was inspired by michele alexander's booke." >> it is my pleasure to say, ms. colvin, without you we would not be where we are. [applause] thank you for sharing your story, and keep telling your story because we need to know, and our children need to know, and our children's children need to know your story. and we want to thank our sponsors today. we have the san francisco unified school district. we have marked as bookstores, who will be selling this -- ms. colvin's book, written about her, by philip house. we have sponsorship from the african diaspora, and the friends of the san francisco public

then, bryonn bain, whose life is not as long but illustrious nonetheless, will give 10 minutes also withome trauma at the head of it. and then we will have a conversation for the next maybe 20 minutes, amongst the three of us. then we will open it to the floor for you to ask them questions. the goal is this -- when we leave this afternoon -- as a teacher, you have to have your objectives set, yes? any teacher with herself has to know what you want to have come of this. what i want to have, this is that we are all more informed about the way in which systems of racism work in this country -- what i want to have come of this. and also have a clear sense of what each of us can do about it and what we individually will do with our own work. that is the assignment. let's get started. i'm going to ask ms. colvin to, in 10 minutes or so, stick to two important dates, mentioned by awele. the march to date and the may 11 date in court -- the march 2 date and may 11 date. i know there is a lot to say, but if you could fill us in on that and then move on. >> first, i would like to say, good evening

when you listen to the kind of statistics bryonn bain put out, the way that the structure still works, it is important we put that kind of information into the hands of young people to understand what we are addressing and also what we need to do to change it. in canada -- i recently did some work in nova scotia. their slogan for black history month is educate 12 months, celebrate one. so we have a lot to work on, to look back to, and to look forward to. i just want to say, that is something we cannot miss. when we talk about episodes like bryonn described, if it happened twice, it is an accident, twice, an accident. but when it happens three, four, five times, it is a pattern. we need to ask how we can address this pattern of injustice and racism. i want to ask what difference does it work has made as an artist in this field? we understand things can be different, you know. >> i am actually doing a show talking about my experiences. i worked with a talented group of other artists to tell the story of my experience of being thrown in jail for a short period of time, alongside the stor