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AASRP Continues Series
“Dialogues on Race”

Byron Hurt
Byron Hurt is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, a published writer, and an anti-sexist activist. The former Northeastern University football quarterback served as a long-time gender violence prevention educator and was also a founding member of the Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP) program, the leading college-based rape and domestic violence prevention initiative for college and professional athletics. Hurt is also the former Associate Director of the first gender violence prevention program in the United States Marine Corps. Since 1993, he has been using his craft, his voice, and his writings to broaden and deepen how people think about race and gender. His first film, I AM A MAN: Black Masculinity in America, is a 60-minute award-winning documentary that captures the thoughts and feelings of African-American men and women from over fifteen cities across the country. Hurt challenges audiences to interrogate the damaging effects of patriarchy, racism, and sexism in American culture. His most recent documentary, Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. It was later broadcast nationally on the Emmy award-winning PBS series Independent Lens, drawing an audience of more than 1.3 million viewers. To date, Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes (BBR) has been selected to appear in more than 50 film festivals worldwide and The Chicago Tribune named it "one of the best documentary films in 2007." Because of his work, Hurt has lectured at hundreds of campuses, presented at numerous professional conferences, and trained thousands of young men and women on issues related to gender, race, sex, violence, music, and visual media. Byron has essays or interviews published in Michael Eric Dyson's Know What I Mean: Reflections on Hip-Hop, Men Speak Out: Views on Gender, Sex, and Power by Shira Tarrant, Sport in Society: Equal Opportunity or Business as Usual? by Richard Lapchick, Be a Father to Your Child: Real Talk from Black Men on Family, Love, and Fatherhood, by April R. Silver; and The Black Male Handbook, by Kevin Powell. Hurt has been featured in numerous media outlets, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Newsday, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Boston Globe, The LA Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Philadelphia Inquirer; O, The Oprah Magazine; The Source Magazine, Vibe Magazine, Ms. Magazine, Mother Jones, Entertainment Weekly, Variety Magazine, allhiphop.com, and vibe.com. He has also appeared CNN, Access Hollywood, MTV, BET, ABC News World Tonight, The Montel Williams Show, The Michael Baisden Show, and The Michael Eric Dyson Show.

(NOTE: The following videos require Adobe Flash Player 10)

Barack & Curtis: Manhood, Power and Respect

Beyond Beats & Rhymes

I Am a Man