BHurt On: Hip Hop. Manhood. Anti-Sexism.

Y’all know Byron Hurt? I’m late on homeboy, but he’s a filmmaker and an anti-sexist activist speaking out on gender violence prevention and helping to examine our ideas surrounding manhood – particularly Black manhood.

If you read my blog regularly, you probably know that I have an interest in this type of stuff (gender roles, gender violence, yadda yadda). Peep these clips from Hurt’s documentaries. The first one is pretty straight forward, an intro to Beyond Beats and Rhymes. The second is interesting because it “contrast[s] styles of manhood exhibited by Barack Obama and Rapper/Mogul Curtis Jackson, aka 50 Cent.”

I don’t really know how I feel about 50 being used as an example of how Black manhood is commonly viewed. I mean, I can see it, but it’s hard since a lot of my friends generally take 50 for a joke. However, I’m sure a lot of people out there do see him as the kind of guy who would run up in your crib and steal all your credit cards. *shrug*

Here’s an excerpt from his bio. Check out his website for the full version and more.

Byron Hurt is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, a published writer, and an anti-sexist activist. 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.”As an activist, Byron has served as a long-time gender violence prevention educator. As a writer, Byron has essays or interviews published in Michael Eric Dyson’s Know What I Mean: Reflections on Hip-Hop with Intro by Jay-Z, Outro by Nas; in Men Speak Out: Views on Gender, Sex, and Power, edited 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, edited by April R. Silver; and The Black Male Handbook, edited 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.