Byron Hurt

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 has been selected to appear in more than 80 film festivals worldwide and was named by the Chicago Tribune as “one of the best documentary films in 2007.” Since 1993, Hurt 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 an award-winning documentary that captures the thoughts and feelings of African-American men and women from over fifteen cities across the country. As an activist, Hurt has 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 U.S. Marine Corps.