Hip-Hop Filmmaker on Campus for Screening,
Town Hall Discussion on Rap Music and Community Values
7 pm Tuesday, March 13
Spurlock Museum, 600 S. Gregory, Urbana
 Filmmaker
Byron Hurt, whose Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes
aired on PBS in February, will participate in a free public
screening of the documentary and a town hall discussion.
Hurt, a former college quarterback-turned-activist, is a
self-described “hip-hop head” who took an in-depth look at
masculinity and manhood in rap and hip-hop, where he says
creative genius collides with misogyny, violence and homophobia.
Experts Join Teens on Panel
Teens from WILL’s Youth Media Workshop
will join Hurt and other experts for the discussion sponsored by
WILL AM-FM-TV and co-sponsored by the Bruce D. Nesbitt African
American Cultural Center. Panelists include Twick G., Champaign
hip-hop artist; Aisha Durham, a University of Illinois doctoral
candidate who has studied hip-hop from a feminist perspective;
Sara Clark Kaplan, U of I assistant professor, African American
Studies and Research Program; Youth Media Workshop participants
Brian Mitchell, a student at Urbana High School, and Gabby
Ceasar, a student at Central High School. William Patterson,
associate director of the U of I African American Cultural
Program and co-director of the Youth Media Workshop, will
moderate the discussion.
“Byron Hurt has opened up a nationwide discussion of some of the
disturbing developments in rap music culture,” Patterson said.
“We hope hip-hop fans, as well as those who have concerns about
the music, will come out to join the conversation.”
About Hurt and His DocumentaryHurt’s groundbreaking documentary, which was screened at the
Sundance Film Festival, provides thoughtful insight from
intelligent, divergent voices including rap artists, industry
executives, rap fans and social critics from inside and outside
the hip-hop generation.
Hurt, a life-long hip-hop fan, was watching rap music videos on
BET when he realized that each video was nearly identical. Guys
in fancy cars threw money at the camera while scantily clad
women danced in the background. As he discovered how
stereotypical rap videos had become, Hurt decided to make a film
about the gender politics of hip-hop, the music and the culture
that he grew up with. “The more I grew and the more I learned
about sexism and violence and homophobia, the more those lyrics
became unacceptable to me,” he said. “And I began to become more
conflicted about the music that I loved.”
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