KU News Release

Hip-hop film director to discuss documentary at KU screening March 26

LAWRENCE — University of Kansas graduate students will join award-winning film director Byron Hurt for a panel discussion following a free and public screening of his documentary “Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes” at 7 p.m. Monday, March 26, in the Kansas Union ballroom.

After the screening, Hurt, who recently appeared on a CNN special titled “Hip-Hop: Art or Poison?,” will moderate a discussion with the audience.

Shown at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, Hurt’s documentary provides an in-depth look at machismo in rap music and hip-hop culture. His candid interviews present divergent voices of fans and social critics speaking about the struggle to negotiate the exciting creativity, seductive rhythms, blatant violence and homophobia in what is now an international music form.

“Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes” won the best documentary award at the 2006 San Francisco Black Film Festival and the 2006 Roxbury Film Festival Audience Award.

The documentary is Hurt’s third film. It was co-produced by his company, God Bless the Child Productions Inc., and the Independent Television Service in association with the National Black Programming Consortium. His previous films are “I Am A Man: Black Masculinity in America,” which won the International Prized Pieces Community Choice Award, and “Moving Memories: The Black Senior Video Yearbook.”

Hurt’s visit to KU includes participating in a day-long workshop titled Oral History at Work — The View From Within, which takes place from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. March 26 in the Kansas Union. Registration is required for the workshop but not for the film screening. To register for the workshop, visit www.hallcenter.ku.edu. Deadline is March 12.

In the workshop, Hurt will join Carol Ann Carter, KU professor of art, and Tobias Hecht, anthropologist and author, in exploring the uses of oral history in their work. This is the eighth annual Oral History Workshop, sponsored by KU’s Hall Center for the Humanities. The film screening is co-sponsored by the departments of African and African-American studies, American studies and English, and the Office of Multicultural Affairs.

KU graduate students participating in the discussion are listed below.

DOUGLAS COUNTY
From Lawrence
Ainehi Ejieme Edoro, master’s degree student in English; bachelor’s degree from Morgan State University, Baltimore, Md.

Jeffery D. Mack, doctoral student in English; master’s degree from the University of Kentucky-Lexington and bachelor’s degree from Valdosta State University, Georgia.

ALABAMA
From Auburn
Ailecia J. Ruscin, doctoral student in American studies; daughter of Joe And Cyndi Ruscin; bachelor’s degree from Chatham College, Pittsburgh, Pa.

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