Filmmaker Byron Hurt has been making noise for a minute with his thought provoking film projects including Hip Hop Beyond Beats and Rhymes and Barack & Curtis: Manhood, Power, & Respect… Both gave us keen insight into Black manhood… His latest film Soul food Junkies is a gem among gems as he explores the relationship between him and his late father and our collective love affair with food. It’s insightful and touching documentary that’ll give you serious food for thought (no pun intended)..
Recently Byron came to the Bay Area to do a special screening of his flick.. We sat down and chopped it up.. Here’s our interview that recently aired on Free Speech TV
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cy-Elu8DE1E
Below is a link to Byron talking about his next film which will focus on Hazing in Fraternities
Last year, a close friend asked me “Why is Saafir in a wheelchair?” and with a sigh, all I could muster was “It’s complicated” because it really is. Months later, he asked me a 3rd time, so I shot him this email below:
Does two more Up in Smoke tours w/Xibit.
Can’t walk at all on his own anymore, begins using a wheelchair. Loses his own place, and hasta move in with an ex-gf who he doesn’t get along with but was the only place he could go. They barely get along, the scene is usually tense. Meanwhile, his X & molly abuse continues, and without ever drinking water (their nightly ritual is to x-out before they fuck and crash-out). He continues to ride-out the pain (“Blood, I’ma soldier”) while flippin his pain meds for cash.
There are three things all of us should be concerned about w/ this Christopher Dorner saga.. First they are now using drones to hunt this man down.. On the surface that seems like no big deal, but because they are hunting for a ‘cop killer‘ who has stated via his manifesto that he has more in his sights, the police will equip drones with technology and use procedures that up till now are not allowed.
Adding to this climate are recent remarks from LA mayor Antonio Villaraigosa have him framing Dorner as someone who is has a reign of terror over the people of LA.. Are the people of LA in trouble or LAPD? Does the average person walking down the street need to fear Dorner? Is he going after them or LAPD?
Third concern is that the police don’t use this incident to further strengthen the 

All eyes are on Christopher Dorner the fired LAPD officer who is the subject on a massive manhunt that involves more than 1000 cops up and down the state of California and in Nevada. He’s accused of gunning down three people including Monica Quan, a popular basketball coach and the daughter of a former LAPD captain and her fiance Keith Lawrence who is described as mentor to many and recently graduated from a police academy. ..


Moving beyond the Manifesto, all of us should be asking hard questions about the 3 innocent people shot by LAPD and Torrance police in what police describe as ‘accidental’ and mistaken identity’. Maggie Carranza, and her mother, 71-year-old Emma Hernandez were initially described as two elderly Asian women… We now know they were Latino, and in the wee hours of Thursday morning they were driving a bright blue pick up truck delivering news papers as they always done..Keep in mind, the truck Dorner was driving was grey.
There’s a lot of talk about President Obama and his use of drones as well as him
Are we comfortable with Obama having a secret drone base in Saudi Arabia and mainstream news outlets like the Washington Post agreeing not to report this to the American people?
Basically the tactic used is to situate the discussion as if we have no other choice but to fight the war on terror. Its designed to make you forget that the War on terror was a manufactured war with the goal of keeping it open-ended, and perpetual.. so we could expand it as necessary.
Bottom line be wary of the attempts to get folks to buy into a concept that we once railed against called ‘preemptive strikes‘..When Bush kicked this off we hit the streets by the thousands.. Obama doesn’t use the that term, instead he invokes the image of us being in a life and death struggle against ‘evil terrorists‘. As a result many have checked their conscience at the door to pick up a sword to join in sable rattling while simultaneously bemoaning the fact that youth in our community have turned to violence as a solution to problems vs de-escalation and diplomacy..
We lost one of our great legends. Bebop Jazz legend Donald Byrd died earlier this week and with him went an important era.. Here’s some music and a quick interview to look back upon..
Dear 