Award-winning documentary filmmaker and anti-sexism advocate Byron Hurt will be the first featured speaker in the Pierce College Puyallup Presents lecture series.

Hurt will speak and show his recent film, Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes, at 7 p.m. Nov. 12 at the College Center multipurpose room, Pierce College Puyallup, 1601 39^th Ave. SE. Discussion and a reception will follow. Tickets are $3 for Pierce students, $6 for everyone else. The event is sponsored by the Office of Student Life.

Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and 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 40 film festivals worldwide.

Hurt also directed and produced I AM A MAN:  Black Masculinity in America, an award-winning documentary that captures the thoughts and feelings of African-American men and women from over fifteen cities across America. Hurt challenges audiences to interrogate the damaging effects of patriarchy, racism, and sexism in American culture.

 More than a filmmaker, Hurt is a former Northeastern University football quarterback and a long-time gender violence prevention educator. He is 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. He is also the former associate director of the first gender violence prevention program in the United States Marine Corps.

For tickets or more information, call (253) 840-8416.