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Founders' Bios

James E. Hurd

James E. Hurd, Jr. was raised in Wewahitchka, Florida, and began his theatre work at Florida State University and Florida A&M, where he starred in “The Mighty Gents” and “Room Beneath the Blues.” His leading role L.A. stage work includes “Sentence of Silence,” “No Longer an Alien,” “Living on the Edge,” “The Split,” “Room 1222,” (which he also wrote and directed in workshop), “Peeled” and “Speaking of Charlie,” which opened at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles in October 2005. Hurd recently completed the feature films Columbus Day, Jive Chicken, Duplicator, Red Herring, Able Edwards, Compton Cowboy and Consignment. He appeared in episodes of “General Hospital” and “Murder She Wrote,” and he starred in the film “Repo Jake.” His film debut was in “Something Wild” with Melanie Griffith and Jeff Daniels.

Hurd is also a playwright and director, co-authoring civil rights-themed dramas with his co-author, Linda Bannister. He wrote “One Sunday in Mississippi,” a one-act play about the murders of civil rights workers in 1964, was featured at the National Black Theater Festival 2003. Their latest full-length drama, Turpentine Jake, which concerns Black laborers enslaved under debt peonage in 1930's Florida, received a staged reading at The Bellarmine Forum at Loyola Marymount University in November 2005. Hurd also directed and played the title role in Turpentine Jake. Turpentine Jake has also been selected for a reading at the National Black Theatre Festival 2007. Hurd and Bannister are completing Cul De Sac, a drama on the experience of Menopause. Hurd spent 13 years working in the art departments of feature films including The Five Heartbeats, Sneakers, Next Friday, Batman, What Lies Beneath, Dog Catcher and Like Mike. Poet of the Swingin’ Blade is Hurd's first film behind and in front of the camera; he co-authored, directed and produced. Poet of the Swingin’ Blade was selected as a finalist at The San Diego Black Film Festival 2007, The Arizona Black Film Showcase 2007, The Big Island Film Festival, Kona, Hawaii, 2007, The Hollywood Black Film Festival 2007, Reel Black Men 2007 and The 14th Annual African American Film Marketplace & S. E. Manly Short Film Showcase 2007. “Poet” also won Best Message Film, San Diego Black Film Festival 2007.

Linda Bannister, Ph.D.

Linda Bannister, professor of English at Loyola Marymount University, has a Ph.D. in Rhetoric, Linguistics, and Literature from the University of Southern California. She is the holder of the Daum Professorship of the Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts, 2008–09. She works primarily in these areas: Rhetoric, Composition and Stylistics; contemporary literature by underrepresented groups; Journalism and professional writing; and Playwriting. She has published in the areas of rhetoric, composition, contemporary writers, and journalism, and has most recently focused her attention on playwriting. She and her writing partner, James E. Hurd, Jr., had their one-act play “One Sunday in Mississippi” selected for presentation at the 2003 National Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, NC. Their full-length drama, “Turpentine Jake,” was selected for reading at the 2007 National Black Theatre Festival, also in Winston-Salem. Their work has also been seen at the Greenway Court Theatre in Los Angeles, Theatre Unlimited in North Hollywood, Stage 52 in Los Angeles, First Stage in Hollywood, The ACME Theatre in Los Angeles and at Loyola Marymount University. Their work has also been seen on several stages in Florida and Georgia. Bannister and Hurd have co-authored an award-winning short film, Poet of the Swingin’ Blade, which was selected as a finalist at the 2007 San Diego Black Film Festival, the 2007 Arizona Black Film Showcase, the 2007 Big Island Film Festival in Kona, HA, the 2007 Hollywood Black Film Festival, Reel Black Men 2007, and 14th Annual The African American Film Marketplace & S.E. Manly Short Film Showcase 2007. Poet of the Swingin’ Blade won Best Message Film at the San Diego Festival.

Bannister was named the inaugural “Daum Professor of the Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts” at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. She will hold the endowed chair 2008–2009.

Photos (L to R):

1. James E. Hurd, Jr., and Linda Bannister
2. Milton Wilson, Harry Frierson, CJ Frierson

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