Poulson-Bryant, Scott 1966-

PERSONAL:

Born 1966, in Long Island, NY. Education: Attended Brown University. Hobbies and other interests: Music, baseball, books, theater.

ADDRESSES:

Home—New York, NY, and Miami, FL. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Writer and editor. Vibe magazine, New York, NY, founding editor, 1993; America magazine, senior editor; Giant magazine, New York, NY, editorial director, 2006—.

WRITINGS:

(With Smokey D. Fontaine) What's Your Hi-fi Q? From Prince to Puff Daddy, Thirty Years of Black Music Trivia, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2002.

Hung: A Meditation on the Measure of Black Men in America, Doubleday (New York, NY), 2005.

Also author of the blog The SPB Q, and the online novella Classic 6. Author of "Dream America," a column for Spin. Contributor of articles and reviews to periodicals, including Rolling Stone, Village Voice, New York Times, Source, Essence, New York, Guardian, and the Face.

SIDELIGHTS:

Scott Poulson-Bryant, a founding editor of Vibe magazine and a former columnist for Spin, is the author of Hung: A Meditation on the Measure of Black Men in America, "an entertaining book devoted to the myth, stereotypes, and hype surrounding black men and their penis size," according to Black Issues Book Review contributor Jonathan Luckett. "Writing Hung gave me a chance to talk to a lot of peeps about their innermost feelings about the subject," Poulson-Bryant told Backlist interviewer Felicia Pride. "Of course, it made some people uncomfortable, but others were so excited to chill and talk that I knew I was on to something that had some cultural significance."

In Hung, Poulson-Bryant examines the role of black male sexuality in sports, literature, film, music, and other forms of pop culture. "Using tongue-in-cheek chapter headings such as ‘Measuring Up,’ ‘The Long and Short of It,’ and ‘How's It Hanging in Hollywood,’ Poulson-Bryant untangles the intersections of race, gender, and class, myth and fact," noted Deborah Bolling in the Women's Review of Books. "A seasoned guide, he knowledgeably steers the reader through all manner of male sexuality, examining even deep-seated racist sexual mores with humor." According to Gerard Martinez, writing in the Daily Texan Online, "All this is preliminary to the true agenda of the book, which is to illustrate the uncertainty that all Americans are experiencing, and have experienced for many decades, by trying to fully identify black men within the larger context of society." "Hung is a treatise not only on the black penis and black male sexual prowess and self-image, but also on how black men in America measure up when it comes to political, economic, and cultural power in a white-dominated society," noted Charles Michael Smith in Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide. "Clearly, there are elements of both fear and envy in this comparison." As Poulson-Bryant remarked to Pride, "The myth of the over-sexualized Black man is based, I think, on the fact that American culture needed a scapegoat for its own twisted history. That's the kind of work myths do, they give people space to invent scapegoats or create reasons for thinking the way that they do." Noting that Black males have themselves perpetuated the myth, Poulson-Bryant added: "It's as if there's this acknowledged agreement between the races that white men have the brains and Black men have the brawn, the strength—physically and sexually. There's a certain power that comes along with that, but what kind of power is it truly? It's not political, social, or financial power. White men keep that but anoint us—and we allow ourselves to be anointed—by this lesser thing."

A controversial work, Hung nevertheless garnered strong reviews. Poulson-Bryant "irreverently illuminates his theory of male member obsession," Bolling commented. "The book is both a hilarious expose that pokes fun at the precious penis and a chilling commentary on what men truly desire: sexual dominance among themselves." "In the end, the book that Bryant has put together is, in fact, a meditation," wrote Andre Banks in Colorlines. "He tells us in his voice, and in those of his peers, that the myth of the hung Black man is alive and well. And in the process inspires a dialogue that is desperately needed, and perhaps more importantly, a possibility that a myth created by racism might some day be destroyed."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Black Issues Book Review, May 1, 2002, "More Music," review of What's Your Hi-fi Q? From Prince to Puff Daddy, Thirty Years of Black Music Trivia, p. 32; March 1, 2006, Jonathan Luckett, review of Hung: A Meditation on the Measure of Black Men in America, p. 29.

Colorlines, December 22, 2005, Andre Banks, review of Hung, p. 55.

Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide, January-February, 2006, Charles Michael Smith, "The Politics of Penis Size," review of Hung, p. 38.

Kirkus Reviews, July 15, 2005, review of Hung, p. 781.

New York, October 24, 2005, Brian Keith Jackson, "Hung Up on Size," review of Hung.

New York Times, November 6, 2005, E. Lynn Harris, "Private Parts," review of Hung.

Women's Review of Books, July-August, 2006, "The Male Obsession," p. 21.

ONLINE

African American Literature Book Club,http://aalbc.com/ (April 15, 2007), Kam Williams, review of Hung.

Backlist,http://www.thebacklist.net/ (April 15, 2007), Felicia Pride, "Getting Raw with Scott Poulson-Bryant, author of Hung."

Daily Texan Online,http://media.www.dailytexanonline.com/ (September 21, 2005), Gerard Martinez, "Essay on African-American Culture and Sexuality Measures Up," review of Hung.

Hung Web site,http://myspace.com/ruhung (April 15, 2007).