WHEN COVID-19 HIT, Rashad Floyd ’00 found himself grounded. Usually, the former PSU football star and professional football player crisscrossed the country with his production company, Heart and Hustle, creating videos for clients like Nike, the NFL and the NBA. Now, they needed to pivot to stories close to home. He drew inspiration from the ongoing Black Lives Matter protests.
“We needed stories that were relevant and right now to the community,” he said. “The narrative was stuck on the oppression and the systemic racism and the inequalities we were facing and fighting. I didn’t want that to be the only narrative.”
The result was “Expressions in Black,” a series of short videos that aired weekly on Portland’s KGW TV during “The Good Stuff” through March 22. (Watch episodes at expressionsinblack.org.) The people featured in these 10 documentary-style portraits come from a range of professions—Nike VP, Oregon Supreme Court justice, winemaker, vegan restaurateur—to present a stereotype-shattering view of Portland’s Black community.
Floyd’s concept took off after a meeting with Portland mayor Ted Wheeler, who connected Heart and Hustle with KGW. “It’s the community that made this happen, because of the collective effort that everyone put out to try to create a different Portland,” Floyd said. “That inspired more doors to be open to us than have ever been open before.”
Each “Expressions in Black” episode explores what drives the person and makes them unique. This is how you learn that Jordan Carter, co-founder of the retail store Produce Portland, started to see himself as a role model as a top high school student; or that vintner Bertony Faustin didn’t even drink alcohol before he started making wine; or that NBA veteran and University of Portland head basketball coach Terry Porter considers himself a dad and a teacher first.
It’s not that far from what Heart and Hustle usually does, Floyd said. As an on-air commentator for the NFL network, ESPN and Fox, “I really got tired of talking about the x’s and o’s,” he said. As he transitioned toward journalism, humanizing athletes became his production company’s specialty.
“We’ve been built to dive deeper,” he said. “Even if I’m with LeBron James, I’m interested in documenting him as more than an athlete, just the way I would be documenting Adrienne C. Nelson as more than just a judge. It was a natural fit for us to transition from projecting the voice of the athlete to projecting the voice of a culture.”
Floyd credits PSU for helping him learn to connect with a broad range of people. “My eyes were wide open and my ears were wide open,” he said. “There were so many languages, cultures, beliefs and perspectives.”
With an additional 10 episodes of “Expressions in Black” funded and scheduled to air beginning this June, Floyd reflected on Heart and Hustle’s quick pivot. “We all run the marathon toward equality by playing our role,” he said. “This is ours.”