I was actually looking for a story about convention when I ran across this. It does give more info than I've previously heard. I still don't agree with it. No sireee Bob.
Sorority film seeks to educate, not expose
By Elizabeth Wellington
Inquirer Staff Writer
With more than 200,000 members, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. is the largest sorority for black women in the world. Sorors are active well after graduation, and famous Deltas include educator and civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune, actress Sheryl Lee Ralph, and singer Aretha Franklin.
Today, close to 16,000 Deltas will be in town for the sorority's 48th annual convention, which will feature workshops on leadership, economic development and political awareness.
Like all black fraternities and sororities, Delta Sigma Theta's social network extends beyond its membership to include the black middle class in nearly every American city. And like other Greek organizations, the group's inner workings tend to be shrouded in secrecy.
Which is why Black Sorority Project: The
Exodus, a 45-minute documentary by New York filmmakers Derek Fordjour and Jamar White, is getting much buzz on Greek chat forums and through word of mouth.
There will be two showings tonight at The Bridge in University City, at 8 and 9:05, followed by a question-and-answer session. Close to 600 people are expected to attend; there are a few seats available on a first-come, first-serve basis. (For more information, go to
www.blacksororityproject.com).
The film is largely an educational work and does not deal with controversial topics associated with black Greek organizations such as hazing and skin-color issues. Yet in spite of positive reviews posted on chat rooms after the film's premiere before more than 500 people - including some Deltas - in New York last month, the sorority says it does not support it.
In a note on its Web site (
www.deltasigmatheta.org.), national president Louise A. Rice writes: "Please be advised that the executive board has taken action not to in any way endorse, support, sponsor, approve of, or (become) involved in this project or any project marketed under a slightly different name."
"The first thing I thought was hazing," said Dawn Jones, a national spokeswoman for the sorority who has not seen the movie. "And we do not approve of hazing."
But Jones added that the decision had more to do with the timing of the film than its content.
"It was just the fact that we didn't have any creative input in the movie," she said. "It just didn't fit into our time line, and this is something that the sorority would want to do in the future."
The film could easily be shown in classrooms to college-bound high school seniors interested in joining the sorority.
"There are no surprises," Fordjour said.
"We want it to be a tool possibly played during Black History Month or maybe on the Oxygen network as part of a discussion on women and civic education," White added.
Black Sorority Project: The
Exodus is an adaptation of the first 60 pages of Paula Giddings' 1988 book, In Search of Sisterhood: Delta Sigma Theta and the Challenge of the Black Sorority Movement.
Delta Sigma Theta was founded at Howard University in 1913 by 22 members of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority (the first black sorority, founded at the university in 1908), who elected to leave it because of a shift in ideology.
The first Deltas were more interested in aligning themselves with the ideals of turn-of-the-20th-century social activists W.E.B. Dubois and Booker T. Washington than with the AKAs' social elitism.
"These women weren't interested in whose parents had the most money," White said. "They wanted to see social change."
The movie opens with a montage of black-and-white photos of college students, while the Howard University marching band plays a brassy version of "I'm So Glad." Fordjour and White depict a Howard University where black students of all skin tones - not just those with skin lighter than a brown paper bag - are focused on academics and progress.
Actress Tamara Tunie (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, As the World Turns) narrates. The 22 founding members are introduced through a rich oil painting by Fordjour.
Scholars Richard J. Reddick of Harvard University, A'Lelia Bundles (great-great-great-granddaughter of pioneering hair-care entrepreneur Madam C.J. Walker), and Beverly Guy-Sheftal of Spelman College provide historical context.
It all leads to the movie's climax: the sorority's participation in a woman's suffrage march in spring 1913.
"No one ever thinks about a black women's club [in connection] with women's suffrage," Fordjour said. "We wanted to tell the story of Delta Sigma Theta in the context of the women's history movement."
As active members of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc., the first black fraternity, Fordjour and White, both 31, say they are sensitive to the secrecy in Greek life. They would never do an expose, they said; they were interested in writing about what they knew and using mixed media to advance the language of documentary filmmaking.
Fordjour has a fine-arts degree from Morehouse College, and White has a fine-arts degree from Pratt Institute in New York. The duo is known in Greek circles for An Experiment in Brotherhood, their 35-minute documentary about Alpha Phi Alpha. (Its annual convention in Washington begins today also.)
Their Derek & Jamar production company is in pre-production for Black Sorority Project: The Genesis, the story of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc.
Sorry, T La Rock, LL killed it. 
Linear Mode
