MADE by Sarah Buckner B.A in Global Studies, May 2013, Coppin State

MADE

by Sarah Buckner

B.A in Global Studies, May 2013, Coppin State University

A Thesis submitted to

The Faculty of The Columbian College of Arts and Sciences of The George Washington University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts

May 19, 2019

Thesis directed by

Susan Sterner Program Head for New Media Photojournalism Associate Professor of New Media Photojournalism

Dedication

This project is dedicated to great members of the Divine Nine. Greek life helped mold me into the person I always wanted to be. Always strive for greatness and when life gets hard

“Don’t Quit”. To my Que Dawg, my Omega Man, my heart MikeyMars, thank you for always ways believing in me. I never hit rock bottom because you were there to break my fall. To you my love, I dedicate MADE.

iii

Acknowledgements

This project would not have been possible, if it wasn’t for the many members of the Divine Nine that came before me. To Ms.Sewell, my 9 th / 12 th grade teacher, thank you for uplifting me, you were and still are my biggest mentor and friend. I want to give special thanks Shané Weaver for believing in me, without you this project would not exist. It was you who threw a pebble in the water and created the ripple effect that would lead to where I am today. Thank you to my many supporters who took the time to participate and support me in this project.

Infinite thanks to my many professors of New Media Photojournalism at the

Corcoran. Every photography, video, story-telling, editing and lighting skill I have is because you nurtured me and allowed me to bloom. To Susan Sterner, you have my greatest thanks, it was because you gave me a chance that all my dreams will come true. I am forever in your debt.

Abstract

MADE

Project MADE, is a multimedia video and photography project about the nine black sororities and fraternities belonging to the National Pan Hellenic council that refer to themselves as the Divine Nine. Through a series of testimonies, photographs, interviews and short documentary, the project shares a glimpse into who these organizations are, the history, and why they are relevant today. The purpose of project

MADE is for viewers to differentiate the Divine Nine from other Greek organizations and to reiterate the purpose and reasoning for their existence. www.project-made.com , is where viewers have the opportunity to learn about the history of the divine nine, become familiar with its organizations and provide feedback of improvement.

Table of Contents

Dedication …………………………………………………………………..…..………iii

Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………..…….…iv

Abstract of Thesis.……………………………..…….…………………..………...... v

List of Figures………..……………………………………………..………..…….…...vii

Chapter One: Thesis Research Essay………..………..………………...………………....1

Chapter Two: Thesis Visual Review Chapter………….……………………….…….….10

Appendices…………………………………….………………………………...…..…...19

A. Images from documentary film and Photo project….…………………………...... …19

B. Thesis Exhibition Installation…………………….……..…………………………….28

C. Project Website…………………………………………………….………………....31

D. Community Engagement………………….………………………….……….……....34

List of Figures

Figure 1 ………………………………………………………………...……...... 12

vii

Chapter One:

Thesis Reporting Chapter

MADE

The early 1900s were years of turmoil for the African American community. The

U.S. Supreme court verdict of Plessy vs. Ferguson in 1986, sparked a flame within the

African American community. African Americans observed the developing inequality resulting from separate, but equal and began to revolt. It wouldn’t be until after years of turmoil like the Atlanta Race Riot in 1906, that African Americans would see any kind of improvement and with that the civil rights movement increased momentum.

The organizations belonging to the National Pan Hellenic council that refer to themselves as the Divine Nine started with the first fraternity in 1906. It was in the early

1900s before the end of segregation that people of color faced constant discrimination and struggled with institutions of higher learning. On the campus of Cornell University, an assembly of African American students created a study and support group for people of color that faced racial prejudice. This small group ended up bringing about the birth of

Alpha Phi Alpha, the first black fraternity. A ripple effect was created because in 1908, on the campus of Howard University, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc was founded.

Wave after wave, African American sororities and fraternities were being founded by black leaders on college campuses: The fraternities are Kappa Alpha Psi founded at

Indiana University, Omega Psi Phi founded at Howard University, Phi Beta Sigma founded at Howard University and Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc founded at Morgan State

University. The sororities are Delta Sigma Theta founded at Howard University, Zeta Phi

Beta founded at Howard University, and Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc founded at

Butler University. The organizations have qualities that distinguish them from one another, but they share core purposes of scholarship, service to their communities and comradery.

Over time the perception of black Greek letter organizations, also referred to as

BGLOs, has changed, the history of black excellence forgotten and the positive light of serving the community that once shinned so brightly dimmed. It wasn’t until I really started digging into all the topics involving BGLOs that I started questioning myself as a member of one. Many of the articles involved hazing when I searched Greek life on the

Internet. I would have to be specific if I wanted to find anything on renowned members of society and educational leaders belonging to the Divine Nine.

I’d hear the way people would speak about Greeks in the past, proud with admiration, as prominent members like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who led peaceful movements based on the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi and his own Christian beliefs, that made way to achieve legal equality for people of color. Dorothy Heights a renowned educator and civil rights activist, and others like W.E.B. Dubois, Carl Stokes and Rosa

Parks all represented the Divine Nine with distinction.

These organizations continue to grow in strength and numbers. Delta Sigma Theta

Sorority, Inc., currently has 1,000 collegiate and alumnae chapters located in the United

States, Virgin Islands, England, Germany, Bahamas, Bermuda, Jamaica, Japan and South

Korea. Even the latest to join the Divine Nine, Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc., founded in

1963, has 263 chapters and approximately 30,000 members. Despite the continuous

2 growth, there are rumors that the era of black Greek letter organizations is coming to an end, that their purpose is not as great as it once was.

Sean Cooper is a member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., and is a Baltimore native who lives on the west side. Cooper has a mocha complexion and stands at about

6ft in height. He crossed, which is another way of saying joined, his fraternity in the spring of 1999. He joined at what was then known as Coppin State College, an HBCU in

West Baltimore, Md. Coppin State University started out as a teacher training school named in the memory of Fanny Jackson Coppin, an African American educator and advocate of woman’s rights. When discussing the important roles of black Greek letter organizations today he said, “Our role has diminished, especially if you consider the activism that a lot of our organizations were founded upon…the times were certainly different and it was important especially in the early 1900s for black people to ban together and work for the betterment of the communities as they existed then.” But he said, “As times grew on and things changed, and the plight of black people became a lot less ridged than it once was…the role of fraternities and sororities both changed and with their impact within the community…Maybe the need is still there, but not as great as it once was.”

Some believe the world of media has played a strong hand in destruction of

BGLOs. Gari McCarter, a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., who along with

Sean Cooper, crossed at Coppin State University in the fall of 2012 had strong feelings about the different platforms of media and Greek Life. “I think the worst thing that happened to Greek life is social media. …it’s just not good, it’s just completely tainted…It’s so many things that are private and are between Greeks that’s out there to

3 the world now…” McCarter believes that things like step and block shows, where Greeks showcase their talents by making an instrument of their body by clapping and stomping, should remain an in-person experience. It is during these performances that signature calls and sounds, belonging to distinct organizations are used. Shared with the world these distinctions sometimes become replicated and the misrepresentations become a problem for the Divine Nine.

McCarter wasn’t the only person belonging to the black Greek community that feels this way. Cooper shares the same feelings, “The media, I think plays a huge role in how we are perceived, whether it be fraternity or sororities or just news in general it’s not too much positivity infiltrated in the news,” he said. “Nobody is shining the light on these positive aspects that fraternities and sororities are bringing to the communities …That’s not news worthy… The stories going to be someone has gotten beaten or there’s been a tragedy resulting in something unforeseen.”

The Divine Nine continue to play a huge role in service for the community. It was just in April 2019, that Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, Inc., brought a mobile mammography unit to the Atlantic City Convention center to provide screening for uninsured, low income women in an attempt to fight breast cancer. At Appalachian State

University, the Rho Theta Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., along with the help of other fellow Greeks belonging to the Divine Nine created the project “Devasting

Prom Experience”. The project consists of eleven students from Watauga High School in

Boone, NC, undergoing an all-out free prom experience, from hair and makeup, to the dress and tuxedo. Each organization sponsored 1-2 teens to have this experience.

Although acts of kindness and involvement from the Divine Nine are continuously being performed, they rarely make it to the news. Articles like the one NBC

News published in November, 2017, “Texas State University suspends Greek life activity after frat pledge dies,” the death of a pledgee at Texas State University, is an example of what Cooper describes. The article described Mathew Ellis as a young sophomore pledging the fraternity Phi Kappa Psi, who died from what is suspected as an alcohol related death. President of Texas State University, Denise M. Trauth, suspended all Greek life at the school. She stated, "These chapters are prohibited from holding new-member events, chapter meetings, social functions and philanthropic activities until a thorough review of the Greek Affairs system is completed”.

Like NBC, CNN published a similar article the same month about a similar event at Florida State University. This article introduces the student, Andrew Coffey, as a 20- year-old, who was pledging Pi Kappa Phi who attended a party and was found unresponsive. The authorities suspect that the cause of death was a result of alcohol, though they are awaiting an autopsy report to confirm their assumption. Like Texas

University, Florida State University’s president, John Thrasher, has indefinitely suspended all Greek life following the death of Coffey. “For the suspension to end, there will need to be a new normal for Greek life at the University,” Thrasher said, “There must be a new culture, and our students must be full participants in creating it.” The article mentions other deaths that have occurred at other universities in recent years, including the death of Tim Piazza, a sophomore who died at Penn State in February 2017, while pledging, as well as a 19-year-old male pledge at Clemson in 2014. Although the

5 recent articles published do not specify or identify black Greek letter organizations, they were not excluded from the suspensions.

Some members of BGLOs recognize that there is dark shadow lurking around

Greek life and have tried different ways to shed light on the problem. It was earlier in the year that the film, “Burning Sands”, which premiered March 10, 2017, received a large amount of attention from those who watched it on Netflix. The film caused an uproar among the BLGO community, although it was directed by a member of the Divine Nine.

The film focuses on the main character named Zurich, an individual going through an illegal underground pledging process. During this process, the main character and the other members on his line go through extreme hazing. This film was written and directed by Gerard McMurray, a member of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. In an online article, published by Ebony , March 2017, McMurray was said to have commented that he hopes his film about a fraternity’s pledge process will start a dialogue among the Divine

Nine. Though a dialogue is what McMurray wanted to happen, members of the Divine

Nine, including his own fraternity, disagreed with the Greeks portrayal in the film.

A member of Omega Psi Phi, who chose to remain anonymous wanted to say this about the film “Burning Sands”. “Whoever made it shined a lot of negative light on the process of joining a fraternity that wasn’t all true.” Referring to a part in the movie where the pledgees are going through physical training, he says, “Yes, there is truth in the sense where your helping the fraternity… but you’re not joining to do push-ups and while you do it you get kicked in the ribs. I feel like they heard rumors of what goes on and made a movie about it.” When asked if there was anything positive he got out of the film he said,

“Positive things revealed, there were none, especially where a person died in the end, he

6 makes it seem like that’s what always happens. I do feel like people put too much attention on hazing and not the founders and what they would want you to do.” Though this member felt as though the film misrepresented Greek life, he did agree that there has been a shift in the Divine Nine and where their focus lies when it comes to Greek life.

Many members belonging to Greek letter organizations can see the changes unraveling within the Greek community. Although Greek members should be held accountable for their foolish acts of hazing, one must wonder are the individuals seeking membership into sororities or fraternities being held just as accountable. Individuals seeking membership into BGLOs as well as other organizations on college and university campuses, are well informed that hazing of any kind is illegal. On the website of the

National Pan-Hellenic Council, which is a collaborative organization of the Divine Nine, along with every individual website belonging to the Divine Nine, there is a page or tab that goes into profound detail about their policy on hazing. While it is known to still happen, initiates are held accountable to report hazing of any kind. Many who have come forward about hazing usually say that they were afraid to speak out or confess about being hazed out of fear of being ostracized socially.

Despite the existing flaws among the BGLO community there are still some who argue that Greek life is still relevant and needed in our various communities. A website called, “Watch the Yard”, is a place that highlights all aspects of the black Greek community. It publishes everything from step shows and viral pictures to covering the recent and old historical accomplishments of current and past members. A post about the

Alpha Phi chapter of Sigma Gamma Rho at, Howard University, that exhibits a highlighted service performed by the chapter was shared 887 times on Facebook from

Watch the Yard. “They have raised funds for Lymphoma and Leukemia, fed people on thanksgiving, adopted a block in their community to keep clean, held sex and health education events, served veterans at the Fisher House, and pushed voter registration.” On the Delta tab, a recent post where the Beta Alpha chapter of Delta Sigma Theta donated

$125,000 to Florida A&M University for female student scholarship. The purpose of

Watch the Yard is this, “The internet is changing the way college students interact & thus the concept of “The Yard” as being solely a physical place must be changed with it. By taking all of the videos on the internet that have to do with Black Greekdom and centralizing them digitally, our goal is to strengthen the Black college experience. It also encourages future generations to think about college and higher education. This website is not just the largest collection of Black Greek related videos in the world…it is a total revolution of the Black college experience.” There is said to be power in a name and

“The Yard” is another name for the black Greek community. One can only hope that with time, the negative labels that now seem locked onto the Greek community will dissolve and platforms such as Watch the Yard will increase and help bring back the bright light that once shinned so brightly on the BGLO community.

Bibliography

Rosenblatt, Kalhan. “Texas State University suspends Greek life activity after frat pledge dies.”, NBC News,15 NOV.2017 www.nbcnews.com/storyline/hazing-in- america/texas-state-university-suspends-greek-life-activity-after-frat-pledge-n820946

Levenson, Eric and Hassan, Carma. “Florida State University suspends all Greek life after pledge dies.” CNN 7 Nov. 2017, http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/07/us/florida- state-fraternity-greek-suspension/index.html

Danielle, Britni. “Gerard McMurray Hopes ‘Burning Sands’ Will Spark a Conversation in the Black Greek Community.” EBONY 10 March. 2017 http://www.ebony.com/entertainment-culture/burning-sands-gerard- mcmurray#axzz4yl8g9VdT

“About Us.” Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., http://www.deltasigmatheta.org/about_mission.html. Accessed 19 Nov. 2017.

Bartlett, Sarah. “Atlanta Race Riot of 1906 • BlackPast.” BlackPast, 28 Feb. 2019, www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/atlanta-race-riot-1906/.

Waggoner, Cassandra. “Fannie Jackson Coppin (1837-1913) • BlackPast.” BlackPast, 29 Jan. 2019, www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/coppin-fannie- jackson-1837-1913/.

“Black Fraternity and Sorority Members Are Helping High Schoolers Pay for Prom in North Carolina.” Watch The Yard, 18 Mar. 2019, www.watchtheyard.com/deltas/prom-nc-1/.

“About.” Watch The Yard, 18 Jan. 2019, www.watchtheyard.com/about/.

Chapter Two:

Visual Review

The tales of African-American sororities and fraternities and how they came about is long and full of twist and turns. The histories are rooted deep in the hearts of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). They exist in song, step performances, poetry and traditions. The history of how these organizations were started and the reasons they exist, has become lost among the people. If you were to ask a random person on the street, what black Greek letter organizations do, they would probably respond with “step”. Stepping is a type of performance put on by sororities and fraternities where they make instruments of their bodies using their hands and feet to create song and dance. Another response one might get would be “strolling,” where sorority and fraternity members make up a small dance routine that they perform at shows or parties.

I am a member of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., one of the nine black sororities and fraternities that belong to the National Pan- Hellenic council, that refer to themselves as the Divine Nine. I can personally attest that there is so much more than stepping and strolling to black Greek letter organizations, also known as BGLOs. Black

Greek life is not new unchartered territory when it comes to visual and written projects.

Existing projects present narrow views of the way that members of the Divine Nine are portrayed. Most project have focused mainly on the way the organizations look, such as color schemes that distinguish them from one another, but has not visually captured what the organizations are about. The project I intend to create visually will focus on how the

10 organizations differentiate themselves from one another, along with how the experience of belonging to the Divine Nine is felt after college. BGLOs are about scholarship, service and connection.

In the project published in the March 8 th 2017 issue of Vogue magazine, The

Enduring Legacy of America’s First African American Sorority , the images and videos of the members of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc, are beautiful. Gorgeous African

American young women are laced with white pearls around their necks. They wear white jackets with pink letters, outlined in green, that vertically read AKA on the right side of their chest. On the left side, above their hearts sits, the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority crest.

As beautiful as the images are, I question if the essence of the members photographed was captured. The problem BGLOs face in shaping their reputation is the outsized impact of stepping and strolling, considered a perk of pledging a sorority or fraternity.

Step competitions, chants, and stroll-offs are among the fun activities that spectators love to view. Rarely photographed is the “work” aspect of Greek Life, community service contributions, or members of BGLO community graduating top of their class.

The project published by Vogue includes photographs of beautiful members of

AKA dressed in their line jackets of pink and green and wearing their pearls that represent the twenty founders of their sorority. Photographs and videos of members as cheerleaders, Miss Spelman, Miss Maroon& White for Morehouse college are shown.

Photographed, is an older member of AKA, who is recognized as a Diamond member.

She is referred to a Diamond because she has been a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha

Sorority, Inc., for over 75 years. In this photo she is seen from head to toe in pink. A puffy pink coat, a pink head wrapping, sitting in a pink wheelchair. (See Fig.1) The

11 videos display members posing for a group picture and attending a grand tea party, where they are dressed in what looks like their Sunday’s finest, AKA style. These images capture the lifelong dedication to the sorority.

Fig. 1. A Diamond Member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. Photographed by Mayan Toledano from The Enduring Legacy of America’s First African American Sorority…; Georgia, February 2017 https://www.vogue.com/projects/13528828/american-women-first-african-american- sorority-alpha-kappa-alpha-history/

Though some photographic projects are spot on with how they represent the

Divine Nine others along with film industry may not do as well. The famous 1988 film

School Daze, directed and written by Spike Lee, plays to the common stigmas often associated with black sororities and fraternities. In the film, one of the characters, Half-

Pint, played by Spike Lee himself, is undergoing the pledging process and thus being subjected to what is now known as hazing. This character represents the not--so-- popular individual wanting to belong and having to prove his worth and dedication by enduring humiliation and physical mistreatment. Another character named Dap, who is Half Pint’s cousin is “pro black” and completely against sororities and fraternities and refers to them

12 as “wannabes”, comparing them to white fraternities and sororities. The film displays the opposition between the sororities and fraternities, it magnifies the pledging process and hazing, it brings to life the many rumors of torture often whispered among the crowd.

What the film doesn’t show is the service and education that the organizations were created for.

Sororities and fraternities are known for stepping, singing and popularity. They are even known for hazing. But they were built along the ideals of brother and sisterhood, scholarship, service and education. Films like School Daze feed into the stigma that the reason one mainly joins a sorority or fraternity is in search of popularity. That young men may join for the likelihood that their opportunities for sex may increase because they are a member of a fraternity. That some individuals even join for what they feel is power.

Whether this may be true or false, this isn’t the case for every person interested in joining a sorority or fraternity.

Spike Lee isn’t the only director to make a film that paints a negative picture of

Greek life. Most people probably wouldn’t pay this film any major attention when it comes to Greek life because it’s considered a kid’s picture, but Monsters University produced by Disney and Pixar does something similar to Spike Lee’s film. The character

Mike Wazowski, is a not so scary monster and outcast who dreams of being a “scarer”, a monster that powers his world by scaring. Wazowski later attends the university to begin his dream. He is very intelligent but lacks the ability to be scary, unlike his roommate

Sully, a natural born scarer who thinks nothing of education and rides off his legacy.

Sully is easily accepted into the popular and scary fraternity due to the legacy left before him, while his Wazowski remains an outcast and struggles to be recognized Wazoski

13 joins another fraternity that’s made up of outcasts who came together to create their own organization. Though many would not look at this movie as a serious representation of

Greek life it highlights on the negative stereotypes of Greek life.

The film Stomp the Yard, directed by Sylvain White, presents BGLOs through a different lens. The movie is about a young man named DJ who is a competitive street dancer. One night after a dance battle his brother is shot and killed by the group they defeated during the dance battle. DJ is sent away to Georgia to attend college where he ends up joining a fraternity and tries to win a step competition. Although the movie revolves around competition between two different fraternities and winning a step competition, it does a good job of not making hazing a central theme of the film.

There are a couple of scenes in Stomp the Yard which resonate with what it truly means to be a member of a Greek letter organization. In one of the scenes DJ is lying on the bed with his girlfriend studying. She attempts to distract his studying by flirting, but he politely turns her down and tells her to continue to study. This simple scene highlights in the black Greek world what it means to be scholarly.

In another scene of Stomp the Yard , the university dean who is a member of the rival fraternity, threatens to kick DJ out of school just days before the step competition.

When DJ approaches his fraternity brothers about the situation, they are disappointed that

DJ can’t perform and show signs of being more concerned about the step show. DJ reminds his brothers that the concern should be about his life and education that is being ruined, not the competition. This strong scene places attention back to the mission of

BGLO’s. It’s a reminder to not only those who are viewing the film for entertainment,

14 but also to members of fraternities and sororities that stepping, and strolling are secondary to the real mission of Black Greek life.

Problems arise when the identity and role of an organization is reduced to simple elements and these reductions leads to misrepresentation. The film Burning Sands, which premiered March 10, 2017, received a large amount of attention and caused an uproar within the BLGO community. The film focuses on a character named Zurich an individual going through the underground pledging processes. During this process,

Zurich and the other members on his line go through extreme hazing. Zurich’s father experienced a similar pledging process when he was in college, but dropped line, meaning he quit. Determined to be unlike his father, Zurich ignores his father’s phone calls and endures all that his big brothers of the fraternity bestow upon him. Zurich suffers physical exhaustion and abuse as well as mental and emotional mistreatment. He suffers from fractured ribs and a downfall in his schoolwork. At the end of the film during what is known as Hell week, when pledges go through the roughest part of the pledging process, before they officially cross over to becoming a member of the organization, one of the brothers on his line gets injured and dies. It is in that moment that Zurich understands his father and finally reaches out. The problem with this film is that it has taken the worst-case scenario of what could possibly happen during the pledging process and the worst members that make it into an organization and turned it into a whole movie that represents all BGLOs by naming it “ Burning Sands”. A term that members of BGLO recognize as an experience during the process of joining an organization . As a member of the Divine Nine, this movie is a misrepresentation of the black Greek community.

There have been situations in which the pledging process has gotten out of hand and unacceptable mistakes have been made. For example, a 1999 article entitled “ Greek

Tragedy” written by Paul Ruffin in the Washington City paper , tells the story of a man named Joe Snell who was pledging Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., at The University of

Maryland in 1993 when things got out of hand. The article goes into detail about Snell’s experience of hazing resulting in serious injury and a lawsuit against the organization.

Snell’s experience was truly an unfortunate one and there are probably a lot more experiences like his that occur and never get reported.

A successful project that tells the story/ history of the African American sorority

Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc is the film The Black Sorority Project: The Exodus , created by two New Yorkers, Derek Fordjour and Jamar White. Fordjour and White created a short piece documentary that focuses on how the sorority was started and the actions the pushed its beginning. The Black Sorority Project: The Exodus , is a documentary comprised of interviews, old original photographs, reenactments, and storytelling through narration. The documentary begins with the narration of Tamara

Tunie who represents the voice and Spirit of Delta Sigma Theta. While telling the story of the sorority and how it began, the documentary also touches on the history of Howard

University as well as, the history of race and class in the United States during the early

1900s. What makes this project so powerful is the dynamic use of historic images. There are informative and intriguing interviews of brilliant professors who studied and analyzed the history of earlier years. The professors break down everything that happened during those years to paint pictures for modern day minds, that may find it too hard to grasp what those times were like. What makes this project so powerful was the ability to take

historic images and bring them to life. The creativity shown in this project could be applied to other methods of storytelling by giving a story a voice.

A project that holds true visually of what it means to be a member of a BLGO is something that you rarely see in movies or photo projects. Visually this is what my project will consist of, MADE, a project that will tell a story of how the changing

traditions or stereotypes of BGLOS have affected the way sororities and fraternities are

viewed by non -Greeks.

Annotated Bibliography

Nnadi, Chioma. "The Enduring Legacy of America’s First African American Sorority." Vogue Mar.- Apr. 2017: n. pag. Web.

The project “The Enduring Legacy of America’s First African American Sorority.” is a visual project celebrating the sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha. It consists of a small written introduction before plunging you into the abyss of images of members of the sorority. While it is visually pleasing to the eye it lacks the ability to represent the sorority in a way that displays the sororities true purpose. The photographer for this project has strong skills that I admire and would use to compose a photograph, but has taught me that while attempting to create a striking image one must remember to also capture the essence.

School Daze . Directed by Spike Lee, Produced by Spike Lee, Performances by Spike Lee, Laurence Fishburne, Giancarlo Esposito, Tisha Campbell-Martin, Kyme, Film 1988

The film School Daze directed by Spike Lee is a well-known movie that dives deep into the tales of black Greek life as well as the color complex among African Americans. In this film Lee kills two birds with one stone while touching on two very sensitive but very important topics of discrimination of a culture against their own kind. While the movie hits a lot of accurate points, I believe Lees is bias in way he view Greek life and then portrays it in the film. His use of an all displaying discrimination coming form both side in the color complex was nothing short of brilliant and truth that I deeply admire

Monster University . Directed by Dan Scanlon. Written by Dan Scanlon, Daniel Gerson & Robert L. Baird, Performances by Billy Crystal, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi , Helen Mirren, Peter Sohn, Joel Murray. Disney Pixar 2013

Monster University was brilliant in capturing Greek Life and intertwining it into a children’s movie. It did so well of exposing the stereotypes of different social groups. While one may not want to believe that social stereotypes exist, this movie displays that even in a world of fictional monsters you can see yourself and find where you would belong.

Stomp the Yard. Directed by Sylvain White. Written by Robert Adetuyi, Gregory Ramon Anderson. Performances by Columbus Short, Meagan Good, Ne-Yo, Darrin Dewitt Henson, Brian White, Laz Alonso. Rainforest films production company 2007

Director Sylvian White tells the story of a young black male in this film whose life has one of two outcomes, to become a victim of the streets, or to make something of himself and thrive. This film has done well to combine college and Greek life all in one characters personal story. It did very well to not fall into the typically hazing scenario especially when Greek life played such a huge role in the film. I admire the director’s ability to stay focused on what the main purpose of what the film is really supposed to be about and not feed in to the stories of hazing that are very often associated with Greek life when it comes to films.

Burning Sands . Directed by Gerard McMurray. Performances Segun Akande, Sidney Alexandria, Malik Bazille,Toshi Calderón ,Cuyle Carvin ,Tosin Cole, Keenan Echols ,Mitchell Edwards ,Imani Hakim ,Steve Harris. Netflix 2017

Burning Sands tells the story of a young male college student undergoing the pledging process to become Greek at his university. The film does a very poor job of representing black Greek life by over exaggerating stories that you often hear associated with pledging or hazing. The film reminds me of the saying one hears often in the journalism world, that “if it bleeds it leads” It focuses on things so drastic and dramatic that it took value away from the film.

Black Sorority Project: The Exodus. Directed by Rosalyn Coleman, Derek Fordjour, Jamar White. Performances by Keisha Alfred, Patrice DeHaney , Tiffany Raelynn Eberhardt, Kimberly Eley . Red Wall Production 2006

Fordjour and White put together a very creative, and inspiring piece when it comes to what can be considered a documentary. It introduced the old to the new by taking old photographed images and adding parallax to them. It was visually striking to add still images, interviews and movie all into one project. The finally touch of adding a voice to tell the narrate the story as a character in the story was brilliant and it showed throughout the piece.

Appendices

A. Images from Documentary

B.Thesis Exhibition Installation

C. Project Website

D. Community Engagement