Leadership Through Sisterhood and Service: Spotlight on the Divine Nine Sororities Pt4

Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc

Founding Date: November 12, 1922 at Butler University

Mission: To enhance the quality of life within the community

Motto: Greater Service, Greater Progress

Colors: Royal Blue and Gold

Famous Members: Victoria Rowell, Kelly Price (Honorary)

Victoria Rowell

 via: https://twitter.com/victoriarowell 

Victoria Rowell is best known for her role as Drucilla Barber on the soap opera, The Young and the Restless.  For her performance as Drucilla, she won 11 NAACP Image Awards between 1994 and 2006. She was born on May 10, 1959 in Portland, Maine to her biological mother, Dorothy, who suffered from schizophrenia.  At the age of 16, Victoria Rowell and her two sisters were abandoned by their mother and were surrendered to child services.  Throughout her career, Rowell has made appearances on shows such as The Cosby Show, Diagnosis: Murder and Dr. Phil and films like Eve’s Bayou and Dumb & Dumber.

Leadership Through Sisterhood and Service: Spotlight on the Divine Nine Sororities Pt3

Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc

Founding Date: January 16, 1920 at Howard University

Mission: To foster the ideas of service, charity, scholarship, civil and cultural endeavors, sisterhood and finer womanhood.

Founding Principles: Scholarship, Sisterly Love, Service, Finer Womanhood

Colors: Royal Blue and White

Famous Members: Dionne Warwick, Julia Carson

Julia Carson

Julia Carson was a member of the United States House of Representatives for Indiana’s 7^th congressional district. Carson was born on July 8, 1938. She was elected for Indiana Senate in 1972 and served 14 years.  Later, she held a seat in the house for 10 years, until her death in 2007.  She is recognized today as the first woman and first African American to represent the 7^th district and the second African American woman elected to Congress from Indiana.

via: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Carson

Leadership Through Sisterhood and Service: Spotlight on the Divine Nine Sororities Pt2

Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc

Founding Date: January 13, 1913 at Howard University

Mission: Public Service

Motto: Intelligence is the Torch of Wisdom

Colors: Crimson and Cream

Famous Members: Keisha Knight Pulliam, Kym Whitley, Betty Shabazz, Melissa Harris-Perry

Melissa Harris-Perry

Melissa Harris-Perry was born on October 2, 1973 in Seattle, Washington.  She is the professor, television host and political commentator who penned Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in American.  She is a professor of political science at Tulane University and she has previously taught at both Princeton University and the University of Chicago. Harris-Perry is regularly featured on The Rachel Maddow Show and is the founding director of the Anna Julia Cooper Project on Gender, Race, and Politics in the South. She received her bachelor’s degree in English at Wake Forest University and earned her PhD in political science from Duke University. Today, Melissa Harris-Perry hosts her self-titled weekend news and opinion television show on MSNBC.

via: http://www.louisianaweekly.com/harris-perry-adjusts-to-new-orleans-tulane-spotlight/

Leadership Through Sisterhood and Service: Spotlight on the Divine Nine Sororities Pt1

Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc

Founding Date: January 15, 1908 at Howard University

Incorporation Date: January 29, 1913

Mission: To be of service to all mankind

Motto: By Culture and By Merit

Colors: Salmon Pink and Apple Green

Famous Members: Phylicia Rashad, Loretta Devine, Wanda Sykes, Star Jones, Toni Morrison

Star Jones

Star Jones is a lawyer, journalist and television personality who was one of the original hosts of The View. She also came in fifth place on the fourth installment of Celebrity Apprentice.  She as was born on March 24, 1962 in North Carolina and raised in New Jersey. She earned her B.A. in Administration of Justice at American University where she joined Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. From 1986 to 1991, she worked as a prosecutor with the King’s County District Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn, NY and later became the chief legal analyst on Inside Edition.

via: http://blogs.bet.com/celebrities/entertainment-spotlight/tag/star-jones/

When it rain and rains....

"Rain is good for me. I feel like I achieve clarity actually when it rains. The longer I have to sit and wait, the clearer my game becomes to me." 

~ Venus Williams on her tennis game.

The Rain can often be such a good excuse to sit around and do nothing. I didn't want to work yesterday, or do any errands despite my to do list being as long as ever. The Williams sisters (they are famous tennis players!) are such an inspiration for women everywhere. They are strong, independent and so successful. Stumbling onto this quote really turned my day around. The rain is a good time to achieve clarity. 

 

Leadership Through Poetry

via: http://www.yale.edu/bsc/keynote%20dinner.html

Hello My Gorgeous Viewers!

Next weekend, Yale will be holding its 19^th Annual Black Solidarity Conference and the keynote speaker will be Nikki Giovanni.  She is a poet who has become prominent due to her work as a civil rights activist.

She was born in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1943.  Growing up, she was close to her grandmother who influenced her writing.  Giovanni developed an appreciation for her African-American heritage because of her grandmother.  Nikki Giovanni explains in an interview that “[she] came from a long line of storytellers.”  As a young girl, Giovanni moved with her family to Cincinnati, Ohio, where her teachers served as a support system.  She attended Fisk University where she served as the editor of the campus literary magazine, participated in the Fisk Writers Workshop and worked to reactivate the Student Non-Violence Coordinating Committee (SNCC) chapter at Fisk. After graduating with a B.A. in history in 1968, Giovanni completed graduate studies at both UPenn and Columbia. Today, she is a professor at Rutgers University.

Not only has Nikki Giovanni produces literature like Gemini and Black Judgement for adults but also works like Ego-Tripping and Other Poems for Young People and Lincoln and Douglass: An American Friendship.

Be inspired. Get Involved. MAKE a CHANGE!

Reference: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/nikki-giovanni