All right good evening ladies good evening so debra my first question is for you what does it mean to you as a woman as a black woman and as a storyteller to have been able to write and direct a film about alpha kappa alpha thank you for that question
Um i think what’s really important is as storytellers that we capture our own story that we tell our stories and that we look into the archives and we excavate the information that may have been buried the information that may not have risen to the top and present that
So that we can know that so that we can have the facts to be able to stand on our history stand on our legacy so for me as an initiated sore from ceo i was like oh i can’t wait to have this job this is like the best best job ever um
And i think our supreme basis uh dr glover for allowing me the opportunity to tell the story and to tell the story my way and to be able to um capture a love letter to all black women um centered yes this is this is about our history this is about black women centered
Around the story of our founders but this is for all of us to embrace and cherish and celebrate what we have accomplished as a community with alpha kappa alpha specifically so thank you for that question it’s an honor for me to tell that story absolutely and similarly i want to i
Want to ask you a similar question dr glover because you know historically african americans contribut contributions have they’ve been often overlooked they’ve been often undervalued uh especially the contributions specifically of african-american women so why was producing this film you’re an executive producer of this film why was producing this film important to
You why now well thank you before i answer may i take the liberty please i’m asking all members of alpha california please stand [Applause] thank you that’s a great look thank you [Applause] it was a vision to to tell the story of alpha kappa alpha because you’re right uh
History black history is often overlooked we’re left out of history so we wanted to make sure that not just african-american history but we’re a part of american history and that history must be told and so we said let’s put together this this dynamic uh documentary this movie that will tell
About africa for africa we show that this film has to be distributed nationwide we want everybody to know the accomplishments of of alpha kappa alpha and the divide nine we know that we can’t do things alone so we highlight alpha kappa alpha if you notice we brought in the divine nine and things
That had been done collectively it was important that we let the world know what alpha kappa alpha had achieved just as we know that uh steve jobs created apple and and jeff bezos created amazon we want everybody to know that nine black women on the campus of howard university made one
Decision that changed the world judge adams what does it mean for you to be able to be a cast member in this project um thank you for the question and i’m excited uh to be here and certainly to be among star wars and have the opportunity
To see this film on the big screen it’s the first time obviously that many of us have had that chance so i don’t know if you all enjoyed it as much as i do i’ve watched it on my computer screen but this is pretty amazing um so
The opportunity to be involved in this project for me was really quite um interesting i actually had had a number of conversations with uh our international president and ceo and she mentioned in one of those conversations that she wanted to capture the history of our sorority in documentary form
I actually was invited to a film festival in atlanta the bronze lines film festival because a friend of deborah riley draper adelta is a friend of mine and she wanted me to see her friends work and so i went to the film festival ran into deborah at the end of
Watching that documentary and asked her if she would be interested in working with us to make a film i did not know that she was a member of alpha kappa alph at the time and that began the conversation i ran back and called our supreme basis and
Said to her i’ve met someone that i think will be fantastic and would be a wonderful storyteller for us and finding out that she was a member of the sorority was the icing on the cake and so that conversation resulted in a meeting in atlanta from there dr glover
Was able to describe what her vision was what she wanted the documentary to look like and i don’t know that i expected that we would be in this place a little over a year later it’s been what about 18 months deborah it’s pretty amazing to uh have had the
Opportunity to be here and so i am very grateful that we now have the platform to tell our story our way because too often people say things about us that number one are inaccurate uh we always deal with revisionist history and so too often we don’t receive the credit we
Deserve and so if we want to make sure that our our stories are told we have to tell them ourselves so i’m very excited about this project and i want to thank of course our international president and ceo for her vision for her commitment to this project and for seeing it through
I i absolutely love what you said there about telling stories ourselves debra why is it important for us as black women to tell our own stories you are a storyteller you are a film director what does it mean for you as a black woman to tell stories and and why
Do why should we tell our own stories as opposed to having let others narrate for us thank you for that question it’s a really great question so nine years ago my very first film was here at this festival versailles 73 american runway revolution the story of 12 black women that changed american
Fashion predaporte in paris in 1973 that included beth ann hardis and pat cleveland um amazing women so being able to situate their story for me was the first time i had the opportunity to tell a story that centered black women and to be able to do that is game changing because you see
Yourself reflected in a positive way but you also remind everyone of the debt that’s already been paid you remind everyone of the work that’s already been done and the accomplishments that have been buried so for me it’s important to reach back and tell stories regardless of
Who the story is about but i only tell stories that are about us that’s kind of what what my mission is whether it’s about the models whether i think all my films may have been at this festival thank you martha’s vineyards african-american film festival wait a minute women couple of them
Weren’t but that’s okay but but but that’s to answer your question as a director as a writer i love talking telling stories finding stories recording stories and amplifying stories that are about us because we don’t get that opportunity to and it’s critically important absolutely i i loved watching so many accomplished
Women on the silver screen there are so many history makers so many so many accomplished women that are ceiling breakers that are women of alpha kappa alpha dr glover most recently this year we had a soror enter the white house madame vice president sarah kamala harris entered the white house
Additionally recently we have had a new honorary class of initiates with tracee ellis ross lisa leslie robin roberts and more incredible and phenomenal women what do these accomplished women bring to the table not just for alpha kappa alpha but what does it mean for us to be able to have such accomplished women
For in a larger extent for for all of us for all women well when black women succeed we all succeed when we see the role models and the icons that they represent us and we see that it can be done if you can see it you can be it if you
Can’t see it you can’t be it and so we look at there but we know there’s a lack of black women at the top of most professions whether it’s engineers whether it’s accounting whether it’s corporate america law medicine there’s a lack of black women so when we see the women who have
Achieved it makes us know that there are there are possibilities we’re always stressed uh in this administration that we have to strive to get to the top less and at the top of the corporations is what the corporate boards so we’re stressing women black women swore wars members of divine nine others
Let’s start getting on these corporate boards that’s what decisions are made we see people at the top we can be at the top of every profession and when you sit around that table if you’re not at that table you’re not a part of decision making you can probably
Send a note to someone but there’s there’s nothing better than being there yourself to represent who we are what we were who we are what we do so we have to be at that table so sisters let’s do it if you’re already on your game plan step
It up if you haven’t already started start it that’s where we are that’s who we are the story is about alpha kappa alpha’s origins and legacy but to a much larger extent it’s a story that documents culture and achievement of black women the impact of black women and how we’ve
Come together through purpose my question is for you judge adams what does the legacy of alpha kappa alpha mean to you through the lens of public service it’s a great question so when i think about um my own journey in alpha kappa alpha i had the the privilege of being
On the campus of howard university and being initiated there at howard university at alpha chapter and in that experience i was able to see young women women who graduated from high school a year or two before who were involved in student government who were leading in a number of different
Capacities on our campus that’s actually where i began leading and so i started leading and serving in high school but of course by the time i got to college it’s a different ballgame and so i was given the confidence that i needed to continue i think to fulfill my purpose on howard’s
Campus and i think the sea for public service was planted in me there so when i came back home and began working i think running for office was something that was very natural for me but that was for me really the not the the end but it was
A part of a journey in terms of service and so it’s not just serving in my profession but the work that we do as members of the sorority allows us to know that we number one can make a difference right and so when we have problems in our community that no one
Else is interested in solving uh nobody’s concerned about hbcus but black vote right nobody’s concerned about issues of health that disproportionately affect black women but black folk nobody’s concerned about what happens to our sons when they’re stopped by the police because that’s not the experience of
People who don’t look like us and so being involved in an organization that has as its mission elevating women and girls addressing problems that affect our community and having a group of like-minded women with you working in the same um working along the same lines to accomplish a goal is really really
Substantial and i think that we have to continue to do that and so now we’ve gotta we really do have an international platform in a significant way and we are raising issues in the way that they were not raised before and people can’t ignore them anymore because we now have the voices
That people trust and are listening to and so i think for me it is really a continuation of what i was expected to do by my family but it allows me to do it on a larger scale and with with other women who have the same commitment that i do absolutely absolutely
Thank you dr glover we have seen how the founders of alpha kappa alpha who at the time were just college stage women they leveraged their voices and collective power and i i want to come back to this idea of collective power but they leverage their voices and power
To make a difference how can we continue to do so looking towards the future and not just the past well i think this shows the power of of of women all together shows the power of collective voices collective women voices collective uh girl voices college forces because if you trace the civil
Rights movement it started with the colleges the cities the movements so it’s so important that we uh keep the hpcus and the colleges involved in this in the 2020 election i mean that is the biggest i mean that’s the demonstration of this collective power when when all the greek-led
Organizations the black the divine nine um alpha kappa alpha delta sigma theta phi beta sigma sigma gamma rho zeta phi beta alpha phi alpha kappa alpha psi omega sci-fi iota they all came together everybody they all came together and because somebody would send me an email and tell me you forgot me
We came together and developed strategies collective strategies of the black women organizations black women united that i really helped to found so well i found it so we came together and said listen let’s work together let’s get this vote out we’re all non-profit so we can’t
Really say for whom we must vote but we said let’s get them to the polls once we get them there they’ll figure it out so so that’s the collective power we’re talking about and i always stress and this is what i’m talking about vice president harris she said she always
Tries to mention that it was the divine nine and and she said be careful not to give alpha kappa alpha all the credit yes we’re we’re in the same organization but had not been for the strategic minds of the entire divine nine we may not
Have made it and so that’s why the this collective power is so very important in all aspects of our lives let’s make sure that we understand what these voices mean we got we went to the polls in 2020 and we elected a vice president so i mean that’s how important this
Collective power is this collective voice that’s all that’s how important is what we represent i love that so much um unity you know unity being able to use our voices collectively absolutely deborah you said earlier today that this documentary serves as a love letter to all black women can you talk a little
Bit more about that absolutely i think every time there’s a black woman behind the camera every time there’s a black woman writing a script executive producing a script when you see us on screen regardless of the affiliation that represents us as black women that represents our mothers our sisters our
Aunts our play cousins everything it it it does be because we see ourselves and that strengthens us that empowers us it’s aspirational it’s inspirational but also cements our place and what we’ve done and it reminds everyone and that’s what’s important to remind everyone of the power of black women and to ensure
That what we see is elevated and what we see is represented of all aspects of our lives that it’s not a three-dimens that is a three-dimensional not a cardboard one-dimensional aspect of us that we are truly birthed into womanhood and that’s why it’s important to me so that people can see
In this case faces of very beautiful three-dimensional fully realized black women and understand the power of that to honor it and respect it and to know it a follow-up question for you deborah uh you led this film through a pandemic oh yes through a pandemic i can only imagine
How how tough that was but you also were able to to navigate having this interview by madam vice president sora kamala harris what did it mean for you to have her participate in this film and and for her to recollect the importance of alpha kappa alpha to her well i wasn’t even
Certain that we’re going to even have madam vice president i you know i was kind of bugging um dr glover about the situation i was actually at at her house i was like you got to make this happen you got to make this happen i mean i
Really want to i really want to interview her this is really important and she said calm down hold on a minute and she picked up the phone and she dialed the number and i heard hello come look i need you to do this interview with this film director uh i
Know you’re really busy and all but can you spare some time to do an interview and dr glover was like when can you be in dc i was like when can she be ready and um and and they worked it out and that’s how i was able um to get the crew there
And then we have to go through a plethora a very detailed secret service and a covet compliance which we had done we started this um journey to making a film prior to the pandemic and then we had to stop flat out and i i had to make
That dreaded call and i called i was like so you know the film you want me to make we can’t make it it’s a pandemic and um and and dr glover said oh you will make the film you’re an alpha kappa alpha woman you will figure this out um i was like okay
And hung up and i was like okay let me figure it out so we we actually um created a 45-page covet protocol document which i’ve actually shared with other directors so that we could actually go interview people we were changing out you know microphones every possible touch point completely sanitized completely safe
Throughout that production we localized it to just a few markets so we wouldn’t travel a lot of people and wouldn’t expose a lot of people so for that it it was great and for me it was a training ground right so i got this call right after i finished this right before
I finished this film and it was to do um the legacy on black wall street direct two episodes on i hope y’all watch that did y’all see that all right and and because of having done the protocol for alpha kappa alpha and and 20 pearls i was able to go shoot
Those two episodes very quickly in tulsa oklahoma and have that on the air but that that’s what dr glover meant by she she would not take notes she was like you will finish this film and i might have a full-length documentary and it would be distributed and as a result of
Your leadership we finished a 90-minute film but not only that it became the first original documentary to be distributed by nbc universal comcast on their new platform the black experience let’s get around pause for that yeah so i’m gonna follow up because when i was talking to deborah and when she said
I may not be able to do this it’s it’s pandemic so i said well you have some options option one you have to finish the film option two you have to finish the film option three you must finish the film that’s exactly how it went so she said
Yes i do you may have said ma’am yes i do i love it so much please give a round of applause everybody for our panelists with that we thank you so much for coming to the screening and for listening to this conversation
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