Happy Black History Month rap thank you so much for being here welcome back to our absolute favorite Dr Giani Clarkson he’s going to be joined today by our esteemed John Wells but we’re going to kick off the program with our Queen Carla Patton congratulations Queen 25 years y’all cannot wait for this
Conversation I am going to be quiet and let the show get started so thank you welcome can’t wait for this hi everybody thanks for joining us for today’s session I’m super excited for more than one reason one Giani is here um so always excited for that and
You may be thinking like is it Halloween why are you dressed up no it’s not Halloween but this past Sunday I was recognized as Honore and my sority Alpha CA Alpha sority Incorporated in which Giani will talk about the history of sorority but um I was recognized for
Having 25 years of service in the sorority and we were adorned with crowns and Medallion and we make it to Silver Star status in AKA land so I’m super proud I’m going to be celebrating all year long so you may see this again even without Giani so I’m sorry in advance
I’m excited so um thank you all for joining and Giani you can take it from here I’m super excited to hear what you have to say about our wonderful divine nine thank you so much and once again congratulations Carla and I should also congratulate my aunt as well who’s also
Joining us hey 25 years so that’ll be really great John this plans to be a good time I’m going to check and make sure that I can share my screen and once I know that I can share my screen we will be on our way so I’m going to get a
Thumbs up from you John and a thumbs up from you Carla or are we good we are good to go let it rip awesome let’s go ahead and let it rip I’m going to move this icon out of the way because I love to be able to see the full screen and
We’ll start something like this John uh to of course the Ice coold brothers where there is well no other to the pretty girls to wear 20 Pearls like kamla and Carla hey gorgeous we see you to the sons of blood and thunder to the devastating de Divas hey Tanisha we see
You as well too to of course the pretty boys the poodles to of course the gentlemen of Iota 5 Theta and those that are constitutionally bound to the sigmas and to the Zetas I say welcome and if you don’t understand anything that I just said don’t worry you will in ass
Set well let me clean this up you’ll understand enough for you to know and if you want access well get online John let’s get after it how’s everything with you everything’s great this is a fantastic topic uh as we talked earlier I know a little bit about it because
Where I went to school uh the Omega sci-fi were on campus so we have a little bit of familiarity but not to the depth and knowledge that you do so I’m I’m interested in in learning more and and having a great chat so excited hey let’s get after it let’s get
After so today we’re going to talk about the divine nine and divine nine of course are all the organizations that I just recently shouted out which of course is Ali alha attorney Incorporated Alpha cap Alpha Incorporated cap alasi frat Incorporated Omega SciFi Fraternity Incorporated Delta Sigma Theta Sor Incorporated 5 Beta Sigma fraternity
Incorporated Zeta 5 Beta sorority Incorporated Sigma gamma Rose sorority Incorporated and Iota 5 Theta Fraternity Incorporated I know it sounds like a mouthful but don’t worry we’ll clean this all up and it’ll make sense these are nine of the most important organizations of all of black history
And there it’s very hard to find any pinpoint inside of American History where you don’t run into any of these Nine stop signs that have been the change makers and those that have moved policy and principle around to help make sure that everyone gets a seat at the
Table and sometimes being bold enough to make tables of our own because we realize hey we need to do that as well too so what I’m going to do in the time that I have is that I’m going to stop and highlight one member from each of these organizations that have helped
Contribute to the art either in performing or visual now mind you I could do this lecture and it would probably last for days of all the great things that all these various members have did in different organizations but what I want to do is just give you a
Tidbit or just a piece so that what it does is it encourages your own individual research right now in vanity I could literally always start with The Originators which of course would be Alpha F Alpha Fraternity Incorporated but that’s not fair instead what I’m going to do is I’m going to start with
The youngest uh fraternity that was founded in 1963 but along the way before we get started I think the most important thing John I have to do is I have to level set and what I mean by that is that I need to tell you who we
Are versus who we are not we are fraternal and Authority organizations we are not a cult and we are not a clan we are developed and designed to make sure that people are of course always protected and make sure that we further of course missions of mankind whether it
Be the fact of in community service whether it be in scholarship or mentorship that’s what we’re here to do we are not any part of things that you make you denounce various things or def definitely denounce various methods or or origins or family members which of
Course seems to sometimes be a popular R we are willing to talk about our organization but we’re not going to tell you everything about the organization because of course John you being in a fraternity know this hey membership has its privileges and if you’re not a member there are priv privileges that
You just don’t have let’s just say this Divine n organizations are the superheroes we make sure that everything that is going great inside of various communities whether they be those that are down Tred those that are on the up mobile climb or those that are in a
Great place we are the superheroes you can’t know all our secret identities but you know us by our colors and our hand signals and I hope that I’ve explained that without being a little bit too cheeky along the way fair enough John oh yeah all good all right so let’s start
Here sometimes when we talk about fraternities and sororities we only think about one aspect of it and that aspect is always stepping now don’t get me wrong stepping is fun but uh we’re a little bigger than that well that was me uh that’s me I can
Still do that so John are you ready because we practiced this part you ready I’m let’s I yeah let’s do it yes that for those people that ask that is that is me and I hope that you’re able to hear the sound of that um
At one time in my life I actually did work at an organization that uh was really kind of the trend setters inside of using stepping as a tool as a Performing Arts form but also being able to reach out to students and this organization of course still still exist
Some 20 plus some years later which is absolutely great but I’ve always enjoyed stepping always found a way to connect to students and always kind of get them a way to be a segue into talking about Divine our organizations and of course talking about the importance of going to
College so we’ll start with of course 1963 but before that before that before that John you’re really smart let’s do this you remember this TV show okay there is a TV show right that was breaking all these records and was based in New York remember let’s sing the
Theme John then you know you know the theme oh yeah was it was yes it was it was friends and the theme song was sung by the rembrand or something like that yeah see John I don’t sing that one I say we are living single in a ni kind of world because if
We know anything about Living Single Living Single well friends is white Living Single but how did white living single kind of um happen right it happened because of a man by the name of course those that know the show Living Single of course know KY Barker but we
Also know by a man by the name of TC Carson TC Carson is a member of Iota 5 Theta Iota 5 Theta was founded at Morgan State University in 1963 now the reason why I want to highlight uh TC Carson was because he played a character by the name of Cal
Barker now in the 90s the fact that there was a black man that had this wonderful wealth of vocabulary he was really really well dressed and of all things he was a stock broker in New York this is the first time we’ve had a character like this so it was absolutely
Insane when this show was in its prime Living Single it got the attention of Martha cin and of course David cranberg who said if there is any show on TV that I would want right now that show would be living single well you changed some pieces around and now you have what
France but TC Carson was a major voice into making sure that Living Single definitely went out of his way to highlight A working class black folks that really were all absolutely intriguing from Kyle Barker’s character who’s a stock broker Erica Alexander’s character who was a lawyer Kim Fields
Who was basically this Rich debut town but also worked at a bank as well of course we had Queen latifa’s character who uh owned a magazine which was called flavor she took her friend along with her who of course with taking her friend along with her uh her friend worked her
With her as her assistant and of course we have of course on the end uh her boyfriend and a lot of people give him a bad rap because they want to pretend like he was just the guy that cleaned up the building nope absolutely wrong he actually owned part of the building
That’s right he owned part of the building this is where we talk about the importance of openly mobile people so KY Barker worked as the KY Barker or TC Carson helped to develop these scripts to make sure that black folks are highlighted in a different way so shout
Out to TC Carson a member of Iota 5 Theta of course 1963 found at Morgan State University which is in HBCU located in Baltimore Maryland all right sounds good we on a good trick oh yeah I remember yep all right let’s get to it good show and and the winner
Is so now we’re looking at African-American Oscar winners right we have octavus Spencer octavus Spencer won for the help we’ll put a pen right there for octavus Spencer we have Sydney porer of course Sydney porier won for Lily in the field we have of course uh Jamie Fox
Who won for Ray we have Forest Whitaker who won for the King of Scotland and of course the night that Denzel Washington said something that etched in my mind forever we’re going to kill two birds in one stone I see this evening where Denzel washon won for training day and H
Berry won for Monsters ball however let’s go ahead and go here Octavius Spencer plays uh a woman in the movie call the help about what it means to be a domestic for a a white family um and yet inside of all the great things that Octavius Spencer does we still have to
Deal with this fact that she’s once again wins an Academy Award for playing a domestic but the first africanamerican to ever win an Oscar is a woman simply by the name of Hattie McDaniel and Hatty McDaniel’s star power is really ignored she’s a member of Sigma gamaro Sigma
Gamaro was founded of course course 1922 at Butler University which of course is located in the state of Indiana now had McDaniel is a star twice over what do I mean by that there are 121 African-Americans who have stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame only 33 of
Them have multiple Stars okay she is one one of one who has multiple stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame she has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame of course for being in film and she has another star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame for radio
She HS the record of being the first woman ever to have her voice on the radio that’s right first woman to be on the microphone and have her voice broadcasted through the air and that’s why she’s there her Oscar which was given to her for going with the wind she
Had written this beautiful speech but however the studio at this time was very afraid that she would mention things about race racism in America and they wrote her speech for her that’s right if you ever go back and read that speech you’ll notice how mechanic that speech
Is but after the end of it she walks off she cries and you can see that she’s deeply moved had McDaniel though she always unfortunately played roles of domestics was a brilliant Shakespearean actor that we completely ignore and she never really gets that credit however she’s a train Setter someone had to be
Bold enough to step out there and of course be the first to be on radio be the first to uh lat go out of the way to sing gospel music in parts of the world that weren’t comfortable with a black woman’s voice being on radio but yet she
Fights through all type of stereotypes all types of racism and for that this woman of s gamaro we acknowledge her and had McDaniel we thank you her Oscar unfortunately is not we’re not able to find her Oscar Oscar has been said to be um stolen from uh Howard University
Unfortunately during the Riots of Dr King and has never been replaced hopefully the academy takes the time to bring that Oscar home to the people at Howard University because it’s important it’s black history and so is hady mcdan all right let’s go ahead and get
To it going to show you a number John 16% it’s a weird number it’s a very low number it’s uncomfortable number welcome to the 1930s right inside the 1930s in southern pin Florida there’s of course a really beautiful town there that’s of course known as like Eastville and Eastville has this
Really beautiful slogan that says that its soil is its riches its riches is its Earth uh many African-Americans post 1930s are still making money in a sharecropping fashion they are making money by working land that doesn’t belong to them and then selling crops to someone else and that’s how that money
Is being made because of this barely able to survive status in the 1930s only six actually between let me do this correctly between the period of 1930 to 1934 only 16% of African-Americans in the entire country are literate 1930 to 1933 are literate so what breaks this literacy Gap and helps
Change it to almost 72% just in a jump of two years let me introduce you to zor Neil hen zor Neil Hurston is a member of Zeta beta Sor Incorporated of course it was founded on the campus of Howard University uh right here in the nation’s capital in
1920 the jump in literacy comes to a book that she wrote called Their Eyes Were Watching God this book is highly controversial it’s highly controversial for the fact that this is a book that features an African-American woman and it talks about a lot of uncomfortable things at this time in 1930s it talks
About racism it talks about sexual assault on black women it talks about the levels of literacy it talks about a patriarchy that unfortunately exists and how this black woman though she’s trying to find her identity is trying to fight all these just Road Blocks one after one after one
And this book is beautifully written in fact of course read in 1937 now this book inspires a culture of African-Americans to want to be able to read no one wants to hear this story told to them John they want to he they want to read this story for themselves
And it’s been directly said that this book Their Eyes Were Watching God is directly connected to the literacy rate of African-Americans just not in the South but also in the north as well too now it’s very interesting that Zeta Beta sorority Incorporated is found at Howard
University and if you look to the right of the screen I have a copy of the newspaper called The Hilltop if you ever fortunate enough to come to nation’s capital and visit Howard University’s campus you notice that you have to walk up a hill to officially get on campus
From Georgia Avenue that’s where zoral Hurston of course gets the idea of the hilltop uh being the name of the paper and she’s the founder of this student paper the hilltop still exists today and believe it or not it is still and debate depending on how you want to debate this
The hilltop is either the fifth or sixth oldest African-American publication that is still publicized today and I and you it’s someone I just peaked in the chat that someone mentioned that yes zoral hon does favor Queen Latifa a lot as well too so you’re thinking about this that there’s this newspaper that’s been
Existence for aund some years started by by a black woman and still exists today and for that zorne huren we celebrate you and thank you all right John I you got I got I I just have a I maybe not so a quick question because I’m I’m tying
The 16% you know in the 30s literacy rate to this you know the 70 some odd percent and this book is the Catalyst what I’m what I’m wondering is this book must have done more than than inspire people to learn to read because I would imagine desire was always there but
Something systemically must have changed that that either there was that that African-Americans weren’t allowed in schools the school like how how do you go from right 16% to somebody out per systemically I guess is my question so it’s a it’s a book that where representation once again matters right
Like John you know you know being being in marketing we understand that people need to see them themselves and hear them themselves and this is a book that is unlike any other this is of course during the time of the Harlem Renaissance where so much great literature is coming out and no one
Wants to be left out though it’s the 1930s fomo has existed forever the fear of missing out now we have something that’s inspired people to want to be a part of this and and that’s why this book is so important now sadly and once again I say sadly because of the
Controversy that’s connected inside this book where there are conversations about sexual assault on African-American women the language goes a little blue sometimes because hey we’re we’re going to talk about what what it is what it is and some words are not necessarily the strongest educational view it’s been
Banned in many different districts and states which is a horrible move because this is something that happened and this representation is so important so I I I to this day I remember reading reading this book and being so taken back and I could not stop reading it so that’s why
I labeled her a bullhorn for equality because in a world where many stories were melel here’s a story from a black woman that’s led by a whether the B character the protagonist is a black woman and the antagonist is all the things that black women have to deal
With in their experience at that time and I I’ll go a little bit more uncomfortable and sadly many of the things that zoril hen talks about In Their Eyes Were Watching God are many of and I’m and please forgive me this is not me mansplaining I’m just here to
Report the news but there’s a lot of these things black women deal with in 2024 so why not read it because we we we clearly haven’t learned the lesson right so Sor Neil hon we thank you and we’ll go ahead and move on right what song makes you feel PR Pride
What song makes you feel Pride John that’s a it’s an interesting conversation right yeah you know it it it it really is I mean you can go to the to the cliches and stuff like that but there’s there there’s an interesting song for me um it’s play Pray for Jungle
Land by Travis Meadows and jungle land is song by Bruce Springstein but the the the song about the song is the song that makes me uh feel Pride so I’m I’m GNA go my alma moer you know but singing Dillard’s Alma Mo of course yeah um I’m G to go with of
Course my fraternity himm um pride and it’s gonna be it’s GNA be a little weird but uh Purple Rain by Prince I don’t know why just I love that song um but there’s there’s something about the word pride pride makes you swell up it makes
You feel a certain type of way I see someone put in the chat formation I like that as well too but think about a time inside the African-American LW where there’s there’s always this fighting Gras for Pride how do I say out loud that I am this thing I think about songs
Of Pride about James Brown Say It Loud I’m Black and I’m Proud but before then let’s go to of course the man the song of a Nation James welen Johnson uh who’s a member of f Beta Sigma founded in 1914 at Howard University now James Wen
Johnson wrote the song of all songs and it’s a song called list lift every voice and sing uh this song originally was a poem but because it was so great and so moving of a poem it was set to music and of course everyone knows this song um if
You don’t if you hear the opening chords you know exactly what time it is so it it’s it’s beautiful beautiful song um lift every voice and sing chill Earth and Heaven ring ring with a Harmony of Liberty like you cannot just not that opening lyric woo I mean it just does
Something for you right and it’s to me that is a a swelling and a call to action right so I put up top uh protest uh San Francisco 1971 and this song was sung at a swelling pace and when we talk about uh finding Justice for of course Black
Panthers and I mean this is like insane uh song in fact fact um during this protest that lasted for roughly 79 hours they sung this song over and over and over again and this song swells with such a pride so it’s very interesting to think that here’s a song that’s written roughly
1920s is now a song that’s sung 50 plus years later and still is part of African-American lexicon and no matter where we go so all that to say is that James welder Johnson’s Lift Every Voice it seen is the pride of a nation and you know though people try to commercialize
This song it is still a song that means a lot and it swells us all up with pride when we hear those opening lyrics in fact um I tease because I have a really great friend that knows all the verses to the song and we will sing this so
This is a song that means a lot and James wer and Johnson We Salute You for this wonderful song and we appreciate that poems what’s the first poem that you remember reading first poem that I ever remember reading was a shell Silverstein poem I am sure yeah right
Um and I had to memorize the only one that comes to mind is I had to memorize it uh for class and probably I don’t know Elementary School it was called ickle Me Pickle Me Tickle Me Too went for a ride and flying shoe hooray with
Fun it’s time we flew cried ickle Me Pickle Me Tickle Me Too over the Sun and Beyond the blue and I can keep going but uh that’s the first song I remember reading poem I remember reading I I remember of course poems by you know Lon Hughes and of course you know little
Nursery rhymes you learn as a kid but I I think about the fact of being so phenomenal of a writer that there are lit literally some poems that we will never see with our own eyes and I want to highlight uh this next artist which of course would be Dr Nikki Giovani now
Dr Nikki Giovani of course is a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorian corporate now Delta Sigma Theta was founded uh at Howard University here in Washington DC you’re talking about someone that’s just not a poet but a civil rights activist and at one time had the title of course
Of poet po po Lord uh inside the United States to be to have that title means that everything that you write is gold standard and just not the fact that you write it and it’s gold standard but your performance is gold standard here we talk about the fact of Dr Giovani uh
Poems being used as Conversation Pieces all these wonderful things that of course um help to motivate the Civil Rights Movement help to empower uh children’s movements inside of making sure that equality happened this is one of the lines that I took from a poem here and it says that sometimes I see
Things that aren’t really there like warmth and kindness when people are mean but sometimes I see things like fear and want to soothe it or fatigue and want to share it or love and want to receive it it’s a beautiful poem by um by Nikki Giovani and I I said I could have
Littered this page with all the brilliant work of Dr Giovani and all the of course the million contributions that she’s given to literary classes across the world but this has to be said as well too sometimes in entertainment we can tell some hard truths that we can’t say in political
Arenas right it’s a little it doesn’t hurt us as much and what I love about Nikki Giovani and the work that she’s able to accomplish is that she’s able to take a mirror and hold it up at American say see this is these are our problems
And and we can get better and most importantly I’m rooting for you um she’s not just a weather man or a weather woman she’s a person that tells you what’s wrong with the weather and how can we put things together and make things better she provides umbrella she
Provides comfort and her words are amazingly soothing and for that uh Dr Giovani we thank you for that and of course the women of Delta Sigma Theta uh sorority Incorporated I’m a little excited right now because I see one of my former students and she happens to be
A member of Delta stha hey Elizabeth I’m so proud of you all right what was the first song you remember hearing on the radio on the radio yeah and it’s funny because the Sailor radio now like my kids don’t my students don’t listen to the radio now
Yeah um I would have to say that would be Jim cochi you don’t mess around with Jim and a red Dotson with my mom in Honolulu Hawaii in 1974 wow I like that I like that I can sing that one too word for word but I’m
Not yeah I’m I’m I’m thinking like for mine it’s gonna be Junior’s Mama used to say Loose Ends um and I mean I can sing loose end songs like I wrote them and this is like you know 80s locin uh you got me hanging by a string I love love
That no I’m not singing I’m Not s i not saying that um and also I’m also of an error too um and I I’ll be old for a second it’ll be fun I remember of course putting your tape a blank tape oh in the in there and pressing that record button right to
Make sure that you got your song right now mind you if you’re a certain area you’re like I don’t know what you’re talking about listen when you didn’t have money or you was just trying to let’s just do this if you wanted to make the ultimate mixtape for a girl that you
Like oh this was the move this was the move so the radio has always been a way for the artist to get their new product out to a listening public um but what about a time where African-Americans unfortunately fought for radio time let me bring you to a man of Omega Sci-Fi
Fraternity Incorporated the king of swing a man by the name of count basy count basy is dealing with a very interesting uh problem along with Duke Ellington who’s also a member of alpha F Alpha Fraternity Incorporated Shameless plug there but count basy is dealing with the fact that he has a product that
Everybody loves the problem with this product that everyone loves is that everyone’s taking it from him and no one is paying for it count basy is really the father of not poola but being able for artists to have their songs played on the radio and get residuals back from
That he realized that this was extremely unfair to African-American artists and he went out of his way to fight radio stations about it tooth and nail anytime he went to a radio station he had a team that went directly to that radio station saidy hey you just played my song I need
My money and this is very difficult to do you know because this is not a cell phone email error he’s doing this by hand but what he did was that he level set to make sure that people were able to get paid for the music that was being
Played like think about it people are listening to your music John and you’re making all the money in the world off of this music that did that you you’re not making any music money off the music you created but yet this radio station is and count basy said I’m not for it and
Completely level set what needs to happen C basy is a not just a brilliant musician but a brilliant businessman so in the midst of us celebrating him as an artist he also lets people know I’m not gonna be a starving artist you’re going to pay me for my work and for that count
Basy we thank you uh unfortunately artists till today are paid Pennies on top of pennies Whenever there song come out but before there was count basy there was really no money paid into them at all and for that we thank count basy he was around today there’ probably
Be a different economics in the uh Spotify streaming streaming payments I’m thinking about you know streaming I’m thinking about having his own YouTube page all the things that happened and in the world of nil name image and likeness who knows what B would been able to get
Away with yeah the other side of the tracks um we don’t it’s it’s sometime a very disparaging term the other side of the tracks we think about the other side of the tracks we think about uh people that are unsaving people that we don’t want to be associated with we think
About uh people that are very different from us but what if there was a person that could hold a telescope up and say to us you know what we are um a lot different um we’re not that different two the two of us and I’m sorry I need
To clean something up because I’m playing something back in my mind Omega SII is not 1913 Omega Sai is 1911 that is a horrible mistake on my it’s 1911 I was gonna say something Giani but I doc spon but I I just was gonna let you get
Away call it out but I’m just like I was like I said that’s that’s absolutely Delta Sim Theta 1913 of course Omega SciFi 1911 and we’ll go right into his other organization as well too uh 1911 so the other side of the tracks we we have to have someone that holds a lens
Up to us right or holds uh Show puts us all in front of the telescope to see across the other side of the tracks and be able to s that you know we are not that different there’s Community ties to us um we are linked by a common goal of
Wanting to be successful wanting to be happy wanting our friends and family to be protected and one of the greatest tellers of this is a man by the name of John Singleton John Singleton is a member of cap alasi Fraternity Incorporated cap alphai is founded inside of Indiana University and there
Are two movies that uh highlight his career uh before he unfortunately passed away roughly about two years ago right of course if you are on FX and you’re watching snowfall or completed snowfall it’s a great um a great great great series shout out to the wonderful beautiful talented Angela Lewis who I
Went to school with at Cass uh who was also in a show place Aunt Louie but here you have John Singleton who has two movies that staple or bookmark his career perfectly to a certain extent we have boys in the hood but boys in the
Hood is a story that kind of once again shows light of what’s Happening inside of African-American communities along with you know gang violence and and trying to find a way out of no way everyone knows the heartbreaking scene of Ricky who is the guy that is going to
Make it and how unfortunately he loses his life and it sets off a Domino series of events uh Rosewood is a story of just this African-American Township that’s trying to survive in the midst of This Racist period of the late well early 1900s and how can this group of African-Americans fight against this
Racism that is trying to basically take over this to and their resources John Singleton is brilliant in this casting young casting unknown actors partnering them with actors that are wellknown and by doing this he creates a brand that is you know been tried to tried to be copi
Million times over and for that John singon we thank you for that because you’re showing a new lens of America and though you are not no longer on this side of Heaven John Singleton’s blueprint of how to tell stories inside of African-American communities is is kind of like followed
By many directors to this day let’s go here representation matters it it’s important right representation is the reason why I I went to an HBCU uh representation is the reason why I believe the things that I could achieve representation is a is a big deal seeing
Yourself means a lot um John on your end you’re seeing the fact of the casting of commercials being a lot different casting of of print art and magazines is a lot different people were one time looking very cookie cutter now people look different not different people look more American they look like what
America looks like for me representation matters and I’ll say this because uh I think about my HBCU experience and one of the reasons why I went to an HBCU was because really this woman right here and this woman is I like to call her America’s mom to a certain extent who is
Felicia Rashad Felicia Rashad has an acting career that is absolutely barnone right F Rashad of course is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sodian corporated founded 198 uh on the campus of Howard University right but though you see her on screen it’s the behind the work behind the the
Camera work that I want to talk about a different world was a show that was not was like no other uh if you were a kid a different world kid you know you have your favorite episode I mean of course I can give a couple lines Felicia
Felicia let’s go get a pizza don’t fool me there’s of course the episode where we really didn’t like Dean Kane and if you know what episode I’m talking about where we all kind of looked at Dean Kane kind of sideways for a minute which was a very powerful episode we think about
All the great things that were there Felicia Rashad went out of her way to make sure when reviewing the scripts of this of this show with her sister Debbie Allen to make sure that there was nothing but positive images that highlight the HBCU experience for for
Kids and I’m a product of that she did everything possible along with the other team of really great writers to make sure that nothing was offensive that there was always an upward M movement of feeling when you watch a different world there are stories about how she would
Bring in test audiences of high school students Sit Them Down watch let let them watch the show and then ask them at the end of it how do you feel about this I mean many of my friends we all wanted to go to human and then our hearts were
Broken when we found out human wasn’t even a real school but that’s the greatness of a different world um and we we have a we have her to thank for that um I know at times we we tend to lean a lot of the Brilliance of a different
World on male writers but no that’s not fair a lot of this Brilliance comes from Felicia Rashad and her willingness to test out audiences see how does this land or how does it fit inside of it so for that Felicia Rashad we thank you I’m I’m Shameless plug I’m happy to serve on
The Board of Trustees at Fords theater with her and she is is absolutely Pleasant and delightful and um hey that’s all I have to say about that it’s it’s that means a lot all right let’s go ahead and move on to this all right John you’re a music guy who stole the Super
Bowl all the Great Performances who stole the Super Bowl was it Usher do we give it to Prince we to Beyonce what about Stevie Wonder who stole the Super Bowl I know it’s a loaded question Marvin Gay like that Dr Dre who stole the Super Bowl when they performed in the Super
Bowl you like who they did it Michael Jackson because he was the first one to do it because they were developing programming so people would turn away to watch this halftime show on a different Channel and the very next year they decided to hire Michael Jackson and make the Super Bowl Halftime
An event so I would say Michael Jackson you stole my lead and I love that John because the person who’s responsible for really Ste stealing the Super Bowl is a man of alpha alpha attorney Incorporated let me introduce you to some uh Kenan Ivy ways ke and
Kenan I ways is a member of alpha F Alpha attorney Incorporated and in 1991 he realized that the Super Bowl show was absolutely awful and for those that do not know before you got all these brand named like Usher and Beyonce and Stevie Wonder they would do like themes like uh holiday things
Um music in space all these kind of weird things that would come out however Keen iy way inine with Tommy Davidson say you know what we can make a better show and they perfectly timed it along with CBS and stole 20 million viewers over to Fox for 20 minutes y marketing
People were absolutely Furious because you PID Big Money For Those ads and little do you know whoop 20 million of them went that way after that and John is absolutely correct the next year the performer was Michael Jackson they knew they had to do something so Keen Ivy
Wayes of course steals the Super Bowl halftime show but ke Keenan iy way is bigger than this theft of a halftime show and Living Color is a groundbreaking show that happened in the 90s it Rivals s live at this time and though some of the material like some
Comedy material doesn’t age well in 2024 what it did was it was a sketch comedy show that gave you know the start to many brilliant performers I.E David Allen Greer Jamie Fox Tommy Davidson and a little known actor at this time by the name of James Cary before he changed his
Name to Jim Cary we can also throw in the facts of the likes of of Jennifer Lopez other WS that we got an introduced to so this kind of without key and Ivy Waynes we really don’t have the Chappelle show we don’t have Kean pill we do not have um I’ll go
Say all that we don’t have a lot of the black women sketch comedy show which is brilliant on HBO by the way we don’t really have a lot of these great shows if it’s not for Ken Ivy Wayne and a Living Color and I want to be able to
Give him his flowers though he’s overlooked as a Hollywood Pioneer but yes he is a Hollywood Pioneer and he’s a father to the modern day of what sketch comedy can look like now this is not me overlooking like Flip Wilson and other greats comedy GRS as well too like red
Fox but I want to be very fair here in this modern era Keen Ivy Waynes laid out a really great blueprint of what it meant to write how to be political how to be relevant and also how not to trade in your culture for money and labs and
Everything else so for that I absolutely absolutely love Keen Ivy Waynes so to the greatest attorney in the world I’m not biased who was founded in Cornell University 196 ke wayes we thank you so John that is it we have painted a canvas of African-American greatness uh
It’s a canvas that of course could have went anywhere right we could have you know told the story of MC light who’s a member of Sigma gamaro and how her being a a woman and see all the great things that she was able to do we could talk
Forever about the work of Paul Robinson who’s of course as an alpha as well too we could talk about Morris Chestnut who’s in Alpha as well we could talk about uh all these really great people inside of these interesting ARA Franklin who’s a member of Delta Sim Theta Alicia
Keys is a member of alphac cap Alphas corporate and the list goes on and on and on and on so I say this when you see those beautiful letters up there those are stop signs and there’s nowhere where you stop in history that you can ignore the contributions of all these great
People and honestly I’m very humbled to share this with you thank you so much for your kind heart and your listening ears well awesome it’s always a pleasure and uh what I’m sensing is is while all nine are Divine one of them maybe a little bit more Divine for
You the other eight just picking up on that a little bit right right um but no go ahead go ahead no I was gonna say this is great and what I mean there’s there’s so much to to chat about and if anybody has any questions throw them in
The chat but what I think is is one thing that I find interesting is certainly the purpose-driven nature of the fraternities and sororities continues to translate to business success but what I also think is interesting in in in most if not all cases it was purpose– driven
And they weren’t doing it for the credit but yet the economics followed you know what I mean so if you think about it from a business perspective you know we have a purpose of standing up for individuality and I and I would just implore people you
Know figure out what’s what is right to be done and doing it for a purpose and then it sounds cliche but a lot of times then the economics come with that if it if if that is an outcome that can can be derived not that everything has to do
With economics like the the the book that led to literacy there was not an economic outcome from that but it was still a an impactful outcome so just the purpose– driven nature of the organization into what these people did in real life is is is very interesting
And compelling yeah it’s it’s it I’ll say this and you know of course inside of the lore of divine n there’s always a little friendly going back and forth with one another but at the end of the day it’s really about the upliftment of what’s going on inside of our
Communities and that to me is when it’s at its best and when it’s added to best it’s absolutely perfect and no one is ignoring the founding statement of why these organizations were founded you know all these organizations were founded in very unique times and have very unique reasons why they were and
Whenever someone says well which one is better of course there’s a joke of well of course mine is but that’s how you’re supposed to feel but the correct answer really is is that when we all work for the benefit of the community we are all better and that’s what makes it great
That’s really really what makes it great so um I’ve been able to of course make friends uh in all other various organizations and um we of course talk about history and proud of the me the work that our members are doing currently and those that have happened
In the past and that’s that’s really what makes it great it really is yeah yeah that is and um I believe the woman’s name and I forget Hattie was the first black person to win win an Oscar I don’t know M I would have told you it was
Sydney py so I don’t know where like she’s still not getting credit to this day because if you would have asked nine times nine 10 people that question most people would probably say Sydney por was the first black person to win to win an osar um so when yeah when Mo when
Mo’Nique wanteded her Oscar uh for precious she did a replica of hat McDaniel’s dress uh and wore it to uh the Oscars and had Daniels is is surround Han McDaniel is surrounded with some very unique controversy um she knows exactly who she is and they’re trying to knock her off her pedestal of
Who she’s not and she’s not going for it uh but we have to celebrate her because there are bold steps that are made in her life that I don’t think a lot of people would have made and and and for that that’s why I say hadie McDaniel
Just makes some really really B steps I also think about you know with John Singleton you’re bold enough to film this movie not necessary with the bright backing from Hollywood to tell this type of story and it towns up turns into a Blockbuster movie you know boys in the
Hood is still uh a staple of just Great America Cinema and you know that came from a black man what you know it’s funny you bring that up is one of my favorite lines uh in movies comes from that movie movie and I believe it’s Ice Cube and he says
Either they don’t know it don’t show or they just don’t care what’s happening in the hood and I I I recite that one of my favorites let don’t know John I’ll take it John I will definitely take it I will take it John well played I will definitely take it I’ll definitely
Take it so appreciate this you are tremendous I feel like we should just sit here for the rest of the day because I know you have more I know you have more in the clip no I I do but I’m trying to save things of course I am
Um highly intrigued and really excited about joining you all again for this 2024 campaign uh there are so many things that uh just in research uh want to share out and of course I’m not trying to tip my hand but there’s a lot of things that I’m working on that I’m
Very proud of and this is what year three of this yeah a year three of this and I cannot express once again my gratitude to of course to um our SilverStar Carla and of course you all just in general for uh inviting me to uh take part of this it’s been absolutely a
Joy to um share with such wonderful people and um such engaging people I I I I say oh I see someone put their documentary up there but Al also to say that um I don’t say this enough to audiences and it’s because sometimes it doesn’t
Happen but I want to thank rap for its bravery to talk about these uncomfortable things um post this Obama America many people think that there’s certain elements uh inside the soundtrack of America have disappeared because we we have a black president or we had a black president
Right and I really love the fact that rap is able to continuously push that envelope and get to the heart of matters and challenge people that are marketing towards Americana to say tell full and more and richer stories about who we are as an experience so for that I thank all
The people at rra for that and just really appreciate you all appreciate you so much Dr C and thank you as always to our Queen Carla thank you John we really appreciate you all right y’all sending you back into the day with love and
Light thank you Dr C we will see you in a couple of months sounds good see you all then thank you
source
