Derek Fordjour is an artist/painter and producer of documentaries. Fordjour received a B.A. degree from Morehouse College

Morehouse College

Morehouse College is a private, all-male, liberal arts, historically black college located in Atlanta, Georgia. Along with Hampden-Sydney College and Wabash College, Morehouse is one of three remaining traditional men's colleges in the United States....

 and an Ed. M. degree Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

.
Fordjour is married to LaChanze

LaChanze

LaChanze is an American actress, singer, and dancer. She won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical in 2006 for her role in The Color Purple....

, whom he met when commissioned by the widow, Mrs. LaChanze Sapp-Gooding, to paint a mural for her late-husband and his colleagues who perished on September 11, 2001. LaChanze was the winner of the 2006 Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical

Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical

The Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical is the Tony Awards award given to the actress who was voted as the best leading actress in a musical, whether a new production or a revival...

 for the role of Celie in the Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

 musical The Color Purple

The Color Purple (musical)

The Color Purple is a Broadway musical based upon the novel The Color Purple by Alice Walker. It features music and lyrics written by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray, with a book by Marsha Norman. It ran on Broadway in 2005 and has been touring throughout the US...

,
the Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey is an American media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer and philanthropist. Winfrey is best known for her self-titled, multi-award-winning talk show, which has become the highest-rated program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011...

 production of book The Color Purple

The Color Purple

The Color Purple is an acclaimed 1982 epistolary novel by American author Alice Walker. It received the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction...

. Fordjour has one son, Langston.

Fordjour is the executive producer of the "The Black Sorority Project: The Exodus", the story of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority

Delta Sigma Theta

Delta Sigma Theta is a non-profit Greek-lettered sorority of college-educated women who perform public service and place emphasis on the African American community. Delta Sigma Theta Sorority was founded on January 13, 1913 by twenty-two collegiate women at Howard University...

. The documentary is an independent historical initiative that is not funded, supported, endorsed or promoted by Delta Sigma Theta.

Fordjour is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha

Alpha Phi Alpha

Alpha Phi Alpha is the first Inter-Collegiate Black Greek Letter fraternity. It was founded on December 4, 1906 at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Its founders are known as the "Seven Jewels". Alpha Phi Alpha developed a model that was used by the many Black Greek Letter Organizations ...

fraternity. Fordjour was commissioned by Alpha Phi Alpha to create a portrait entitled "An Experiment in Brotherhood" to commemorate the founding of the fraternity.

External links

• The Black Sorority Project: The Exodus website
• The Black Sorority Project: The Exodus video