Safiya Songhai facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Safiya Songhai
Born	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Occupation	Film Director, Television Host, Television Producer, Beauty Queen
Years active	1999 - present

Safiya Songhai is an American film director, university professor, television host, and a former beauty queen. She is known for her work in movies and TV, and for teaching students about media.

About Safiya Songhai

Her Family Background

Safiya Songhai was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her parents, Dwight Lamont Hendricks and Tamara Pierce, met at a film festival in Philadelphia. Later, Safiya would win her first film award at the same festival. Her mother was a co-creator and host for a TV show called Visions. She also worked as a camera person and news editor for the show Frontline.

Safiya comes from a family with many talented people. Her grandfather was a famous skin doctor, Dr. Harold E. Pierce. Her great-uncle, Lawrence W. Pierce, was a retired federal judge. Her uncle, Barkley L. Hendricks, is a well-known artist. Actress and sportscaster Jayne Kennedy is her cousin.

Safiya's family has roots in the 300-year-old Pierce, Murray, Cuff, and Gould settlement in Gouldtown, New Jersey and Bridgeton, New Jersey. She is also a descendant of the Bamileke people from Cameroon, and has family from Haiti and Barbados. Her family also includes descendants of the Lenape and Iroquois native people from the Delaware Valley.

Her Early Education

After the age of seven, Safiya grew up in Roxbury, Massachusetts. She went to Boston Latin School, a very good high school. Safiya was excellent at public speaking, student government, and writing. She graduated in the top 10% of her class. She was also the president of the African Cultural Society and a member of the National Honors Society. Her classmates even voted her "most likely to become Head Master" because she was so involved in her school. Safiya also started two awards: the Latin Spirit Scholarship and the Crystal Apple Teacher's Award, while she was president of the Student Council.

Her College and University Studies

Safiya started her college studies at Dartmouth College, where she focused on film, history, and creative writing. She later moved to Howard University, where she graduated with very high honors. She was the third person in her family to attend Howard University. Safiya then earned her Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in Film and Television production from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, specifically from the Kanbar Institute of Film and Television.

While in college, Safiya became a television host at WHUT-TV in Washington, D.C., which is a PBS station. She also worked at WJZ-TV in Baltimore as a producer and announcer for the Maryland Lottery. In her final year of college, she won a student Emmy Award for her work.

Safiya's Film Career

Safiya Songhai
Safiya Songhai, 2006

In 2003, Safiya Songhai started her own film production company called Mpirefilms. Her first projects were short films, public service announcements, and even audition tapes for people hoping to be on reality shows. Her first film, LadyLike, was shown in many countries.

In 2010, Safiya became a full-time professor of mass communications at Prairie View A&M University. Her students and fellow teachers nominated her for the President's Teacher's Award and the PV Choice Awards for her excellent teaching.

Currently, she is an Assistant Professor of Video Production and Immersive Media at the University of Nevada, Reno.

Her Film Projects

Year	Film	Credited as
		Dir.	Wri.	Prd.	Act.	Role
2006	LadyLike					Mother
2007	In Silent Spaces
2008	The Trial of Charumathi					The Fallen One

Awards for Her Films

Journalism and Television Work

Safiya Songhai was an anchor for Arise News Now on the international news network, Arise.tv. In 2012, she was a weekend anchor and reporter for the ABC station KQ2 in St. Joseph, Missouri. In 2008, she reported on crime and justice for the Richard French Live show on WRNN-TV in New York. Safiya also contributed to the online news network FDNN-TV, covering stories about firefighters on the East Coast.

While in college and graduate school, Safiya worked as a TV host and producer for WHUT-TV, the PBS station in Washington, D.C. She won a Student Emmy as a co-producer for a special program called the Spring Black Arts Festival. Safiya also announced and produced the weekend lottery broadcast at WJZ-TV 13 in Baltimore, Maryland.

Safiya has been featured as an expert in two books: Shut Up and Shoot Documentary Guide by Anthony Q. Artis and Reel Food from Reel Women by Nina Knapp. She has also been featured in Hype Hair magazine and was the Jet Beauty of the Week in Jet magazine in December 2008.

Her Pageant Career

Safiya Songhai was the first runner-up in the Miss Black USA 2008 pageant, representing Massachusetts. She also had a notable career in the Miss America Pageant system. In 2004, she won the title of Miss Five Boroughs and placed in the top ten at the Miss New York Pageant. Before this, she was first runner-up for Miss District of Columbia in 2003, second runner-up for Miss District of Columbia in 2001, and first runner-up for Miss Metropolitan Manhattan in 2004. Safiya often performed a comedic monologue for her talent. She won awards for her interviews and on-stage questions in almost every pageant she entered.

Meaning of Her Name

The name Safiya means "clear and pure-minded woman" in the Swahili language. The name Songhai comes from a large and powerful West African Empire from the 15th and 16th centuries. This empire, now parts of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, was known for its leaders who valued education and believed in fairness for everyone, no matter their social status, money, or gender.