Darden Re-elected; 2021 Convention to be held in Atlanta

Novelist Rashid Darden was re-elected National President of Gamma Xi Phi, the nation’s leading fraternity for artists.

The election took place at the 2019 National Convention in Washington, DC.

A charter member of DC’s Beta Chapter and the fraternity’s first National Executive Director, Darden was previously elected Third National President in 2015 and served for one term. He returns to the presidency after the completion of a successful two-year term by Sharnell Bryan, a writer, visual artist, and craftswoman also from Washington.

“I’m grateful to return to this position,” Darden said. “Sharnell has made amazing accomplishments in her time, and we can build upon them.”

Darden hopes for additional expansion of chapters and increasing membership over the next few years.

“Since I will be relocating to North Carolina in a few weeks, I think it’s important to shore up the fraternity in the Northeast, where we are already strong, and prepare ourselves for additional opportunities in the South.”

One of those opportunities will be the fraternity’s Fifth National Convention, to be held in Atlanta, Georgia in 2021.

Through a process utilizing a combination of Robert’s Rules of Order and Consensus Oriented Decision Making, the fraternity whittled down a list of eight potential convention sites down to just one upon which all delegates agreed.

Other fraternity leaders elected at the convention include Shawn Spencer, National Vice President; Sharnell Bryan, National Secretary and National Treasurer; and Demetrius Beynum, National Nominating Committee Chairman.

Rashid Darden is the author of five novels, an anthology of short fiction and essays, and a book of poetry. He is relocating to Northampton County, North Carolina, in June 2019 to write full-time.