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Now and ICT.
>> In brighter news,

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thousands are celebrating
the completion of a new

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space in Madison that
honors and cultivates

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African American culture.
>> We're almost open.

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>> Surrounded by community
leaders, the founder of the

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center for Black Excellence
and Culture, Alex G.

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Proudly led the ribbon
cutting, which marks the

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completion of the 3700 zero
square foot space on

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Madison's south side, with
a place for meetings,

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lectures and social events.
G says the center

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unapologetically celebrates
Black history and people

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"Here& Now". Reporter Murv
Seymour talked to him about

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building the $31 million
space.

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>> Alex Gee, good to see
you again.

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>> It's good to see you too.
>> Murv by the time this

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airs, we know that little
clock on your website will

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have been ticking, ticking,
ticking. And it will hit

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zero.
>> What has it been like

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and how long has that clock
been ticking to make all

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this happen?
>> Oh man, this clock has

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been ticking my whole life
in some ways. Murv more

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specifically, probably the
thinking about putting

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campaign team, we had to
slow things down because of

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Covid. So we started
fundraising in 2021. So

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it's been five years plus
countdown in terms of, of

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seriously being able to see
the finish line.

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>> Yeah. And I hate to do
the old what does it feel

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like that that reporter a
great question, but what

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does it feel like Alex,
after all this?

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>> Oh, it feels like a
dream that's come true.

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It's one of those things
that's been in the back of

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my mind for probably most
of my life. It's why I

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chose to stay in Madison,
because I had my sights on

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doing something in South
Madison, where we grew up,

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where we spent time in a
community that's given so

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much to me. But to be here
and to realize that I stand

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on the shoulders of so many
people who rub my head and

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pinch, pinch my cheeks and
said, you're going to do

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something, young man. You
know, keep going to school,

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you know, give back to the
community, you know, keep

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your faith to stand on
their shoulders and to

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realize that they saw
something in me, and they

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encouraged me to stay here
and make the community

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better if I could. And so I
feel really honored to be

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chosen to, to do this and
pull our community together

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the way I've been able to.
>> Yeah. And as I was

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looking at your website, I
saw a line there. It says,

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this is going to be a
sanctuary for healing, a

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catalyst for growth, where
we bring Black culture,

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creativity, leadership,
research, innovation, all

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under the same roof. That's
right. How the heck do we

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do that, Alex?
>> Oh, with lots of

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partners and lots of
thought. You know, when we

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talk about health and
health disparities with

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African Americans,
typically the the

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assumption is many of us
don't have health care. We

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don't take advantage of the
health care that we want.

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But research through
schools of medicine and

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public policy are showing
that many of our

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degenerative diseases are
stress related. And so I

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can pick up a magazine and
read 15 different ways you

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and I die more readily than
our white counterparts. But

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what you don't read is how
do you mitigate that? So if

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stress is the culprit, what
do we do to reduce it? And

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so in our community,
historically, it's dance is

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swag. It's food, it's
hanging out. It's playing

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the dozens, it's
intergenerational

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programing, it's checkers,
it's watching TV, it's

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watching old 70s movies,
but it's spending time

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together where we don't
have to code, switch or

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feel that we have to be
someone other than who we

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really are. And so the role
here is to use all of those

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things that you have said
to reduce the stress. But

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the benefit of this, my my
great desire is that Black

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people live longer and
healthier lives. I haven't

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raised all this money. So
Black people can have fancy

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places to have dances.
>> And when you say all

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this money, people should
know 31 million, probably.

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>> 32, sir, 32 million.
>> I don't want to cut.

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>> You short. Who's
counting.

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>> Right? You're right. For
a debt free facility for

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completely debt free
facility.

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paint a picture, Alex, of
just like, what really is

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going to go on here? I mean,
yeah, we talked about, you

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know, the kind of a mission
statement kind of thing

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there, but like, give paint
a picture for us.

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>> Sure. Well, some of the
like we're sitting right

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here in our senior space.
So this is one of the

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programs that's ready to go
because so many of our

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seniors, once they've
retired, they just seem to

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disappear. We don't we
don't see them anymore. So

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we want them to come out
and have a place to hang

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out right next door to our
children's library, where

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they can help young, young
readers. We have a program

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that's for entrepreneurs,
innovators, and and folks

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that are ready to start
their own businesses. We're

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going to work on leadership
development, business

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strategy, development,
helping to raise money to

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launch those businesses,
and then helping to

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introduce people into our
social network so that you

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don't have a business
that's ready to go and no

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place to carry it out. We
have two films that will be

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showing real soon in our in
our theater. We're doing a

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couple of weddings here,
graduation parties. But the

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special thing that I want
people to know, Murv, is

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that we're only designing
about 25 to 30% of the of

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the programs here because
we want the community to

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come in and say, you know
what we need. Like someone

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came in here the other day
who's, who's newer to their

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job, and they said, we need
an NABJ like National

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Association of Black
Journalists. There's one in

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Milwaukee. I'm sure you're
familiar with it, but

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because there's a space to
host it, someone said we

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ought to do a Madison
version. That's the beauty

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of this space. Like, that's
not my job to do that. A

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journalist came in here and
said that others have come

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in and said, you know, we
need a doula program. Can

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we can we do that here? We
need self-defense programs

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for Black women and moms.
Do we have can we do that

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here? So for me, the beauty
the program is when we have

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space to come in together
and say, let's create an

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association or let's do
something to bring all the

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Greek organizations
together, the sororities

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and fraternities together
so that we can create a

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regional office of working
together. The beauty of

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this is I built it, I've
worked to fund it, but the

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community is going to help
to fill it.

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>> Yeah. And we thank you
for that, Alex. And there's

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a lot more to talk about.
a lot more to talk about.