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Alex C, good to see you again.

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It's good to see you too, Mur.

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By the time this airs, we know that little clock on your website will have been ticking,

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ticking, ticking, and it will hit zero.

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Yes, it will.

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What has it been like and how long is that clock being ticking to make all this happen?

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Oh man, this clock's been ticking my whole life in some ways, Mur.

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More specifically, probably the last decade, as we started thinking about putting together

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a project team, a campaign team, we had to slow things down because of COVID.

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So we started fundraising in 2021, so it's been a five years plus countdown in terms 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 like, that reporter is telling me

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a good question.

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It's a great question.

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But what does it feel like, Alex, after all, 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 my mind for probably most of my life.

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It's why I chose to stay in Madison because I have my sights on doing something in South

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Madison where we grew up, where we spent time in a community that's given so much to me.

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But to be here and to realize that I stand on the shoulders of so many people who rub

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my head and pinch my cheeks and say, you're going to do something young man, keep going

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to school, give back to the community, keep your faith, to stand on their shoulders and

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to realize that they saw something in me and they encouraged me to stay here and make the

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community better if I could.

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And so I feel really honored to be chosen to do this and pull our community together

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the way I've been able to.

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Yeah, and as I was looking at your website, I saw a line there.

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It says, this is going to be a sanctuary for healing, a catalyst for growth, where we bring

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black culture, creativity, leadership, research, innovation, all under the same roof.

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That's right.

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How the heck do we do that, Alex?

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Oh, with lots of partners and lots of thought.

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When we talk about health and health disparities with African Americans, typically the assumption

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is many of us don't have health care.

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We don't take advantage of the health care that we want, but research through schools

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of medicine and public policy are showing that many of our degenerative diseases are

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stress related.

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And so I can pick up a magazine and read 15 different ways you and I die more readily

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than our white counterparts, but what you don't read is how do you mitigate that?

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

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And so in our community, historically it's dance, it's swag, it's food, it's hanging

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out, it's playing the dozens, it's intergenerational programming, it's checkers, it's watching

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TV, it's watching old 70s movies, but it's spending time together where we don't have

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to co-switch or feel that we have to be someone other than who we really are.

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And so the role here is to use all of those things that you have said to reduce the stress.

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But the benefit of this, my great desire is that black people live longer in healthier

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lives.

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I haven't raised all this money so black people can have fancy places to have dances.

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And when you say all this money, people say, no, 31 million problems.

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Oh, the two, sir, 32 minutes.

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Who's counting?

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Who's counting?

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At this point, right?

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You're right for a debt-free facility, for a completely debt-free facility.

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I'd love for you to paint a quick picture, Alex, of just like what really is going to

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go on here.

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I mean, yeah, we talked about, you know, the kind of a mission statement kind of thing

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there, but like, paint a picture for us.

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Sure, well, some of the, like we're sitting right here in our senior space, so this is

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one of the programs that's ready to go.

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Because so many of our seniors, once they've retired, they just seem to disappear.

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We don't see them anymore.

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So we want them to come out and have a place to hang out right next door to our children's

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library where they can help young readers.

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We have a program that's for entrepreneurs, innovators, and folks that are ready to start

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their own businesses.

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We're going to work on leadership development, business strategy development, helping to

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raise money to launch those businesses, and then helping to introduce those people

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into our social networks so that you don't have a business that's ready to go and no

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place to carry it out.

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We have two films that I'll be showing real soon in our theater.

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We're doing a couple of weddings here, graduation parties.

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But the special thing that I want people to know, Murph, is that we're only designing

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about 25 to 30 percent of the programs here.

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Because we want the community to come in and say, you know what we need?

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Like someone came in here the other day who's newer to their job.

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And they said, we need an NABJ, like National Association of Black Journalists.

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There's one in Milwaukee there.

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I'm sure you're familiar with it.

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But because there's a space to host, and someone said, we got to do a Madison version.

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That's the beauty of this space.

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That's not my job to do that.

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A journalist came in here and said that.

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Others have come in and said, you know, we need a dual program.

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Can we do that here?

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We need self-defense programs for black women and moms.

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Can we do that here?

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So for me, the beauty, the program, is when we have space to come in together and say,

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let's create an association, or let's do something to bring all the Greek organizations

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together, the sororities and the fraternities together, so that we can create a regional

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office of working together.

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The beauty of this is I built it, I've worked to fund it, but the community is going to

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help to fill it.

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Yeah.

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And we thank you for that, Alex.

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We're going to talk about it, so this will be continued, and we appreciate you for joining

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us on here now.

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Thank you.