Alex C, good to see you again.
It's good to see you too, Mur.
By the time this airs, we know that little clock on your website will have been ticking,
ticking, ticking, and it will hit zero.
Yes, it will.
What has it been like and how long is that clock being ticking to make all this happen?
Oh man, this clock's been ticking my whole life in some ways, Mur.
More specifically, probably the last decade, as we started thinking about putting together
a project team, a campaign team, we had to slow things down because of COVID.
So we started fundraising in 2021, so it's been a five years plus countdown in terms of
seriously being able to see the finish line.
Yeah, and I hate to do the old, what does it feel like, that reporter is telling me
a good question.
It's a great question.
But what does it feel like, Alex, after all, it feels like a dream that's come true.
It's one of those things that's been in the back of my mind for probably most of my life.
It's why I chose to stay in Madison because I have my sights on doing something in South
Madison where we grew up, where we spent time in a community that's given so much to me.
But to be here and to realize that I stand on the shoulders of so many people who rub
my head and pinch my cheeks and say, you're going to do something young man, keep going
to school, give back to the community, keep your faith, to stand on their shoulders and
to realize that they saw something in me and they encouraged me to stay here and make the
community better if I could.
And so I feel really honored to be chosen to do this and pull our community together
the way I've been able to.
Yeah, and as I was looking at your website, I saw a line there.
It says, this is going to be a sanctuary for healing, a catalyst for growth, where we bring
black culture, creativity, leadership, research, innovation, all under the same roof.
That's right.
How the heck do we do that, Alex?
Oh, with lots of partners and lots of thought.
When we talk about health and health disparities with African Americans, typically the assumption
is many of us don't have health care.
We don't take advantage of the health care that we want, but research through schools
of medicine and public policy are showing that many of our degenerative diseases are
stress related.
And so I can pick up a magazine and read 15 different ways you and I die more readily
than our white counterparts, but what you don't read is how do you mitigate that?
So if stress is the culprit, what do we do to reduce it?
And so in our community, historically it's dance, it's swag, it's food, it's hanging
out, it's playing the dozens, it's intergenerational programming, it's checkers, it's watching
TV, it's watching old 70s movies, but it's spending time together where we don't have
to co-switch or feel that we have to be someone other than who we really are.
And so the role here is to use all of those things that you have said to reduce the stress.
But the benefit of this, my great desire is that black people live longer in healthier
lives.
I haven't raised all this money so black people can have fancy places to have dances.
And when you say all this money, people say, no, 31 million problems.
Oh, the two, sir, 32 minutes.
Who's counting?
Who's counting?
At this point, right?
You're right for a debt-free facility, for a completely debt-free facility.
I'd love for you to paint a quick picture, Alex, of just like what really is going to
go on here.
I mean, yeah, we talked about, you know, the kind of a mission statement kind of thing
there, but like, paint a picture for us.
Sure, well, some of the, like we're sitting right here in our senior space, so this is
one of the programs that's ready to go.
Because so many of our seniors, once they've retired, they just seem to disappear.
We don't see them anymore.
So we want them to come out and have a place to hang out right next door to our children's
library where they can help young readers.
We have a program that's for entrepreneurs, innovators, and folks that are ready to start
their own businesses.
We're going to work on leadership development, business strategy development, helping to
raise money to launch those businesses, and then helping to introduce those people
into our social networks so that you don't have a business that's ready to go and no
place to carry it out.
We have two films that I'll be showing real soon in our theater.
We're doing a couple of weddings here, graduation parties.
But the special thing that I want people to know, Murph, is that we're only designing
about 25 to 30 percent of the programs here.
Because we want the community to come in and say, you know what we need?
Like someone came in here the other day who's newer to their job.
And they said, we need an NABJ, like National Association of Black Journalists.
There's one in Milwaukee there.
I'm sure you're familiar with it.
But because there's a space to host, and someone said, we got to do a Madison version.
That's the beauty of this space.
That's not my job to do that.
A journalist came in here and said that.
Others have come in and said, you know, we need a dual program.
Can we do that here?
We need self-defense programs for black women and moms.
Can we do that here?
So for me, the beauty, the program, is when we have space to come in together and say,
let's create an association, or let's do something to bring all the Greek organizations
together, the sororities and the fraternities together, so that we can create a regional
office of working together.
The beauty of this is I built it, I've worked to fund it, but the community is going to
help to fill it.
Yeah.
And we thank you for that, Alex.
We're going to talk about it, so this will be continued, and we appreciate you for joining
us on here now.
Thank you.