Now and ICT. >> In brighter news,
thousands are celebrating the completion of a new
space in Madison that honors and cultivates
African American culture. >> We're almost open.
>> Surrounded by community leaders, the founder of the
center for Black Excellence and Culture, Alex G.
Proudly led the ribbon cutting, which marks the
completion of the 3700 zero square foot space on
Madison's south side, with a place for meetings,
lectures and social events. G says the center
unapologetically celebrates Black history and people
"Here& Now". Reporter Murv Seymour talked to him about
building the $31 million space.
>> Alex Gee, good to see you again.
>> It's good to see you too. >> Murv by the time this
airs, we know that little clock on your website will
have been ticking, ticking, ticking. And it will hit
zero. >> What has it been like
and how long has that clock been ticking to make all
this happen? >> Oh man, this clock has
been ticking my whole life in some ways. Murv more
specifically, probably the thinking about putting
campaign team, we had to slow things down because of
Covid. So we started fundraising in 2021. So
it's been five years plus countdown in terms of, of
seriously being able to see the finish line.
>> Yeah. And I hate to do the old what does it feel
like that that reporter a great question, but what
does it feel like Alex, after all this?
>> Oh, 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 had 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, pinch my cheeks and said, you're going to do
something, young man. You know, keep going to school,
you know, give back to the community, you know, 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, 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. You know, when we
talk about health and health disparities with
African Americans, typically the 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 is
swag. It's food, it's hanging out. It's playing
the dozens, it's intergenerational
programing, 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 code, 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 my great desire is that Black
people live longer and 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 should know 31 million, probably.
>> 32, sir, 32 million. >> I don't want to cut.
>> You short. Who's counting.
>> Right? You're right. For a debt free facility for
completely debt free facility.
paint a 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, give 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 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, young readers. We have a program
that's for entrepreneurs, innovators, and 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 people into our social network 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 will be
showing real soon in our in our theater. We're doing a
couple of weddings here, graduation parties. But the
special thing that I want people to know, Murv, is
that we're only designing about 25 to 30% of the 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, who's newer to their
job, and they said, we need an NABJ like National
Association of Black Journalists. There's one in
Milwaukee. I'm sure you're familiar with it, but
because there's a space to host it, someone said we
ought to do a Madison version. That's the beauty
of this space. Like, 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 doula program. Can
we can we do that here? We need self-defense programs
for Black women and moms. Do we have 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 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. And there's
a lot more to talk about. a lot more to talk about.