Black Nouveau

(soothing music) (upbeat rhythmic music) - Greetings, everyone, and welcome to "Black Nouveau."

I'm Earl Arms.

April is both Minority Health Month and Stress Awareness Month.

We'll talk stress relief with the owner of a local yoga studio looking to bring the practice to more people of color seeking improved wellness.

We look back on the 2023 African American Male Initiative Summit on Black Male Achievement.

This month is the premiere of "Big George Foreman," Milwaukee filmmaker George Tillman Jr's latest venture.

James Causey talks with his Marshall High School classmate.

We begin, though, with other film news as the Milwaukee Film Festival's 15th Annual Film Festival commences.

- I got that book on Jene.

- Oh, good.

It's the finest analysis of being an outsider I've ever read.

I'm glad you found it.

There are books that can make a difference in a life.

- You're terrific.

Your husband appreciates you.

- [Woman] My husband?

(jazzy easy listening music) - Got you in a close up, professor.

You look just like Pearl McCormack in "Scar of Shame," Philadelphia Colored Plays, 1927.

(jazzy easy listening music) - Are we supposed to talk?

- I don't know.

- That's a clip from "Losing Ground," one of the first films directed by an African American woman, and here to tell us about that and other offerings is Marquise Mays, Black Lens programmer for Milwaukee film.

Marquise, so nice to have you on the show again.

- Happy to be back, yes.

- All right.

So we're talking about this film "Losing Ground," a repertory film as you describe it.

So talk about that in its place in the film festival.

- Yeah, so repertory screening or repertory film is when we look at a film from our past and bring it to the theater, typically in a restored version.

So yes, "Losing Ground" is one of the first feature films to be directed by African American woman, and we get the opportunity to see it in its, you know, original glory within, its like original film glory, but in a 4K setting.

So it's super, super exciting, and plus, it's a beautiful story about womanhood and love and relationships that I think is very prevalent to today still.

- [Earl] And directed by a black woman.

- Directed by a black woman.

Who else is better to tell that story than a black woman?

So I'm super excited to be bringing it back to the cinema.

- All right, amen to that.

So we'll talk about another film now, which is "Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power."

Let's watch this clip.

- [Speaker] Lowndes County was one of the poorest counties in the country.

- It was 80% African American, and in 1965, no black people registered to vote in Lowndes County, Alabama.

- [Speaker] People were followed.

People could lose their jobs.

- [Speaker] They were literally putting their lives on the line.

- All that because you're trying to register to vote, and they still organize.

- We wanted a movement that would survive the loss of our lives.

(tense dramatic music) - The white establishment saw it as a fundamental threat.

We saw it as a fundamental necessity.

- [Speaker] This is a play for power.

(soft rousing music) - We live in a world that is so heavily shaped by that movement.

- We have to continue to tell the story of how we got to where we are today.

- All right, Marquise, talking about Lowndes County, 80% black, no one registered to vote out of that group.

Talk about this film and why it's so important.

- It's a crazy stat, right?

Like it's a really, really crazy stat to look at and to think about in the context of a film, but one thing we try to do at Milwaukee Film is not only bring entertainment but bring historical films that can add some context to our current situation and the stats that we hold in Milwaukee with the amount of black folk who are registered to vote and with, you know, the political history of Milwaukee and our people, it's super important that we always find films to just reinvigorate our process and understand our power in voting.

- So similarities between the South and the North, right?

- We all came from the south, so it makes a lot of sense to show something like this as well.

- For sure.

So now we'll go to our third film, "Jasmine is a Star."

Let's look at that clip.

- [Person In Green Shirt] Okay.

One, two, three.

Okay, now gimme something fierce.

- I am giving you something fierce.

- Well gimme something more fierce.

("Pill") (school bell rings) - Hi.

I was wondering if you're looking for any new models.

Yes, I already sent in a headshot.

Jasmine Thompson.

- So you're still sitting with her in every class?

How's that working out?

- It's good.

Jasmine tends not to wanna sit with me because, you know, who wants to sit with the teacher all day?

- Jasmine, up here.

If I hate you then find someone new - I wanna drive.

- Baby, we've been to every eye doctor in Minneapolis.

I don't know what to tell you.

There's nothing wrong with taking the train or the bus.

Someday when you're a big star in New York City, that's all you'll be doing, sitting on the subway.

- All right, we were talking about this film, a little more family friendly but special nonetheless.

What makes this film so special?

- You know, I love showing films that are centered around our kids and their journeys and a good coming of age story, and we always love to show films in the Milwaukee Film arena where you have black kids really leaning into their own self discovery and their own journey, and Jasmine is a perfect protagonist.

She's like a perfect person that I think not only black girls can relate to, but black boys as well, and I think it's a great family fun option for the people in the city.

- For sure.

Now, there'll be a special presentation on April 22nd of Homegrown, a series of eight short films by directors from America's Midwest.

Here's a clip from one of those films in that collection that was shot right here in Milwaukee.

(melancholy string music) (siren wails) - [Dayvin] I am Dayvin Hallmon, founder and music director of the Black String Triage Ensemble.

The Black String Triage Ensemble is a group of black and Latinx musicians, violin, viola, cello, upright bass that play at the scene in the immediate aftermath of tragic events.

We in Milwaukee have chosen to prioritize shootings, reckless driving occurrences, and drug overdoses so that the seed of destruction that gets planted in your mind from either what you've seen or what you've heard does not continue to play over and over and over and over and take root and grow, and so the music that we play, the programs I try to design, are structured in that way to help move you across that river.

- And a special shout out to you, Marquise, because not only was that film shot in Milwaukee, you directed that film.

So talk about that and what's in Homegrown.

- Homegrown Future Visions is a partnership with Firelight Media, PBS, and the Center of Asian American Media, and I'm happy to be a recipient of that grant and that opportunity, And it's just, yeah, eight short stories of the America's Midwest, and I'm representing Wisconsin with a film from Milwaukee.

So I'm super excited to bring "Black Strings" to it, "Black Strings" being a film about the Black String Triage Ensemble, a group of musicians who travel to crime scenes in the summers, and they perform at the crime scene through five stages of grief, really trying to re-understand what a first responder is.

So I'm super gracious that they lent me their story and trusted me enough to tell it, and I'm happy that it's gonna be at the festival.

- Looking forward to all these films.

Thank you so much, Marquise, for coming on the show again.

Thank you.

- All right.

Now the Milwaukee Film Festival runs from April 20th through May 4th, and join us online to find out more about "Black Strings."

(upbeat rhythmic music) - Good morning scholars, and then they say.

G-O-O-D M-O-R-N-I-N-G Good morning (teacher and students clap) Good morning - [Narrator] Last month, 15 middle schools from Milwaukee and surrounding school districts participated in the Summit of Black Male Youth held at UW Milwaukee.

The summit is an event for young and disadvantaged black males, allowing them to be exposed to the benefits of higher education.

Middle schoolers attended on Thursday.

High schoolers attended on Friday.

James Hill, along with Dr. Gary Williams, were the original founders of the project.

- Initially we focused on high school youth, but then we realized that sometimes with these young men, it's too late by the time you get to high school.

They've already formulated their decision making and conflict resolution skills, and so we figured, "Let's reach out to them in middle school and get them to the point where they can begin to think critically about decisions that they're making."

The first summit, you know, I was shocked by the number of young men that we said, "Well, what are you gonna do?"

And they just said, "I don't have one.

You know, I'm either gonna be dead or in jail."

I mean, some of them at realized give the path that they were on.

They really had no future.

They were either gonna be in jail or dead by the time they got got to be their early 20s, mid 20s.

- [Narrator] This was the eighth summit that was held and, like previous ones, offered real life experiences to the young men.

- One thing about coming from the ghetto, you come from poverty, and we share a lot of our stories.

A lot of our stories are similar, and yes, my mother had me when she was 15.

I didn't know my father until I was 18.

I went to jail three times before I got it right.

I used to sell bags of joints all on the block all the time.

I'm not saying this to glorify this.

The one thing you youngsters should know is that you should learn from our mistakes.

- [Narrator] Nearly half of young black men born into poverty will be incarcerated by the time they're 23.

- By the time I was nine, 10 years old, I see enough violence to just take somebody off.

I seen domestic violence.

My sister was into prostitution.

My brother went to jail for murder.

My mother worked a job to do the best as she can do.

So by the time I was 13 years old, I had my own bag, my marijuana bag.

By the time I was 15, I had powder cocaine.

By the time I was 17, I had my own crew, and we were selling crack cocaine throughout the streets of Milwaukee.

And involved in that lifestyle, I was a 24 boy off 24th from Capital, 3818 North 21st Street, holla at ya boy.

That's what I was about, so about that life.

So I'm letting you know that you don't let the block define you.

Even though I was on that block and lived in the 53206 area, I didn't let that define who I am as a man.

I saw myself outside of that area, all right?

I saw myself outside of the area.

So today, I'm an entrepreneur.

Today, I'm a married man.

Today, I went from the crack house to owning my own dream house.

Right, Dre?

- That's real.

- So, slavery is...The slavery movement was when we first saw abolition in our country.

So when we think about like abolitionists historically, we think about the ending of slavery, right?

And that was a time that was a very powerful time in our country, but taking that same thought process and applying it to the 21st century, I think, is really impactful for them because abolition allows us to imagine something new rather than thinking about the current systems that we have in place and kind of how we can work around them.

So when we are thinking about communities, right?

When we're thinking about what we want our communities to be, we have to think about the things that harm us in our community, and we have to think about how do we get rid of the things that harm us.

And abolition is, again, just a tool to get rid of the things that harm us, and when we get rid of things that are harmful in our community, that not only just makes our communities better but it makes us better as well.

The abolitionist movement believed that slavery was illegal, and the movement worked to end slavery in the United States.

- [Narrator] 63% of black college students are the first members of their families to attend college.

That could present unique challenges.

That's why the summit invited a special guest who was also the first in his family to attend college.

- I'm the first person in my family on either side to go to college.

I'm the first person on my mom's side to go to college, first person on my dad's side to go to college, and, you know, I was able to inspire and be the model for, you know, people in my family that came after me.

So for instance, my younger sister, four years younger, was able to go to college after me.

Kids will be what they see, you know?

I've said that constantly in Milwaukee.

Like we need to make sure that kids have exposure to things beyond what they see in their neighborhoods.

You know, we're working to make neighborhoods all across the city stronger, but I'm not naive enough to think that things are perfect in every single neighborhood in Milwaukee, and so kids need to know that there are options beyond what they wake up and see when they go outside the door.

So programs like this create that exposure that they need so they know there's another pathway forward.

- Now, you are at a age where the biggest thing you should focus on right now is what you're learning and your maturity because what you are learning right now will define what you'll learn in the future, how you're gonna look at yourself, what you depend on.

So you should really be focusing on what you learn.

(upbeat rhythmic music) (soft bright music) - It's a moving meditation if you allow yourself to be guided, right?

So it gives you that space, and that space, I think, creates opportunities for clarity in your processing of issues later on.

I'm Joanna Brooks.

I'm the founder of Embody Yoga.

I actually started yoga when I was a kid.

My siblings had to be at school a little bit earlier than I did, and I was a light sleeper.

So when they would get up to get ready for school, they would wake me up in the process.

And so I would go in the living room, turn on the TV, and at first I would watch cartoons, and then I started flipping channels, and I came across this lady on PBS Channel 10 here in Milwaukee, and she was doing yoga, and so I decided to just get down on the floor and give it a try.

Obviously, yoga is good for the body, right?

It's movement.

So it's good for your muscles, for strengthening and stretching, flexibility, and all of those things.

But for me, the greatest benefit is the mental and emotional benefits that come along with the practice.

So feeling more grounded and centered in myself, feeling more calm and finding opportunities to be more present and mindful are the biggest positives for me that come from this practice.

I think so much like in our world today, we are constantly encountering stressors, and we don't have frankly enough time or opportunity to find ways to complete the stress response cycle, stress response cycle.

Some ways that we might do that outside of the yoga practice might be to call a loved one or give a loved one a hug or to create something, you know, those type of things.

But in our fast-paced society where there's a premium placed on productivity and always doing as opposed to being, most folks don't find that opportunity to kind of come down from those stressful experiences and reset.

So our restorative yoga practice is one of those opportunities where you are literally, when you're in class, forced to just relax because then they'll know it's for them, right?

Representation is important, so people know that the yoga practice is also available to them and for them, and I think so often when it comes to yoga, we often see images of white women of a certain body type who are practicing yoga, and that sends a message, right?

But when they walk through our doors and they see yogis of all sizes and colors practicing together, I think it makes them aware of the fact that they have a place here, that they do belong within the practice, and that in and of itself can be a great way to kind of draw people in.

(soft bright music) One of the reasons why we weren't seeing enough black yoga teachers and yoga teachers of color is because training is expensive, and so we figured if we could remove that barrier, we could kind of change the landscape and the face of yoga, at least in the city of Milwaukee, and we continue to do that work.

So since 2020, we've provided full scholarships totaling over, I believe, $21,000 for nine black folks to attend yoga teacher training.

Shavasana is traditionally our resting pose that comes at the end of practice, and often times, people joke that you are just lying down, but it really is a great opportunity to allow the body and the mind to rest deeply.

We are where yoga meets culture.

We wanted our students to see themselves and their culture reflected in the practice.

So when students walk into our studio, they literally see themselves everywhere.

They see themselves in the music that we play.

They see themselves in whichever instructor is leading the the session.

We are black owned and operated yoga studio.

All of our instructors are black women.

In the pre-class banter and conversations that are had, you know, there's just a really amazing opportunity to find a sense of community and an opportunity to see themselves in the other students that are here and in how we approach the practice.

And then I think even more important than that, knowing that I'm doing something that is purposeful that people see value in that is positively impacting other people on a very deep level, knowing that I'm helping to do that work really, really means a lot to me.

It makes me feel like I'm not wasting my life and the time that I have here.

(upbeat rhythmic music) Imagine that - [Speaker] You live one way your whole life.

- [George] Heavenly Father, thank you for this food.

George should change his name from Foreman to Poor Man.

- To hurt.

And freedom (punch echoes) - Down goes Frazier!

- What's my name now, fool?

- [Announcer] Foreman is the new heavyweight champion of the world!

- Where's all that rage come from?

- I don't have any rage!

Let diamonds burn - [George] And it becomes all you know.

- Let's thank God for the food, y'all.

- I bought the food, Mama.

- Those are scenes from "Big George Foreman," walkie native and filmmaker George Tillman Jr's latest film.

It covers a miraculous story of one of the most feared heavyweight champions in the world, George Foreman.

He won an Olympic gold medal and went on to win a world heavyweight championship.

Foreman retired to become a preacher, but financial hardship forced the former the champion to step back into the square circle.

Tillman joins us now to talk about "Big George Foreman," which opens up April 28th in a theater near you.

George, welcome back to "Black Nouveau."

- Thank you.

Thank you for having me, man.

Good to see you.

- Yeah, good to see you, too.

So why a film on George Foreman?

- Oh man, that's one of the greatest sports stories that ever been told.

Here's a man who lost the heavyweight championship to Ali, you know, in 1974 and, many years later, come back in 1994 and win the championship belt again at a age that nobody thought could anybody do it.

But on top of that, it's a great human story of George was a young man who was angry, who really was trying to find a direction in life, and then later, on he made a complete change, a spiritual change that made him a better human being.

So I love that story of thematic of change and the sports aspect at the same time.

- So did you grow up a boxing fan?

- Huge boxing fan, man.

ABC Sports used to play the Ali-Frazier fight all the time, and also, they used to play the Rumble in the Jungle.

So I was always watching these fights with my father back in the days.

HBO used to have monthly fights at night, and we used to go visit family and friends who had HBO.

Everybody got HBO now, but back in the days, there'll be only one person in the neighborhood, so that's where my love of fighting came to be.

- Yeah, I remember those days.

So Khris Davis is the star of the film.

What can you tell me about his acting abilities and how he played a prize fighter for this movie?

- Man, he's amazing in the film.

I mean, he was a Broadway New York actor.

I just saw him.

I wasn't familiar with his work till I saw him come into the audition, and I was surprised that he was 6' 4", huge, and he can act.

And our re the audition process was amazing, but on top of that, he wanted to do everything.

He wanted to be George Foreman.

He wanted to take the punches in the ring.

He was dedicated to his weight loss in terms of losing weight and then gaining the 200, 300 pounds that we need for the second half of the movie.

He was the guy who was very dedicated to that, and he did a marvelous job in the movie, and George Foreman really made it possible to make this happen, and he agreed that Khris was the guy to play him.

- Yeah.

So "Creed III" made $100 million in its first weekend.

How does that bode for a "Big George"?

- I mean, that helps us, man.

I mean, Hollywood, if you make a movie about a subject matter that doesn't work, they don't think they put money behind it.

I mean, you can't compete with the "Creed" or "Rocky" franchise.

I mean, that's a franchise I look up to.

So it's just so helpful.

It just made it feel like boxing is still prevalent in the theaters.

People still want to go see 'em.

So hopefully, I just want people to come out and support this movie as well.

- Now, I know this movie gave you a lot of challenges.

Can you talk about those - Huge challenge, the biggest challenge was we were green lit, you know, for the movie in 2019, but COVID happened in 2020, so we had to shut down.

During that shutdown, me and Khris Davis just kept working, kept preparing, and then by the time we got to the end of 2020, 2021, the beginning, hurricane happened in New Orleans, so we had to shut down again, and then we shut down.

There was a death of Michael K. Williams who was supposed to play the legendary Doc Broadus, who's George Foreman corner man.

Forest Whitaker came on to play that part, and we started back up and started shooting.

So it was like a three-year process to make this movie because of COVID and because of the hurricane that happened in New Orleans.

- So how did Forest Whitaker get involved?

- I knew from years ago when I started my first film, "Soul Food" at Fox.

I asked to look at some of the dailies, which is the shooting film, you know, pretty much the daily shooting schedule and the footage of each day.

So I learned from watching "Waiting to Exhale" when I first got to Fox, and he was directing that movie, Forest Whitaker.

And then when I did my second film, "Men of Honor," he showed up, he was at the premiere, and he had tears in his eyes and said he loved the movie.

So we've been friends just from here and there.

One of my greatest performance that I love from any movie is when he played Charlie Bird in the movie "Bird," directed by Clint Eastwood.

He was amazing in that film.

So we just became friends.

He just became like a mentor from afar.

Every time I see him, keep doing good work.

So we got a chance to do the film.

He read the script and he really, you know, connected to the story.

So he really helped us and saved us because we lost Michael K. Williams for the part, and he came in.

- Why should people go see this film?

- Oh man, if you wanting something inspirational in your life and you feel like you want some kind of spirituality, there's a spirituality about this film that you should see.

It has a lot about the church of spirituality, but we don't preach.

That's one of the main things the movie doesn't do, but another thing is you want to just bring a family where you can bring your kids, yourself, and your wife, your grandmother.

This is for everybody, and you are gonna feel inspirational, and the main thing is all true.

There's nothing false in it.

Everything is all there from George, and you're just gonna get a good, inspirational, fun film, and this is something I wanted to do.

My last film, "The Hate U Give," was a very complex film, very serious.

I wanted to do something a little more inspiring for this time around, and - Great.

- and that's what I'm excited about.

- Well, great.

George, thanks for joining us.

Can't wait to see the film.

- Great, thank you.

See you later.

- And as we close tonight, a reminder to join us online at milwaukeepbs.org.

We have a number of digital offerings, including an interview we did with George Foreman from the last time he was in Milwaukee for the Fatherhood Summit.

We also have an extended interview with director Marquise Mays about his film "Black Strings."

For "Black Nouveau," I'm Earl Arms.

Have a great evening.

(upbeat rhythmic music)