Black Nouveau

(bright twinkling music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) - Hello everyone and welcome to "Black Nouveau."

I'm Earl Arms and this is our edition For August.

Last month, the Republicans held their convention here in Milwaukee and nominated Donald Trump for president.

There was little talk about a Republican platform, but more public interest than they wanted in Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation's proposal for federal governance.

Many citizens are worried about the changes it could bring about if enacted.

We'll talk with two community leaders about their concerns.

Joanne Williams remembers Delores Wilkins Nicholson, the first African American woman to earn a nursing degree in Milwaukee.

And we'll look back at the Milwaukee Art Museum's celebration of Juneteenth.

(upbeat music) August is also the month we observed the Atlantic slave trade, especially the Middle Passage.

From about 1518 to the mid 19th century, millions of Africans made the 21 to 90 day voyage across the Atlantic under harsh conditions to become enslaved in the Americas.

Joining us to discuss the Middle Passage and some of the activities being planned by America's Black Holocaust Museum is historian Dr.

Rob Smith.

Doctor, thank you so much for joining us.

- Glad to be here as always.

- Absolutely, so first off, talk about what's important to know about the Middle Passage.

- Well, you highlighted maybe the core issue, and that's the sheer volume, the numbers of human beings that were a part of this transatlantic process by which Africans of various nations, of various regions of West and West Central Africa then get moved not only to the United States, but across the Americas.

And scholarship and research has found that initially we were thinking 12 to 15 million.

Now that number has grown to somewhere between 15 and 20 million.

Keeping in mind that a significant percentage of these folks don't actually make it.

And the notion that that many people were involved in that process teaches us a lot about the ways that that particular process reshapes the globe, reshapes economics, plays a central role in changing the fabric, not only of West and West Central Africa, but also the Americas and other parts of the world.

So it's a significant moment in human history and one that we are continually learning about and need to learn more about.

- So speaking of, today, which strikes you the most about the Middle Passage as far as what you see as far as demographics, Black people all across the Americas, what about that stands out?

- Well the transatlantic process does give birth to what we call the African diaspora, and that's why certain regions of the world and certain regions of the Americas look the way they look.

It's that African presence along with the European and indigenous presence that reshapes so many of these environments across the Americas.

One thing I do want to share though, is that the Middle Passage oftentimes gets associated with the boat ride, but we really need to back that up and start at the moment of capture, or trade.

At that moment, folks then have, potentially, hundreds of miles to walk to the coastline, and then at some point, they're held in what we call slave fortresses and could be moved along that West and West Central African coastline.

And then they might board a ship to go somewhere other than their homeland across the Atlantic in various parts of the Americas.

They might get moved in multiple ways across the Americas as well.

So this is not just simply a boat ride, it's a much longer and even more arduous, disgusting journey.

We've seen and heard various ways, through documents, reenactments, films, documentaries, the experiences of folks aboard slave ships, the suffering, the violence, the sexual violence, the indignities that folks suffered.

And yet somehow or another people thrive, people survive, and they figure out a way to deal with this gruesome situation.

- So how is America's Black Holocaust Museum observing these events here?

- Well, we do on a regular basis.

So our standing exhibits speak to this history.

We train our grios and junior grios to be able to talk about and discuss and narrate this history, because if people can live through it, we can certainly learn about it and talk about it.

But one of the things we're doing in August is highlighting the importance of not only the history of our founder, but the significance of racial violence.

And we're doing so through a traveling exhibit, called "Unmasked," where we are engaging with artists, and artists have created renderings that speak to how they have interpreted this history of racial violence and lynching in the United States.

So the traveling exhibit, "Unmasked" is going to be with us from August 7th through the middle of September, and we hope folks come out and really have an opportunity to see how artists play a significant role in helping us think through these tragic moments.

- I wanna go back and talk about what you described as far as the Middle Passage, a disgusting journey.

What do the descendants of those who survived the Middle Passage, you see 'em, you see us every day, what do you see?

What does that say about people who've survived that?

- You know, as much as we talk about slavery, slave trading and understand the brutality of that system, one central feature is resistance.

People resist, and resistance can simply mean surviving or thriving, making it through a particularly harsh, evil situation and system.

What then begins to happen across the Americas is these folks who are enslaved people, from various parts of the continent of Africa, then start to reshape agricultural practices, they start to reshape cultural practices, and deeply impact those cultural practices in those new environments.

They begin to create communities and relationships with indigenous populations as well.

And so that longstanding history, the progeny, if you will, gives us a rich set of cultural tapestries that are very important as we think about what happens as folks move into the Americas.

- Dr. Robert Smith, thank you so much for being here.

- Thank you.

(upbeat music) - But it was a nursing song for us because we were going to be nurses.

- [Interviewer] Okay.

So let's hear it.

- (laughs) I don't sing so good.

- [Interviewer] Go ahead.

I dedicate myself today To those who need my tender care And so (mutters) lift the cross that others bear And (hums) (laughs) I'm sorry.

(pair laughs) It's been 65 years ago.

(laughs) I have to think about that.

- [Joanne Williams] Delores Nicholson Wilkins was surprised she could remember that much of the song the nursing students sang when they were in school in the 1940s.

But she clearly remembers being the first African American graduate of Mount Sinai Hospital's nursing school.

That was in 1950.

When you went to nursing school, were you the only African American in class?

- I was, and not only that, in all the other schools, there were no other African Americans.

I applied at three different schools and I was accepted at Marquette, and I was accepted at Deaconess, at the time, it was Deaconess Hospital, if I could find another minority student to go with me.

And my mother said, "Why does she have to have," you know, and they said, "Well, we don't want her to be lonesome."

- [Joanne Williams] What did they mean by that?

- Well, if I was gonna be the only minority there, I guess they thought I wouldn't have any friends.

That's the nearest I can figure.

- [Joanne Williams] But she did not get lonesome.

In fact, she learned how to adapt to the circumstances.

- All through school, I didn't ever feel that I was being left out because I was an African American.

At the time, we were Negroes.

(chuckles) And I went to their homes when we'd go home on weekends.

They'd say, "Oh come on, Delores, come with us, come with us," and so I didn't feel any outward discrimination from the students.

Our class continued to visit after we graduated for years.

We'd take trips together and whatnot, and one of my classmates said to me, "Hey Nick," I was Nicholson, "remember when we were working at Children's Hospital?"

And I said, "Yeah, it was hard there.

We had to make our own Q-tips.

We had to do this and had to hold a two... Oh, that was something else."

She said, "Yes, and remember that time I told you one time they got us working like," the N word.

And I don't even remember it, but all these years, she had carried that thought, and I don't even remember she said it.

- [Joanne Williams] Delores attended North Division High School in Milwaukee.

She played in the bands, even worked on the school paper.

She studied science and math, but didn't know what she wanted to do after high school.

In the late forties and and 1950, how many options for professions were there for Black women?

- Well, I don't know.

Most of the people that I knew were either social workers or teachers.

- [Joanne Williams] How many other nurses did you know at the time?

- None.

- [Joanne Williams] Her father came up with an option.

- That's a god-given decision.

My dad came home from work one time, he worked at A.O.

Smith, and he says, "Hey, you know what, a man at work told me," he said, 'If you've got a daughter, she can be a nurse in three years and she can make good money.'"

I said, "Dad," I said, "okay, I'll be a nurse."

(laughs) - Our visit to what is now Aurora Sinai Medical Center in downtown Milwaukee brought back more memories.

I know you're gonna recognize something here.

What's this?

- That's the dorm, when we moved in, and my room was this room right here by that window.

I was by the balcony.

- You got a balcony?

- Yeah, I told you everybody complained because I had a private room.

Those were the only two private rooms up there.

And this is Emma Felger.

She was a X-ray technician.

- [Joanne Williams] She has slowed down as she faces her 90th birthday, but she still practices her skills as a parish nurse at Calvary Baptist Church.

- Well, it depends on which parish you're in.

You look and see what the people in that particular parish could use, and then, there's no set program in each parish that you work.

You're supposed to know the parish and what fits their needs the best.

So we've had health fairs, and we've had speakers, and we've had diet programs.

And I'm really pleased with one of the diet programs because I had a folder and every so many weeks I'd give 'em a new page to put in their folder, and the children said, "Well, we want one too."

So we had a chance to get our children involved in healthy diets.

- [Nurse] So how many minutes did you do this week?

- I did 35.

- 35.

Nice job.

- I usually try to get four or five fruits and vegetables in before I go to exercise, or anytime.

I have my yogurt and then I have a half a banana every day.

I only have a half because I'm cutting calories.

And four ounces of juice, and then I can go and start my exercise.

- [Therapist] Small steps, control it.

- And after that?

- Take a nap first.

(laughs) - [Joanne Williams] Looking back, if you had it to do it again, social worker, teacher, nurse, would you still be a nurse?

- I would.

- Why?

- Nursing has served me very well.

I have had a wonderful life and a lot of it was because I was a nurse.

And as a nurse, I was able to help other people understand their own health situations.

- [Joanne Williams] In the 1950s, there were few professional role models for Black girls to look up to in Milwaukee.

Teachers, secretaries, social workers, and a nurse.

Delores Nicholson Wilkins.

(upbeat music) (light playful music) - [Earl Arms] Sam Gilliam, an artist of the 20th Century, was best known for his massive drape paintings.

One of those paintings, "Carousel Merge II," a permanent fixture on display at the Milwaukee Art Museum.

(light playful music) Valerie Cassel Oliver, art curator from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, made her way to Milwaukee to help bring his work to life.

- I think how artists who work in abstraction are often thought of as painting from landscapes of the imagination.

Well, what Sam was really doing was painting things from his home and from his history.

He lived not too far away from a carousel.

And so that particular idea of the carousel is very much a part of his own personal narrative.

But the way that he, again, jetsons the stretcher and begins to fold and drape the works into space, into the architecture space, is really quite profound.

And the fact that he would look at architecture as the ultimate background for his work is pretty astounding.

So you guys are very lucky to have that piece.

It's really a stunning work.

He always was open to mentoring young artists, young painters, young would-be curators, such as myself.

- [Earl Arms] Oliver became that much more familiar with Gilliam and his work during her time as a graduate student at Howard University in Washington DC, giving her an especially unique perspective.

- That began what became a long stretch of years of myself and my son in and out of his studio.

And so it became less of a professional exchange, even though that was always the auspices in which I went to the studio.

It became more of a personal exchange, where oftentimes he wouldn't even let me come to the studio unless I had my son with me.

And it just became the last five years that we were there, coming in and out of his studio was really some of the most wonderful and deeply meaningful times in my particular professional life.

Beyond Black art, I think his work is significant to the larger American and global art process and movement, especially around painting.

He was one of the first artists to really begin to jetson the stretcher and look at draping of painting.

He was also someone who looked at different modes and techniques in making paint upon the canvas, building up the surface and raking and using brooms and different tools.

Artists of his ilk, artists like Sam Gilliam, and Ed Clark, and Al Loving, it was a movement that was happening at that time of just how does one reinvent painting.

His way of staining the canvas and folding it upon itself to create different types of effects was very different than Jackson Pollock who was putting the paint on the surface.

He would stain and then fold and then unfold, multiple processes.

So his way of painting, the what he brought to the whole genre of painting was something quite unique, which within the whole history of painting is a very difficult thing to do to bring something unique into that language.

But Sam Gilliam managed to do it, and it makes him not only a titan among African American artists, but it makes him a titan among artists of the US and artists around the world.

- [Earl Arms] This particular event was a part of the Museum's quarterly free day meant to celebrate accessibility and build community here in Milwaukee and beyond through art.

- We're excited to be able to celebrate the intersection of LGBTQ communities and Black communities with Free Day and Celebration Freedom because there's a lot of intersectionalities and we're able to highlight those with the artists that we invited to lead art-making with the DJs that we have playing music, and the Windhover.

And so we're really excited to celebrate those artists that are in our community.

Everyone is welcome at the Milwaukee Art Museum, and that we really hope that everyone can experience some sort of art, whether it's a sculpture, a painting, or a program that connects them to their community.

- To have artists within collections, not just being shown as a temporary exhibition, but actually having them a part of the collection and the holdings of the museum really helps to shape a narrative that opens the space of our history up for all people, and to know that they're reflected within the larger narrative, and that's very important to happen in all museums.

It should be happening in all museums.

Sometimes it's not as readily legible, because Sam works in abstraction, may not be readily legible that that is a Black artist.

But there is something quite unique about his work that is so inviting and it opens the door to learn more.

And so the hope is that by bringing that work back out into the galleries, that people really understand that this museum is hopefully endeavoring to be a place for all the people who live here in the city of Milwaukee.

(upbeat music) - Project 2025 is a 922 page document, created by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank to serve as a guide for the next Republican president.

If Donald Trump defeats Kamala Harris in November, he's expected to use it to set the agenda for the United States moving forward, even though he says he knows nothing about the document, which was created by over 140 of his known associates.

The proposal could have a devastating impact on the Department of Education, women's rights, the LGBTQI+ community, and the disadvantaged.

Joining us to talk about the impact of Project 2025 are Dynasty Ceasar, a community activist, and Melody McCurtis, deputy director and lead organizer of the Metcalfe Park Community Bridges.

Thanks for joining us on "Black Nouveau."

I'm gonna start with you Dynasty.

You have described Project 2025 as terrifying.

What in the document is terrifying to you?

- Frankly, I think the entire document is terrifying, the way that it's crafted.

A document that has 900 pages is a document that's not approachable for most of our communities to take the time to read it, let alone really grasp the concepts that are within that document, particularly about reproductive rights for women, the over-policing of women's bodies and their ability to miscarry or have abortions.

I think there are things, particularly the intersection of some of those things and how they affect communities of color, not only when it pertains to education, healthcare, women's rights, LGBTQ+ rights as well, but also the DEI portion of it.

And what that does is overlays the issues and the impact that will affect disenfranchised communities.

- Melody, you talk to people in the Metcalfe Park community about this.

What are you telling them about Project 2025?

- Well, the first thing that we've been doing is really sitting with this 900 page document to really try to understand it ourselves.

So we've been doing these collective study sessions.

We did that throughout the duration of the RNC, so can read and see what's in there.

Our first step is just to talk to the community, say, "Hey, do you even know about this document?"

What we're seeing is that folks don't even know about it, right?

And then we get to the point of how does this impact you right now in your daily life and how would it impact you?

So that's really what we've been focusing on, is just to do the outreach and engagement and make people aware that this is in the works, right?

And this is how it impacts folks, and what is important to folks.

And what we're seeing, because Metcalfe Park is in a super Black neighborhood in Milwaukee, all of these issues impact them, their family members, their friends, some way, shape, or form.

- Yeah.

Dynasty, project 2025 authors say, "Under diversity, equity, and inclusion, every aspect of labor policy became a vehicle to advance race, sex and other classification to discriminate against conservatives and religious viewpoints."

How do you respond to that?

- It's really a challenge when we find that our country sees not only political parties as being in conflict, right?

That's a vastly different thing if you're running for office.

But when you're pitting regular everyday citizens against one another based on their race or their gender, and saying this is divisive in nature, it means that the party that's saying that has a different agenda or a different perspective on how we unify the country.

It doesn't seem like we're focused on unity at all.

Perhaps a different agenda.

But when you're saying that the issues that supporting those who have been historically disenfranchised is divisive or affecting communities that have not been, who historically have had systems set up and developed to support their success, it feels like we're headed back to 1960.

And frankly, I'm concerned again about how our communities will navigate through that now, having difficulty over generation after generation of even having to prove that there's discrimination.

Now those things are being removed and the support that we've had there to help us be able to compete or function in society are now being removed and said that these things are, again, creating barriers for those who are already historically successful.

- Yeah, Melody, you mentioned that you're gonna form, like these group meetings.

What would those meetings look like and sound like?

- Yeah, so like collective study circles, right, where community members are coming together to really separate this plan and really teach each other and read with each other and learn with each other how this impacts them.

When Dynasty says that it feels like we're going back to 1960, it's almost like all progress that's been made is rolling back, right?

And if folks are already struggling right now with the way our country exists, and if we roll things back, what shape will we be in?

So folks are really trying to get ahead of this by understanding what is at stake, right?

And the way to do that is to be aware, and we gotta be aware by educating ourselves because this plan has been in the works, not just this year, right?

They formed this plan in the eighties, (chuckles) right?

And we're seeing some of those things in the plan, especially around policies being rolled out.

- Yeah, before we leave, I wanna outline some of the project 2025's potential impacts on African Americans.

Like, I'm just gonna throw out a couple of things, I want you to respond to it.

For instance, giving employers the opportunity to no longer pay overtime to hourly workers.

What impact would that have on Black people?

- You wanna go first?

- Yeah.

There has been a great fight to get folks a livable wage, right, that has not been successful, right?

So then to add, you're gonna be overworked to that, and underpaid, what is that doing to somebody's mental health, their physical health, their life expectancy, right?

And when folks in my community are working these jobs that don't even pay a livable wage to then have to work more hours and not be paid for that time, that's a detrimental blow to the entire family.

- What about this one, to end $35 insulin price cap, instituted by President Joe Biden?

- When you think about, again, the health determinants in Black and Brown communities, specifically in the Black community, and how hypertension and diabetes are really taking a toll on our communities, to change that cap is now affecting our communities directly.

One thing that I neglected to mention about this plan is that we forget that Black and Brown folks are not the only folks that experience poverty, and I would hope that White communities understand that your circumstances could change at any point.

This plan, seemingly on the surface, is easy to say that it would help White people be more successful, and that is true, but White people need to be mindful of their circumstances changing, right.

- Got it.

Well, I appreciate you both being on, and this is a conversation we have to continue.

Thank you.

- Thank you.

- Thank you for having us.

- Yeah.

- And that is our program for this month.

As always, please check us out on all our social media platforms and let us know what you think of the program.

For the entire "Black Nouveau" team, I'm Earl Arms.

Have a great evening.

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