Here & Now

Alex Gee on Sustaining Madison's Black Community and Culture

Frederica Freyberg:
In brighter news, thousands are celebrating the completion of a new space in Madison that honors and cultivates African American culture.

Alex Gee:
We are almost open.

Frederica Freyberg:
Surrounded by community leaders, the founder of The Center for Black Excellence and Culture, Alex Gee, proudly led the ribbon cutting, which marks the completion of the 37,000 square foot space on Madison’s south side. With a place for meetings, lectures and social events, Gee says the center unapologetically celebrates Black history and people. “Here & Now” reporter Murv Seymour talked to him about building the $31 million space.

Murv Seymour:
Alex Gee, good to see you again.

Alex Gee:
It’s good to see you too, Murv.

Murv Seymour:
By the time this airs, we know that little clock on your website will have been ticking, ticking, ticking and it will hit zero.

Alex Gee:
Yes, it will.

Murv Seymour:
What has it been like and how long has that clock been ticking to make all this happen?

Alex Gee:
Oh man, this clock has been ticking my whole life in some ways, Murv. 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.

Murv Seymour:
Yeah. And I hate to do the old “what does it feel like?” that reporters tend to do but what does it feel like Alex, after all this?

Alex Gee:
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 rubbed my head and pinched 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 do this and pull our community together the way I’ve been able to.

Murv Seymour:
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.

Alex Gee:
That’s right.

Murv Seymour:
How the heck do we do that, Alex?

Alex Gee:
Oh, with lots of partners and lots of thought. You know, 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 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 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.

Murv Seymour:
And when you say all this money, people should know $31 million, probably.

Alex Gee:
Thirty-two sir, $32 million.

Murv Seymour:
I don’t want to cut you short.

Alex Gee:
Who’s counting.

Murv Seymour:
Right?

Alex Gee:
You’re right for a debt free facility, for completely debt free facility.

Murv Seymour:
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.

Alex Gee:
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 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 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 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. I’m sure you’re familiar with it.

Murv Seymour:
I am.

Alex Gee:
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 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 of 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.

Murv Seymour:
Yeah. And we thank you for that, Alex. And there’s a lot more to talk about. So this will be continued. And we appreciate you …

Alex Gee:
I appreciate you having me.

Murv Seymour:
… appreciate you for joining us on “Here & Now.”

Alex Gee:
Thank you.