Listen now:
This season of Black Oxygen is about care and collective care — and this conversation is a candid look at what it actually costs, and takes, to lead as a Black person in a city like Madison. Angela sits down with Reverend Dr. Alex Gee, who has raised roughly $70 million over 30 years, built multiple organizations, and is still, in his words, only ever invited onto the “Community Relations” committee — never Finance, never HR, never the chair.
Alex traces his leadership back to his mother, Verlene Gee, a single mom and pioneering social worker who taught him to advocate boldly, hold boundaries, and never fear telling the truth. From there, the conversation moves through the specific weight of being labeled a “Black leader” instead of simply a leader, the discipline of “protecting his ears to protect his voice,” the unspoken tensions Black leaders navigate in majority-white institutions, and how all of it shaped his vision for the Center for Black Excellence and Culture — a space built from 700 community voices, designed to let Black leaders and residents finally feel at home in Madison.
