For the past two years, Dr. Rev. Alex Gee has been watching The Center for Black Excellence and Culture, an innovative, modern, three-story, 37,000-square-foot building, slowly get built next door to his Fountain of Life Covenant Church on Badger Road on Madison’s South Side. Tomorrow, his longtime vision and dream to bring Black culture, creativity, leadership, research, and innovation under one roof will become a reality.
Most Madisonians will get their first look at the $32 million building at The Center’s Grand Opening Celebration and Community Open House on Wednesday, May 6, 2-6 p.m. at 671 W. Badger Rd. The Center is unique in that it is Black-inspired, Black-designed and Black-led. It’s something that is much needed in Madison, but its impact will reach beyond the region. There’s no precedent, Gee says, for it in the United States.
“There’s nothing like this space in the country. And that’s based on the firm that did our business plan, which also did the Guggenheim [Museum in New York City] and the Smithsonian African American History Museum in Washington, DC. The CEO said, ‘There’s nothing like this in the country that brings together art, leadership, innovation that’s Black-led and with all of the initial donors being Black,” Gee, the founder of the Center for Black Excellence and Culture, tells Madison365. “There’s nothing like it. So we are also celebrating this fresh approach to Black joy and Black wellness. The net result of this is that we believe we’re going to live not only more harmoniously together, but we will live more fulfilled lives because of the authenticity we’re afforded, which means greater health outcomes.
“We know stress causes shortened life expectancy. We can’t wait to prove through our research methods that this kind of space contributes to healthier living and healthier wellness outcomes for the Black community,” he adds.
(Photo by Omar Waheed)
As the senior pastor at Fountain of Life Covenant Church, Gee has been watching the incredible transformation next door to his church of the once-abandoned car wash site into a magnificent home for celebrating and cultivating global Black brilliance in all its forms. The design of The Center was done by a team from JLA Architects, led by Rafeeq Asad, and revolves around the ‘Black Aesthetic’, incorporating elements of drama, ‘will to adorn’, asymmetry, among other qualities.
But the new place, he says, is much more than a beautiful new building.
“We’ve been focusing on this beautiful new 37,000-square-foot building, but we’re also building a new organization,” Gee says. “So to create a new business without construction is a task by itself, and to create a building and not have to create programming is the same. But to do them both is incredibly difficult. However, this community has been generous, and this Wednesday will be a chance to celebrate the people who believed in this, walked with me and funded it. I’m very excited.”
Dr. Gee, members of the planning committee, and state-wide Black influencers hosted the groundbreaking of The Center on Juneteenth 2024. Less than two years later, the building is finished, and programs are ready to start.
(Photo by David Dahmer)
Gee says that the Center’s official ribbon-cutting on Wednesday will make the statement that, in light of everything happening in the world, “culture rules.”
“It identifies us, and it brings us together, and it makes us healthier. And so, for me, this ecosystem will make the Black community healthier. That means it’s going to make the broader community healthier, which means it’s going to make Wisconsin healthier,” Gee says. “And I feel that Wednesday is not just about unveiling a building or a set of programs … it’s about unveiling that truth that this is about a cultural ecosystem that’s going to help the Black community thrive.”
Areas of focus at The Center will include health and wellness, leadership and innovation, performing and arts, and youth and families. The Center has a senior center, a women’s empowerment center, event spaces, an innovation center for Black entrepreneurs, a children’s library, a Black studies reading room, a Black Renaissance Theatre, a recording studio, and several galleries for artists.
“One of the first programs that we developed is a program that makes room for the Black community to create programs. We have programs for drop-in, but we’re also a place where we help people live their dreams,” Gee says. “And so, for me, that’s very, very powerful. And then we get to tell our story to the broader community in a way that is through our voice, whether it’s in the podcast studio or in the music studio or in the performing arts theater spaces or through choirs or through dance or through art or through the gallery. The fact that we get to tell our stories, and no one’s telling it for us, that’s therapeutic.
“Watching Black artists drop their work off and bring their work in to be put up in our galleries and put in our hallways, there’s such a sense of pride as they come in and as they log their work and bring their stories and themselves to it,” Gee continues. “There’s such a sense of pride. It’s very emotional because that is exactly what we wanted to do … to create space for other people.”
Still, with what seems like a million things to take care of before the community grand opening, Rev. Gee always takes a little time to remember the person who made this all possible. “Mom brought us here from Chicago so that we could have what she thought would be a better life, and I know that she would love to see the fact that we are giving back to a community that’s given so much to us and are helping it become a better place,” Gee says. “She would just love this building and that we’re returning the favor to Madison.”
Verline Gee, a founding member of Fountain of Life and the Nehemiah Center for Urban Leadership Development, was a social worker and family therapist and a lifelong inspiration to her two children, Alex and Lilada. In the early ’70s, she brought the kids to Madison from Chicago at a very young age, seeking a better life for the family. Verline Gee passed away on Jan. 1, 2024, six months before the groundbreaking of The Center.
“Madison helped us become our full selves, and now we want to help Madison become its best self. So it’s quite reciprocal,” Gee says. “The irony of the full circularity of this is that what we’re doing is not going to help just the Black community, although it’s designed to tell our stories; this is really making the greater Madison and the state of Wisconsin better, and that makes us very proud. And my Mom would have been so proud to see us do this.”
(Photo by David Dahmer)
Verilene Gee’s portrait is prominently featured in the senior center with the inscription “Our Matriarch & Mentor” in a room where Madison seniors will soon gather. Her son believes that she is looking down on him from heaven, smiling and proud. He can feel her with him spiritually.
“When I go to the senior center and see her picture, it’s so life-giving and it’s so breathtaking. As a Black woman from Chicago going through a divorce and moving her family to Madison in 1970, I know that she is proud of the fact that she hedged a bet that her children could thrive here. And we have,” Gee says. “And now we’ve been tasked with the responsibility of helping everyone’s children thrive.”
The Center for Black Excellence and Culture will host its Grand Opening Celebration and Community Open House on Wednesday, May 6, 2-6 p.m. at 671 W. Badger Rd. This event is free and open to the public. For more information, click here.
