The Center for Black Excellence and Culture, the three-level, 37,000-square-foot gorgeous new building that will be a landmark in Madison and Wisconsin and beyond, is mere months from its official grand opening on Madison’s South Side. It’s a full-circle moment for Dr. Rev. Alex Gee, the Center’s CEO and founder, who remembers fondly arriving in Madison as a six-year-old with his single mother, Verlene Gee, who brought him and his sister, Lilada, to Wisconsin from Chicago in search of a better life.
“I’ve never been prouder to be a native son of Madison. I’ve never been prouder to be a product of South Madison,” Gee tells Madison365 in an interview at Fountain of Life Church, located next to the newly constructed Center for Black Excellence and Culture. “The fact that I get to do it in my community makes me feel very fortunate and very proud. I could not have done this in another city, because I did not have the roots that I have here.
“I’m incredibly pleased that our multitude of listening sessions with the Black community helped to shape the building and is shaping the programs,” Gee adds. “That’s really huge, that this is not just an internal job. In those listening sessions, going back to some of the Justified Anger activities, we were asking Black people what they wanted to see. So we’ve been listening to the community for over a decade … I think that input is really key.”
Gee is the product of Lapham, Lincoln and Leopold schools and Madison West High School, schools that will, in all likelihood, be sending students to The Center for Black Excellence at some point. Located in the heart of South Madison, The Center will build upon the historic beauty and innovation of Black neighborhoods. “To pull this off in a place that groomed me, in a place that my mom moved us to for a better life, and to have provided that for not just my family, but for others, is really a dream come true, and this community really made this happen with us,” Gee says.
“This community believed in us. They stood behind Black influencers and believed in this. And the result is on this beautiful hill, you can see it from the Fish Hatchery Bridge, and it’s going to be talked about all across the nation,” Gee continues. “I already have other cities asking me what my thoughts are about whether or not this can work in other cities, and this is certainly replicable.”
(Photo by David Dahmer)
The building is finished. The furniture is in. Gee officially received the keys to The Center on New Year’s Eve. But the work continues.
“So now we want to make sure that we are great hosts for our community and that means having our staff trained and having every appliance and every single thing in place, including programs, for the deluge of people who will be coming in starting that very first day,” Gee says.
“We are on a new trajectory. Now our fundraising is not about construction, but it’s about robust programming and leadership development for youth and arts and performances,” he continues. “But it also means that we’ve got to go through the punch list of the building to make sure everything is functioning well, and that we know how to use the building. It means getting our maintenance director acclimated and program staff acclimated. So we got to finalize the hiring of those folks, get them acclimated to the job and to the building. So that’s going to take us a couple of months.”
The grand opening and community-wide ribbon-cutting ceremony for The Center for Black Excellence and Culture is scheduled for Wednesday, May 6.
“We have so much to get ready in these upcoming months. There are so many things that we have not been able to think about, because everything has been building, building, building, building,” Gee says. “Well, now that that’s coming to an end, and we have the keys, we are excited about the grand opening and we want to make sure we are great hosts to the community.”
The creation of The Center for Black Excellence and Culture has been quite the journey. Community focus groups, project conceptualization, and project team development for the Center began in 2021, followed by business plan development, community listening sessions/surveys, project plan completion, and the capital campaign kick-off. But long before that, a dilapidated old car wash sat as a giant eyesore next to Fountain of Life Church and Nehemiah on Madison’s South Side.
“I actually have video footage of the demolition of that space because I remember not knowing what we were going to do there,” Gee says.
(Photo by A. David Dahmer)
Gee wanted to maybe build a soccer field there, but he said he couldn’t raise enough money. He says that he also received offers to swap that land with local developers and he declined.
“There were moments if that had prematurely become a basketball court or a soccer field or if we had swapped property, we would not be able to do what has now become a national model,” Gee says.
“So I love that we have those photos, because it does give us a chance to say, ‘What if vision hadn’t been adhered to?’ We always look at stuff that’s finished, but when you and I sat there back in the day and looked at the property, there are a couple of things that could have become. Not only was that area an eyesore, but when we closed it up, we found suitcases and clothing, people were living back there and selling and doing drugs.
“Now seeing the fruit of all the hard work we’ve put in since then, it’s a true testament to grit, a solid vision, and a commitment to that vision.”
(Photo by A. David Dahmer)
The Center’s capital campaign was successful and raised $32 million. The official ceremony celebrated the groundbreaking of the Black-led, Black-designed, and Black-inspired Center on Wednesday, June 19, 2024 — Juneteenth National Independence Day.
And now, The Center is less than four months from opening on another Wednesday — May 6. Programming will kick off right after the grand opening, Gee says.
According to its website, The Center will annually support:
- 2,000 students learning Black history and inspired to dream and excel.
- 5,000 people revitalized by Black performances and art.
- 250 seniors sharing their wisdom and experiences across generations.
- 175 members of The Center for Black Innovation and Leadership.
“What we’re in the hunt for now will be the resources that help us to bring on people to make sure that we have the library services that we want to have for youth, the research programs, the art classes, and we’re going to need staff to really manage volunteers,” Gee says.
“So many people in the Black community have said, ‘When that’s open, I want to teach yoga. I want to teach art.’ I love the fact that Black retired leaders are wanting to give back. So what we’re realizing is we’re going to need help, volunteer managing, because I believe that there’s just a lot of Black people that want to see this work and they want to give back.”
(Photo by David Dahmer)
Gee says that one of the places he’s most excited about in the new building is the children’s library.
“I’ve been able to lure my daughter [Lexi] away from Dane County Library Services to run that. So I love that that’s going to have an emphasis on not only literacy, but writing in young children,” Gee says.
“UW-Madison has donated its faculty library. They’ve been collecting that since the department started in 1970. They’re going to keep part of it, but the majority of that library is coming to us,” Gee adds. “I’m very proud of that. That means we’re gonna have one of the most impressive and extensive libraries for the community to use on Black studies, sociology, art, and education in the state, if not the Midwest.”
Gee says he is also excited about the professional recording space and about the senior space.
“I refer to the senior space as ‘the United Lounge’ for our seniors to have a place to come and have coffee and lunch and to hang out and watch TV and play games,” Gee says, “but also having medical professionals who are seeing that since we have seniors gathered in fun spaces, that can be a place to offer medical advice and to support to their families. People might get nervous about going to a clinic, but they might have different thoughts about a clinic coming to them in their space.”
An important part of The Center’s program will be working on strengthening a strong sense of Black global citizenship.
“Not only having the Black diaspora using the space and celebrating together and planning together and working together, but part of our programming is going to be taking Black Wisconsinites on trips to Africa to look at opportunities for leadership development and partnership and broadening the global markets,” Gee says. “And so folks that are doing artwork and consultancy work here can work with folks in West Africa as well.
“We’re making sure that we’re connecting and planning and strategizing in The Center for folks who are part of Pan Africa. I’m talking to folks who are Afro-Latino, folks who are from the Caribbean, folks who are from Africa. Of course, there are a lot of African Americans who are also Native Americans,” he adds. “There’s just a growing Back citizenship in major cities around the world. And we’re wanting to connect Wisconsin-based Black people with that broader sense of Blackness.”
Gee says that he wants people to know that Black people are living in Canada and China and Portugal, and they are building communities there.
“With technology, we can build a stronger sense of identity. It’s nice to know that we live outside the US, and we live outside of Africa,” Gee says. “So we’re going to be leading trips of Black folks from Wisconsin to say, ‘reimagine your future, reimagine your vacations, reimagine your retirement.’ And I think that’s going to bring a lot of excitement, including getting younger people to Africa.
“I was in my 50s when I went to Africa for the first time, and it changed my life. But if we can get Black high schoolers and college students to visit, it’s going to be a game changer for them,” Gee adds.
The Center for Black Excellence and Culture will be much more than just a Madison thing, Gee contends. Thousands will visit from across Wisconsin and beyond to hear the stories of Black history and rich stories of Black trailblazers from across the state, celebrating their important contributions that helped shape Wisconsin life.
“We are having meetings with Black influencers in Milwaukee, Racine, Beloit and La Crosse, so these folks are aware,” Gee says. “Not too long ago, we had Mayor Washington Spivey from La Crosse, their first Black mayor, come and walk through the space and he was floored. I think people know we’re doing something, but they don’t know what to expect. They enjoy seeing the opulence of the space and the thoughtfulness and how each space not only works, but interacts with the rest of the building, and that it’s useful to them.
“We want to be known as the convening space, the convening center of Black minds and Black brilliance for around the state, and actually the region,” Gee says.
Gee notes that the Center is located close to hotels and restaurants and straight down Park Street from downtown Madison.
(Photo by David Dahmer)
“We want to be the place for Black physicians, Black researchers, Black nonprofit leaders, Black police officers, Black firefighters, those various groups,” Gee says. “If they want to host something and they really want to bring a Black collective together, we want to be one of the major places in the Midwest that you think about.
“But we’re going to be able to host major events, lectures from Black faculty, and bring in dignitaries from the African diaspora. It will be a one-stop shop for weddings and retirement parties and graduation parties, but also for speakers, for film festivals, book festivals, conferences, gatherings, because there’s so much breakout space that it really is going to be a place where, through art, technology, research and cultural celebrations, we can become that seat of Black intelligence and Black cultural performance and Black leadership development that’s so important in our state right now.”
