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.”…