pbeat music) - Good evening, I'm Earl Arms.

Of course, March is Women's History Month, and on this episode of "Black Nouveau," we're taking time to spotlight women across Milwaukee using their stories and voices to uplift their communities.

I'll speak to the mother and daughter at the heart of the new PBS WORLD Channel Documentary, Metcalfe Park: Black Vote Rising, and chat with the director behind the project.

Numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau show that although black Americans make up about 13% of the population, they represent less than 6% of those working in the real estate industry.

We meet a young developer working on a $66 million project that she hopes creates a legacy in her childhood neighborhood.

And we also revisit a profile on a Beloit native that made history in the U.S. Army.

But first, Alexandria Mack sits down with the familiar face.

- Over the years, we followed Dasha Kelly Hamilton's journey as both a performer and community advocate.

Tonight, we hear from her on her latest achievement as the state's first black woman poet Laureate, and what she hopes to bring to the esteemed role.

- I never really believed in those girly fantasies of unicorns rainbows because I was too busy chasing the unachievable dream of becoming one sixth of Vanity.

- And we don't argue about who was gonna do the dishes.

- And we don't argue about when who gonna do the dishes.

- We argue about how to do the dishes.

- Well, I come from the tradition of spoken word.

I come from the tradition of slam poetry, I come from the tradition of grios, I come from the traditional saying these words out loud with a bunch of sass, with a lot of volume, and guess what?

I'm a poet, this is poetry.

And my story, these stories that come with me, are also relevant.

- [Alexandria] For Dasha Kelly Hamilton, words aren't just about creating beautiful sentences, they create space.

So, when named Wisconsin's 2021 Poet Laureate, the title served is recognition for 20 years of service.

- Affirming on all on so many levels, I have actually been a runner up for the State Laureate position two other times.

Not only was that a recognition of my craft and my work as a writer and a performer, but it also spoke to my art and craft of building spaces, my effort to make spaces for other voices, other people, multitude of conversations.

So, in my experience, in my passion, that's an art also.

They're not gonna sell me at house on that block.

- Referred me instead, to the neighborhoods that might be trending diversity.

- Not relevant, not ready.

- We have a very conservative board.

- [Alexandria] As both a creative change agent and the first black woman to be named as Wisconsin's Poet Laureate, Hamilton pushes using the arts as a way to face real-world challenges and conversations.

- For the universe and all the ancestors to bring this to me now, at a moment when I know, not that my words weren't needed before, but my goodness, what we absolutely need is some real talk right now.

We absolutely don't need our poems about rivers right now.

What we absolutely need, is a black woman speaking to what the state right now.

What we don't need, is a black woman pandering to the state right now in the effort of hoping to be appreciated, hoping to be accepted.

So, to be the creative change agent, is to A, really be about making sure that the table is considering all the options, not just looking at the opposite of happened in the past.

And then in what that looks like, it's also it doesn't have to be traditional.

- [Alexandria] Hamilton wants to bring more people to her creative table by establishing a prison poetry exchange.

- Of all of the outreach I've done, being able to go to work in prisons has been my absolute favorite outreach to do.

And so, what I wanna do with this poetry exchange, is just remind people that this is a conversation worth having.

But not pressing that conversation, we're going to remind folks of that by celebrating poetry.

So, and again, having gone into these programs, like we know so many different genres, there are amazing artists and chefs and machinists and legal scholars and also authors and poets who are stuck in these buildings.

And yes, absolutely I understand some of them are supposed to be there only because that's the criminal justice system we have right now.

And I wanted to have a space where if I'm gonna be able to invite people to write poems, I want everyone to be able to write poems, because I have personally experienced and witnessed and edited and shared these moments with folks who are often forgotten because they're in these buildings.

- [Alexandria] As the state's ambassador of poetry, Hamilton is looking forward to having fun with her pen again.

- You know, I have a notebook that I've kept forever, well, full of finna poems, I call them, of ideas that I'll get around to one day.

And quite frankly, because I've been also so committed to being an ambassador and being an advocate and a space maker that the time that I'm able to make for my writing, are because it's a project, it's a deadline, it's a commission, I have a show coming up, a publication that's going to go out.

So, the relationship with my writing I'm able to have it be full, it's not simply transactional.

Being able to give myself all the words again, I would say just that feeling of abundance in this moment, is what has definitely influenced my writing.

So, I'm absolutely in love with these journals all over again.

(upbeat music) - I really want black people to be free.

And that's why we've been advocating for folks to vote, because voting is power.

- Melody and Danell went door to door.

They talk to every single person in the neighborhood.

If someone was not registered, they stood there on their porch, they registered them.

- You registered to vote?

- Yeah.

- Did you do your absentee ballot.

So, you gonna vote?

- Yeah, I might.

- Ah.

- I might.

- Okay, so, answer my phone call when I call.

Or else, I'm gonna do another drive back.

- Metcalfe Park could not benefit from digital organizing, digital marketing.

So, they knew that they had to take it upon themselves to really connect with each neighbor, each resident individually.

And because of that, people showed out in Metcalfe Park, more people were registered for this presidential election than in 2016.

- Guess who's all ready with her ballot?

- There has been historic discrimination against voters of color for as long as the United States has been the United States, and as recently as our spring elections during COVID.

So, community organizing is not just essential, it is the most important thing that was able to make sure that people understood how to vote, people got registered, that people could vote safely.

It was the most important thing in terms of increasing turnout.

And I think we can see what happens when voters of color are able to overcome barriers, some of which are very, very purposefully put in their way in order to vote.

- We have Stacey Abrams in Georgia, and we have Danell Cross and Melody McCurtis right here in Milwaukee.

- The clip you just saw, is a preview of the PBS WORLD Channel Documentary, "Metcalfe Park" Black Vote Rising.

The film followed the journey to election day for a mother daughter activist duo working to help their Metcalfe Park neighborhood get out and vote amidst a Global Pandemic.

We're joined by co-director Miela Fetaw, as well as mother and daughter Danell Cross and Melody McCurtis to talk about their efforts to combat voter suppression in their community.

So, I'll start with you Melody and Danell, so, can you talk a little bit about how some of the measures you took to help your neighbors make their voices heard and their votes counted?

- Yeah, so, we knew that this was gonna be a brutal election year, we saw what happened in the April's election.

And before the April's election, we really were just steering our folks to vote by mail.

Unfortunately, a lot of folks you know, requested their absentee ballot, they did it on time, and they didn't receive their ballots in the mail.

I was one of the folks who did all of the steps and mine never came.

So, I had to really decide to go in and vote in person, or just to not vote at all, right?

So, I really had to choose risking my health and my family's health, or not voting at all, right?

So, you know, thinking about everything that happened in April seven, we really geared up, you know, for the following elections that we had in August in November here in Wisconsin.

So, we did a mix of door to door, we did a mix of providing mutual aid and providing all of that information on how they can vote, right?

And really just breaking down all of the barriers through that door to door, that mutual aid, that phone, that texts, all of those different things that we had to do to say, hey, this is how you register to vote online.

And this is what you need to take to be able to register in person.

So, we really had to do a lot of groundwork and really a lot of, "that's not true," this is what it really takes to be able to vote.

And that's what we did to get out the vote in Metcalfe Park.

- The only thing I would add to that, is I think people really underestimate making mama mad.

So, when you see all of the suppression activity, and you make black women mad, we fight back.

And so, that's what we did, we got mad and we fought back.

- So, now that the election has passed, talk about more of that impact.

You talk about being mad and taking action because of that, but what else have you seen with the impact of getting folks out to the polls?

- One of the things that I saw, is just the amazing comradery.

I'm saying this word wrong, but y'all know what I'm talking about.

Just the fact that people were talking to each other about the importance of voting.

And really helping neighbors to be able to make that happen, so that we can come out as a whole community, voicing our opinion through the vote together.

And so, that was one of the things that really came out, is the fact that the community knew that we care, the community starts seeing that they care, and that they could make a difference, that really by participating in this process no matter what the challenges are, that they can make a difference in the outcomes.

And we see already that it was well worth the fight.

- And the only thing that I will add to that too, is just really starting that conversation now, now we are in the midst of local elections, right?

So, really understanding how, we people are power, right?

And these officials work for us, right?

They got in there because of us, right?

Because we voted.

So, now moving into our local elections and really people seeing like, these folks are making decisions for us, right?

So, I had to get involved in that way.

So, just carrying all of the momentum from 2020 into 2021.

- And now we bring Miela into the mix and you're the filmmaker, you're also a black woman doing this story, why was this so important for you to document?

- Yeah, well, like Melody, I had to vote in person last April, and I too was terrified for my life.

April was just still the start of the Coronavirus, we didn't know what was happening, we just knew that either we had to vote, or we had to sit at home.

And I couldn't do that despite how terrified I was to contract COVID-19.

But it was really important for me to tell a story about voting in Milwaukee, and seeing what voting amidst a pandemic was doing.

It just so happened that I stumbled upon Danell and Melody, and now we're stuck together forever (laughing) But it was such a transformative experience.

This is my first time directing a film.

So, to a black woman from Milwaukee, getting to tell a story about two dynamic black women in Milwaukee, I'm so overjoyed.

And now we have like this life-long bond that where we're stuck together like gorilla glue, that's where we are (laughing) - And we're all thankful for it, and thankful for all three of you to join us right now.

So, we'll make sure that you will post the full link of "Black Vote Rising" at milwaukeepbs.org, check it out there.

- Women are achieving more leadership positions in the military than ever before in American history.

But higher ranking positions such as general, still are 90% male.

Here's a look back on a profile of the Wisconsin native that blaze the trail as the Army's first African-American woman to serve as Major General.

(soft music) - When I first came into the army, I was very aware that it was a largely a white male organization.

And I didn't look around and see a lot of people who looked like me, and certainly not at the officer ranks.

My name is Major General Marcia Anderson, and I'm retired from the United States Army.

I was in the military for about 37 years.

It was very accidental, it was very serendipitous.

I really signed up for one reason, and that was because I needed some college credits.

And registration back in those days, you registered standing in giant gyms and stood in line and hope not to get cut out of class.

And there was one line that had no people in it, and it said Military Science Department, and that's how I got into ROTC.

(soft music) When I was promoted to Major General in 2011, I was the first African-American woman to achieve that rank in the history of the army, and I achieved federally recognized rank.

In many cases, those positions puts you in charge of thousands of people, tens of thousands of people.

But it was really very humbling and a little scary, because I felt a great sense of responsibility that I needed to get this right.

Because if I messed it up, if I was, there was some investigation, if I did something wrong, it was gonna be super amplified.

And it would make it that much harder for the next person, or persons to try to achieve that rank.

And someone told me once, who looked at my photos, she said, you're always smiling in your pictures, most people aren't, they look like they're taking their driver's license picture, or that they just came from the dentist and they're not happy.

And when you're a senior person in the military, is take care of the people who work for you.

Keep them safe, take care them personally and professionally, and treat them as people.

They're not assets, they're people.

I never forgot that.

So, I tried to make that a focus for the things that I did.

When I was leaving Fort Knox, a group of young African-American female officers who worked there, they couldn't give me anything of real value 'cause there's a prohibition against accepting things like that from subordinates, but they put this together and gave me this hammer just a signifier that I had broken the glass ceiling and become a Major General, and they were very proud of me.

(children chartering) I feel very lucky to be in this room with you, I'll just put it that way, 'cause I know you're smart.

From some of the things you've said, you don't even realize it.

Your friends may act like they have all the answers, but when you see some of the decisions they make, we know they don't really have all the answers.

Does everybody in here get eight hours of sleep a night?

Yeah, I knew the answer to that was no.

I got involved with the students at Badger Ridge Middle School in Verona 'cause my husband's a member of the 100 Black Men of Madison.

And he was working with some of the black males at the middle school as part of the Sora Project.

And apparently someone asked him, well, what about our girls?

Today, I wanna talk about being assertive, standing up for yourself, things you can do in certain situations to just assert yourself.

So, we're gonna go through a couple of examples of that.

And I thought I need to start talking to them right now about being assertive because I didn't figure that out until I was out of college.

And I think I missed a lot of opportunities to stand up for myself, or to ask for things that I need, and that's what I wanted them to understand.

Your teacher's confusing you in class, and well, how do you feel about trying to raise your hand and say, "I don't understand what's going on?"

- I think sometimes the problem is like also, that like before, like you can't raise your hand 'cause you feel like you'll be like dumbo, and like everybody else gets saved, and like you like the only one who doesn't.

- But it's okay to ask for what you need.

If you need people to listen to you, somebody to work with you, people to respect you, people to appreciate you, it's perfectly okay.

That's being assertive, but that's begetting what you personally need, and there's nothing wrong with that.

It dawned on me that a sample of them in the room were very smart, but they would never speak up.

I had to pull things out of them, and it reminded me of me when I was them and I was that age.

Remember, being assertive isn't about being aggressive, is it's about standing up for yourself.

(soft music) It's an annual award.

I think I was the first woman to receive this award from the Association of the US Army.

And just in recognition of my efforts to integrate the reserves into the active army to make it more a part of the organization.

So, the James Earl Rudder medal was kind of in recognition of those efforts.

If I could change anything, there'd be two things that change.

I would want people to be more educated about the fact that we need to have more people of color in the military, and not shy away from it because they think it's all about combat.

Because 95% of what we do in the military is not combat.

There's a lot of humanitarian work that people don't even realize happens in the military.

And then the other thing, is I wish people were more educated about traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress.

I think there are misperceptions about hiring people who may have had those experiences in their lives.

I wish people would educate themselves more.

And I think we need to do a better job in the military about educating people.

Quite frankly, you're not gonna have another Colin Powell, you're not gonna have another me if you don't encourage people to serve.

(upbeat music) - All of us are young, we are all black developers, it was really, really an honor to be a part of the team.

Because a lot of the times, you just don't see us in these types of spaces, and this is one of the biggest developments in the state of Wisconsin right now.

(upbeat music) - So, tell me a little bit about your connection to this neighborhood.

- So, my great grandparents stayed on 45th Street, Center, and then my mom stayed on 51st Street, Center.

So, this neighborhood in particular is very, very near and dear to me.

- [Alexandria] The community within the Corridor development, will reinvent the former 30th Street Industrial Corridor into 197 unit affordable housing apartment complex.

But for the team led by Que El-Amin and the Scott Crawford Group, this $66 million development holds value that exceeds the price tag.

- That African-Americans historically don't have the ability nor the knowledge to acquire real estate, or to know what it's like to create those assets and to have those things to fall back on.

And so, for me, that helps drive me.

You gotta be willing to get your hands dirty, you have to be willing to stand up for what you believe in 'cause there's a politics side of real estate too, especially from the side of development, right?

Because for some people is just an investment, but for other people like myself who grew up on Center Street, this is something that is near and dear to me with my grandparents being the first black owners, you know, in this area, my aunts, the only black girls at Washington High School, to what it is now, to see it be brought back up as it deteriorated, is something in itself too.

(upbeat music) - [Alexandria] Real estate is the foundation of the legacy, 30-year old developer Tia Cannon, wants to build not just for herself, but for her two daughters through her company, ANC Real Estate.

- ANC Real Estate is derived from the name of my daughters.

And so, it's Aliyah Nicole and it's Eva Noel.

And so, and then last name Cannon, of course.

For my daughters, what I hope that they gain, what they take from the work that I do, not just in the community, but in the real estate industry, is that the one opportunities are endless, but they know that they can do any and all things, and that is more important to me than anything.

In the beginning, I wouldn't say it was scary, it was like, you know how like when you're a kid, and like you might be bullied at school and then you feel like, I'm just gonna stand up for myself, 'cause what do I have to lose at that point?

Like you're getting bullied every day, and you're getting picked on, and whether you do or you don't, right?

And so, at that moment when I was forced to choose, I felt like I was backed into a corner, I was being bullied and it was like, I'm gonna choose me every time to fight for what is right and what I believe and for my kids, because that's all that matters anyway.

- [Alexandria] And how long does the development like this take?

- [Cannon] So, a development like this, this one in particular is expected to take 18 months.

- [Alexandria] But going into business for herself would bring another set of barriers.

- So, some of the challenges, this include just in that being a woman in a male-dominated industry, feeling the needs I want to prove yourself all the time, it makes you feel like you have to be on the defense when in reality, you don't, as long as you know what you know, and you're able to articulate what it is that you know, that's how you equal that playing, leveling that playing field.

And then just educating yourself constantly on the changes in the industry.

(upbeat music) So, the ways that I pay it forward, are helping other women that look like myself, not only just in the real estate industry, but home ownership as well.

And then secondly, just leveling the playing field for women in real estate, because it's not a lot of us, it's a male-dominated industry.

And so, being able to pay it for it that way.

And then third, is just paying it forward by being able to walk them through like women, or people in general.

Like my focus, obviously as women.

Women who aspire to be in the real estate industry, I would say, just go for it, just do it and make sure that you take the time to learn the things that people don't wanna learn.

And you take the time to really find out what your niche is in real estate because it's so broad.

There's many aspects of real estate that you can do, whether it's being an agent, whether it's doing construction, whether it's development, whether it's investing, or staging and design, there's so many aspects, finding what your niche is, perfecting it, and then taking it from there.

- [Alexandria] For Cannon, the legacy has to start with a blueprint.

- And then the fact that my kids one day, are gonna need to own their own homes and have their own families and create their own wealth, but having something that they can step into that they will be able to survive off of if need be, 20 years from now, they'll be able to come back to the same location and say, I remember when me and my sister were 10 and six years old, and we actually were in this space before it was anything, is the most rewarding thing to be able to see something that I was a part of, that not only because I was a part of it, they were a part of it too.

Truly, that's what legacy is about.

(upbeat music) - That's our show for tonight, but be sure to tune in for our online Indi Lens pop-up screening of "Philly D.A" on April 7th.

the screening will be moderated by our very own Alexandria Mack.

You can also stay up to date on upcoming specials, webinars and shows by signing up for a Milwaukee PBS Storylines Newsletter.

For "Black Nouveau," I'm Earl Arms, have a good night.

(upbeat music)