[Music] I would like to welcome to the stage a poet, an educator, and an activist who told me that being able to be here tonight was going to make one of his dreams come true.

So, please welcome to the stage Quabina Antoine Nixon.

Thank you.

Thank you.

How you doing out there?

Can I you can you hear me?

So like she just introduced me like you know she gave this like poet activist.

I know we here to see Mr.

Schultz but like nobody really clapped for me.

It's like like a few of you clap like maybe like All right.

Yeah.

I hear somebody say yeah but like nobody clapped.

Wait wait wait wait.

Don't do that.

No.

No.

Listen listen.

So like I'mma step back over here.

So like whoever is the loudest I'm going to give a $100 to.

All right.

Let's give it up for Quabani and Tony Nixon.

Make some noise.

Louder, please.

$100.

150.

200 300.

All right.

Can't give it up because the film festival made it clear.

I can't give out no money.

So, how we doing today?

Come on, Milwaukee.

Please be louder.

You about to see the movie Cooly High.

How are we doing today?

Good.

Good.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So, I wrote a speech and I'm going just come from the heart.

So, I'm gonna rip this up.

No, I'm not.

That's just the thing I would do.

You know, every speaker does that for dramatic flare.

So, I'm lying with that.

But with all all jokes aside, I'm honored to be here.

I'd like to thank the film festival for giving me this moment to speak.

I'd like to thank my good friend.

Yes, you should clap for that.

Yes, please.

Please clap.

Listen, people.

Before I say anything, let me do this.

And I only have a few moments.

Listen, I have to start with here.

Ignorance is loud.

When the worst things happen in our community, everybody shows us it's all over.

social media and everything.

Ignorance is loud, so freedom has to be twice as loud.

This is a good day of freedom and this is a good day of celebration.

So, please, one more time, let's give it up for the Milwaukee Film Festival for making this happen today.

Thank you.

Thank you for the Black Lens team.

Make some noise, please.

[Applause] To my good friend Ruben Whitmore, uh, for making this happen for me today.

And Dante McFaten, thank you very much.

Please give him a hand.

So, I have been I was called from and I'll tell you I'll be as transparent as possible.

Uh Susan called me and said, "Quabina, uh is this Quabana?"

She couldn't directly pronounce my name.

It's it's okay.

It's nothing new.

Uh but she said, "Are you Quabana?"

I'm like, "Yes, I am."

And she was like, "Well, listen.

Uh this is Susan.

We want you to uh introduce uh Mr.

Schultz for the award."

So me being me, I paused on the phone like I'm being pranked, right?

This is not not cooly high, Mr.

Schultz.

No choir, we want to.

So I sold her, you can stop right there.

I'm in.

She continued to talk.

I said, "No, ma'am.

I'm in.

You can stop right there.

I'm in."

Once she told me that, I sat at my desk and I just looked at the pictures of my friends that I had lost and family members and I thought, "This is what I've been waiting for.

This is a moment."

In life, we have moments.

So, let me go to the very moment.

Cool.

How came out I think in 1974.

I remember my friends and family members.

My cousin Twin, he had a huge afro.

I remember they looked like my man in the movie uh Car Wash the Fly.

His afro was huge.

My aunts, they actually went to [ __ ] High.

My families, they talking about the movie.

They naming who's in the movie, who's not in the movie.

A year later or two, it comes out on ABC.

ABC was the only place to show it.

They're in the front room.

They're going back and forth.

If you remember in those days, it's only one TV.

Who understands what I'm talking about?

All right.

Thank you.

There's only three channels, ABC, NBC, and what?

CBS, right?

And I'm in the lower hierarchy of the family.

So, I can't dictate what I want to watch.

I have to watch what everybody is watching.

And we're getting ready to watch [ __ ] High.

Star and Hutch had just went off.

I'm dating myself, but who knows what I'm talking about.

And I couldn't wait to be Starski and Hutch cuz Starsky was the cool when he had the red and white car and the big sweater and I thought I was Starski even though I didn't look like Star.

You could feel that, right?

But anyway, as I'm in there, we're having conversations.

Popcorn is being passed.

Everything is going.

I'm a little black boy on the west side of Chicago.

We're gathering around the TV.

My grandmother telling everybody to be quiet, stop talking.

We going back and forth and I'm listening to everybody.

My cousins arguing about the soundtrack, what year the music come out, who is what.

And I'm sitting there and as the movie is on, they're telling me a certain parts I got to cover my eyes.

Do anybody understand that?

Right.

You got to cover your eyes.

You can't watch this part.

I'm going to watch it anyway cuz that was the kid I was.

And then certain parts coming on.

I've watched the whole movie.

I'm I'm I'm enjoying it.

This is us.

We're dancing to uh uh my mother loves Smokey Robinson and the Miracle.

So, we dancing to the Mickey's Monkey and everything.

But in one part of the movie, this is when my life changed.

And I will say that I'm a black boy west side of Chicago.

And I'm watching it.

I'm identifying with Coochis.

I'm identifying with PA Stony Roberts.

My uncle is lying.

He doesn't know Stony and Roberts, but he tells me he knows him.

That's no problem.

And right then and there, Mr.

Mason says, "You get the best grades."

You say, "You read poetry for fun.

You read books for fun.

and you get the worst grades in two states.

And he says, "Son, with knowledge, you can have what you want."

And he looks at Preach and all the noise is going on in my house, my auntie, my cousin, everybody.

And I hear one thing Preach says.

He takes his glasses off and he says, "I want to live forever.

I'm a black boy in the west side of Chicago.

In five years, my father will be killed in street violence.

I will know of many occases in my life.

A matter of fact, in a classroom, a teacher will tell me I will end up on the cover of obituary if I keep doing what I'm doing.

I see this movie and I see it's possible.

As Mr.

He tells him the story, you can be what you want to be.

Somewhere it resonates because the teacher said, I end up on the cover of obituary and I proved the wrong and I'm on the cover of four different books.

See, it's more than possible.

It's done.

[Applause] So when Preach tells this story and they're sitting in the back and Coochis comes up and says, "Wine time, fellows."

I get excited.

They pour liquor out.

I'm mimic and everything.

But then there's another point.

Preach tells them, "Well, I'm wait till I write my story.

I'mma be in Hollywood."

And Pastor says to preach, "Ain't nobody gonna read your stories.

What going to make you a big- time writer?

You grew up here.

I told the friend one day on the west side of Chicago after the drugs, after the gangs, after everything has happened.

I said, "Man, one day I'mma write a story."

And he says, "Ain't nobody going to read what you wrote.

You a black boy from the west side.

Your father was a hustler and your mama was battling drugs.

Nobody wants to hear your story."

I remember looking at him and I remember preach and him saying, "Watch me."

Later on, years would come by and as Mr.

Schultz wrote the story, I would have a lot of cooches in my life.

I would have a lot of friends that I had to bury and I would always say, why we got to get a lesson before dying.

But just like preach, just like preach in the movie, the greatest worst thing that happened to him turned out to be the thing that propelled him to be what he was supposed to be.

The first poem I ever wrote was at the death of my father at 11 years old.

When I left Chicago, I had buried three friends back to back to back to back.

And I got on the train and I remember watching Preach run off and the music came on and it says Preach is going to be a writer.

You see family, I'm telling you that because representation matters.

You have to see something to be something.

And for that moment, I saw myself running off to be something.

I hate that I had to hit the lesson before dying, but I turned the tragedy into a triumph.

And it's all because I watched a movie called [ __ ] High.

And [ __ ] High gave birth to Boys in the Hood.

And Boys in the Hood gave birth to a number of things.

But at the end of the day, just remember this.

Remember this.

There's a preach in every city.

There's a Mr.

Maze in every city.

And every little black and brown boy you see out there running up and down the street just like I did.

And listen, even if they still in cars and doing a number of things, they got a story in them.

All somebody got to do is sit down and say, "Tell your story."

I got a chance to see Eric Monty when I was a boy and that changed my life.

So family, on behalf of Milwaukee, on behalf of young men who are my age but look like me when we were boys, sitting around the TV trying to figure out, on behalf of those who navigated through crack, cocaine, drugs, etc.

On behalf of any of us that sat there, watched that movie, and cried when Coach Cheese died, today we give honor and I would like to present, if you can, stand in your feet, clap your hands for Mr.

Michael Schultz as the first and only, and yes, you should be so much louder as the recipient of the first ever Michael Schultz Award.

Thank you very much.

It's a great story.

[Applause] [Applause] Thank you.

Thank you, Quaba, for that story.

Um, you know, it's very humbling to just not only listen to your story, but listen to John Singleton's story to, you know, on and on and and it really made me uh understand early on the power of the medium and the responsibility that comes with that power because we're kind of living in a society that does not acknowledge that power.

They pretend that it doesn't exist.

And so the medium is flooded with images that do not make a better world and trying to educate Hollywood is impossible because it's all about the money.

So I was kind of blessed um by the creator to move me in directions that I had no intention of going.

Uh and so in spite of myself, I wound up being a storyteller and being placed in a situation where I had the training and the kind of ethical foundation for doing what we do.

And so I came into the business with the burning desire to inspire and uplift um and educate and most importantly entertain because the entertainment allows you to grab all those people who aren't thinking about uh changing and once you grab them with the entertainment you can pull them into the stories that make a difference.

So that's how I've led my life and I I'm glad that it touches people.

So, I'm just going to set that set that here for now.

Again, we we will ship that to you because it's uh it is it is heavy.

Um we have one more surprise for you.

Um so, as I mentioned, the Brewers Community Foundation, Cecilia Gore, was incredibly important in making all of this happen, and I think Cecilia would like to come out and say a few words.

Hello everyone.

Mr.

Schultz, I just want you to know that it's a great honor for Milwaukee Brewers and Brewers Community Foundation to be a sponsor of this award.

We consider ourselves a part of the fabric of this community and you are the fabric of our lives.

And so I'd like to present you with this jersey.

The Milwaukee Brewers just clinched just clinched.

We are number one and you're number one for us.

Oh man, that's fantastic.

Wow.

Okay, Brewers number one.

[Applause] And no pressure, Cecilia, but I am hoping to go to my first World Series game this year.

So, Me, too.

Yeah.

Count us in.

Yeah.

You know, it it's um I I'm really um super impressed and touched by the work that you guys are doing and all of the help that you're getting from the sponsors.

Um, it's critically important work uh to bring the community together, you know.

Uh, I wish there were more white people in the audience, but okay.

Yeah.

Yeah.

because this story was made for everyone and is well, we'll get that later in the in the Q&A.

I'll tell you a story about that.

But but what you do is is critically important and it's more exciting than what's happened in LA.

Let me tell you.

Okay.

Well, we keep telling people that, so please also tell people in LA that.

Okay.

But thank you.

Thank you for that high compliment.

[Music]