(cheerful music) (dramatic music) - Hello everyone, and welcome to "Black Nouveau."

I'm Earl Arms, and this is our October edition.

This month's program starts our 30th season of providing news information and entertainment by and about African-American communities in Southeast Wisconsin, the United States, and around the world.

Later on in the program, we'll revisit some of our most popular segments and Alexandria Mack will talk with the original creators and producers of "Black Nouveau."

But first, James Causey discusses teaching African-American history with Dr. Robert Smith, author of "Black Liberation from Reconstruction to Black Lives Matter."

And speaking of African-American history, Milwaukee's Bronzeville district is undergoing a renaissance of new businesses working to uphold the neighborhood's legacy of being a hub for Black arts, culture, and commerce.

Alexandria Mack speaks to some of the people leading the change and the hope for Bronzeville today.

(upbeat music) - Bronzeville historically has been the playground for Milwaukee and its Milwaukee Black community.

So having the opportunity to have that renaissance being led by Black leaders is very powerful in itself.

So I think folks have identified this as an opportunity to opportunity come in and be, have a high and significant presence in our community, and in a way that kind of connects us to our past.

- [Alexandria] Bronzeville has long been considered the jewel of Milwaukee's Black community and there are new faces working to keep that jewel polished and shining bright.

- [Kevin] So a lot of folks, you know, this is very symbolic for them as it relates to the former use of a department store.

This floor was where you would have tons and tons of different aisles kind of set up for people to kind of browse through.

You know, kids running around on Saturdays.

- [Alexandria] This $100 million development is breathing new life into a Bronzeville building with bones almost 115 years old.

- We're currently sitting in the former Gimbles/Schuster's department store on Historic King Drive in Milwaukee.

This will be the home for Thrive on Collaboration, which is a partnership between the Medical College of Wisconsin, the Greater Milwaukee Foundation, and Royal Capital.

All these kind of things that kind of relate back to the historic nature of this build will be maintained and hopefully we can kind of play off of it in themes to kind of bridge to the past, present, and future.

- [Alexandria] For Kevin Newell and the Royal Capital group, transforming this former department store turned warehouse is a tall task, but their focus on housing, health, and opportunity would make this a community mainstay.

- It's going to be a very multifaceted development opportunity and community impact is going to be, you know, our North Star.

So the development will be layered with affordable housing.

So we'll have roughly 90 units of affordable housing and mixed income housing that will be targeted to both families and senior housing.

We'll also have the Centers of Institutes that are anchored via the Medical College of Wisconsin.

Those anchor institutions, they focus on the social determinants of health and they're very front-facing to the community.

So being able to gather them together under one roof, it's going to be very significant.

You know, this has been a 400,000 square foot underutilized asset in the community.

So being able to now incorporate the certain level of services and opportunities that we're talking about and revitalize this block is going to have significant impact for me and generations to come.

- [Alexandria] Just around the corner, the founders of the Bronzeville Collective are noticing a rise in businesses in the area.

- The block is full.

When we first moved on this block, all of the spaces on this, the storefronts on this block were empty.

They have now filled in and we're seeing some of them filling in around the corner on King Drive as well.

I do anticipate that with the Bucks winning that it'll definitely continue to fill out in this area since we're so very close to downtown.

- [Alexandria] The Bronzeville Collective is a collaborative storefront that houses 25 to 30 Black, Brown, queer, or ally owned businesses.

Tomira White is one of the founders and is the owner of Distinctive Designs.

- [Tomira] I think we add a very unique piece to the neighborhood.

We are all, everything here is handmade by local artists, which may make us a little different from other boutiques and or stores in the neighborhood.

Not in a bad way, but we giving different artists exposure.

So that makes us just a tad bit different.

- [Alexandria] And the excitement bustling through the neighborhood is reminiscent of an earlier time.

- The renaissance in Brownsville that's growing right now is beautiful.

So we see all of these new spaces popping up shop wise, ourselves included.

We see the murals coming up, visual art is growing here.

There's more music and nightlife growing along the corridor of MLK, and it's just hearkening back to the old days and we're excited to get back to that.

We're excited to build upon the legacy that our ancestors and the people that came before us in this neighborhood set out for us.

So I'm excited for the renaissance of Brownsville.

(dramatic music) - Over the past year, there has been a lot of discussion on how to discuss race in the classroom.

A new book, "Black Liberation from Reconstruction to Black Lives Matter" by Marquette University history professor Dr. Robert Smith offers a way for the reader to interpret evidence and use analysis to have constructive dialogue.

He joins us now.

Thanks for joining us.

- Thanks for having me.

I really appreciate it.

I appreciate the opportunity to talk about the book with you, Brother Causey.

- Man, this is a deep book.

- [Robert] Thank you very much.

- Tell me what you were trying to accomplish in the book.

- You know, it's a teaching instrument and it's designed to engage one fundamental question, which is, was there a breakthrough in civil rights in the 1960s?

If so, how do we measure that?

What does the documentary evidence to suggest that?

If there was not, what documentary evidence do we use to make that determination?

It really calls upon the student to use those resources to make some sort of educated argument about whether or not there was a breakthrough.

The book actually is part of a very rich series by Oxford University Press, where we go through eras and moments in US history and we make these very important debate driven arguments for students to figure out.

You know, it gives students the opportunity to really think through the history but also think through the materials that we use to come to these historical arguments.

It's intended for early intro level history courses at the college level and we also are encouraging in very significant ways for high school teachers to think about adopting it as well.

- So it's interesting that you mentioned debate because there is ways to debate.

How is that different than standardized teaching of history?

- Well, what we don't want to do is just dump a bunch of information into a student's brain and then ask them to regurgitate that.

That's not learning.

We also want to make sure the students understand that history is far more complex than names, dates, and places.

It's a much richer, much more engaging discipline than that.

So as we see students move through high school, move into college, we want to also encourage them to think more sophisticatedly about the past.

This sounds crazy to some folks, but the past changes.

The more we learn about the past, the more we have a better understanding of not only what happened then, but where we are in the present and then where we're headed as well, and we need young voices to begin interpreting that past as well.

- You know, one thing that's pretty interesting is like 10 years ago, "The New York Times" determined that American history is students' worst subjects, is the worst subject.

Is that still true today and if so, why?

- Well, not after the last couple of years, you know.

At any given moment as a historian, we can always find very exciting, rich stuff to talk about.

But over the last several years, we've found that students are engaging more and more with difficult topics.

They want to engage with complicated topics and we need to make sure we're creating the space and the opportunity and the learning environment for those challenging and difficult topics to have a place where we can have a civil discourse.

You know, as you know well, there aren't many places in our society where we can have civil discourse anymore.

The classroom is one of those hallowed spaces and we have to make sure we do our due diligence to keep it that way.

That's where we can talk about this stuff.

- One thing that I found interesting is the chapter on civil rights in the 1960s.

You asked a question if there was a breakthrough in civil rights.

I'm going to turn it to you.

Was there a breakthrough?

- Well, if I answer that question, I wouldn't be doing the job that the book is trying to get us to do, which is, and let me back up a little bit so I provide a bit of a summary.

There's not a lot of commentary in the book from me.

I provide a synthesis of a lot of scholarship and then I provide a point and a counterpoint.

Yes, there was a breakthrough in some of the arguments that have been made around that.

And then no, there wasn't a breakthrough, but there's been indeed ongoing, longstanding, if you will, permanent kinds of racial inequities that are going to always be with us.

The question for students to consider is where they sit on that fundamental notion of whether or not there was a breakthrough.

Now, if I were to answer that question, I'd say we see a little bit of progress and then we see obviously backlash and retrenchment.

And that is a standard narrative, not only for movements for racial equality, but broader social movements in general.

But we have to ask the question and that's what's really important.

- So what I really liked is the Clinton crime bill.

You get into discussion about that.

Now, when I think about the Clinton crime bill, I think about prisons and I also think about the number of officers that were added.

- [Robert] Sure.

- But there's so much more to that bill.

Can you talk about that and did that help African-Americans?

- You know, this is where the fundamental question of what happens after the 1960s is critical.

If we look at policing and incarceration, we know the racial disparities.

We know the realities with officer involved shootings.

We know all of that.

This is part of a very important conversation about longstanding policing surveillance and state violence, and that crime bill sets in motion a whole range of processes that give life to those issues that erupted into significant demonstrations and opposition last summer.

And so that particular crime bill is exhaustive.

It includes far more than we could ever imagine.

And it is also an important conversation of what the Democrats in particular, what role they've played in this conversation of racial equality or inequality as we see ourselves as a nation so polarized along those political lines.

- Okay, we'll end this conversation here.

We didn't get to discuss Critical Race Theory in depth.

We'll do that online at milwaukeepbs.org.

Join us there.

(rhythmic music) - Hello and welcome to a special edition and a special season of "Black Nouveau."

I'm Milton Dockery.

- And I'm Faith Colas.

We're glad you could join us.

(dramatic music) - Hello, I'm Joanne Williams.

Welcome to a new season of "Black Nouveau" in our new home.

- That was a look back at the many faces that have graced the "Black Nouveau" team over the years.

Now we sit down with the show's creators, Sharon Patterson, Joe Savage, and Liddie Collins.

Thank you all for joining us.

I feel like this is a mini family reunion.

- It is.

- It is.

- Very excited to have you all here.

So my first question to you all is what inspired "Black Nouveau?"

- Well, it was assigned to me, we need a Black show.

So what do we do?

You know, I sort of looked around.

We had done talk show, talk show, talk show.

I said let's do something a little positive.

So I wanted to get everybody, every Black person working here at the time involved, but Glenn dropped out.

What's Glenn's last name?

- [Liddie] Riley?

- Riley, he dropped out.

But I was trying to include all of the people here, you know?

It would've been cheaper.

(group laughing) But we got together several times and we tried to do things from a Black perspective, but positive Black perspective.

- Because there were other shows before this was, "Thinking Ebony" and "Necromancers."

- "This is it."

- Yeah.

- Ray Moore.

- But Joe put the gauntlet out because he wanted it to be just great.

To be as good as national shows.

And it's like, we all went in with a hand and said, we're gonna do this.

- And being positive was the key.

For the community or outside of our community, the only thing that people knew about African-Americans for the most part was what they saw on the 10 o'clock news.

There was so much more to us than that.

And so Joe said, if nothing else, it's going to be a positive show.

We'll tackle the issues but we're doing how are they overcoming them?

You know, what's the outcome after this, you know, something has happened, et cetera.

Not just the negative of what you saw.

- So when you were pitching it to like the administration or anyone who was in charge, was like everyone consistently rooting for "Black Nouveau?"

Was it pretty easy getting it green-lighted?

- No.

(group laughing) It was just the opposite.

See, we, at the time, we had a new general manager and he was, he had a perspective, a Black perspective, and he wanted me to present his side nicely.

Well, I've been Black longer than you have.

I think I'll present my side.

How about that?

And we fought all the time.

But you know, after a while he bowed out.

As a matter of fact, he lost his job.

So it became a lot easier then to do what we wanted to do.

- Can you all talk about how long each of you were involved with "Black Nouveau?"

- Well, all of us started it in 1988.

Joe, you retired first?

- Yeah, I retired in '96.

I was the first to go.

But I was the oldest, so you know.

- [Alexandria] You earned your time.

- Well, yeah, I had been in television for 12 and a half years before I came here.

So I stayed here 22 years.

So I thought, I think I'm ready to retire and that's what happened.

- And then I was the next to go.

I left in 2006.

So from '88 to 2006 I was here.

Well, I was here longer than that 'cause, but from the show.

I took another position at one of our local colleges.

- I'm the one who retired last two years ago.

I had fun in doing it.

I mean, I think I was.

- [Sharon] The things we did, oh my goodness.

- Oh wow.

People kept, they would tell me when we were, no, we were always doing other shows.

But whenever we were traveling doing other shows, I'd always do a Nouveau piece.

And the people would always say keep telling our story.

That's what just, it's that drive was here because people wanted us to tell our stories.

- Nouveau was really a connector of community.

So even though we said we're taping this for our community to tell our stories, there were people outside our community who finally went, oh, wow.

I got a letter from a woman once who identified herself as being White who lived up north.

And she said prior to watching Nouveau, I thought all black people were gangbangers and teen moms, and, you know, murderers, or whatever.

She said now I see you're just like us.

You love your kids.

You want the best for them.

Your doctors and you're entrepreneurs, and you know, you're educators.

It was like she had no idea because her reference was the 10 o'clock news.

And so Nouveau, it just encapsulated so much of who we are, what we are, and what we have to offer that the world just, I think, in our sphere of influence, we really changed some things.

- There was a brief moment when "Black Nouveau" did go off the air.

Can you all talk about how, like, what happened, where it disappeared, but also what brought it back?

- The community brought it back.

Our community stood up and said we want this program.

- I think when you get new people to join the station, they come with their own set of ideas, and the person who came in as GM then thought, why are we having all of these individual local shows?

Let's put one show together and we'll call it, was it "Milwaukee Tonight," or something like that?

We were all supposed to contribute to it.

It was an okay show, but it wasn't what our audience wanted.

So we were offered what, four years, I think it was?

- [Liddie] I think it was five years.

- Was it five years?

- It was five years.

- And the community just kept saying where's the show?

Where's the show?

And it got to, I think, a certain amount of time where the pitch was so hot about where's the show that they said, you know, maybe we should bring it back.

And we came back.

- How do you hope that the show continues to evolve over the years?

- Keep telling our stories.

- Well, that's up to you.

- Just keep telling the stories.

- Yeah, that's up to you.

- There are lots of stories.

- Put your heart and soul into it and something good will come of it.

I hope.

- But it has to be, I think, in my opinion, a great mix.

So you can't just, I don't think you should do just all serious things or you should do all fluff pieces, or you know, I think it has to be a mix.

When we started we said it was a magazine show and like a magazine, every time you turn the page, it's something different that's in it.

I think that's what has to, that will sustain the program.

If one moment you can say, oh wow, and the next one you can go, oh, did you see that?

Oh, you know, I think it has to continually to engage, and entertain, and just to be all that it can be.

- And involve the people out there.

You can meet some friends out there who you have no idea how thoughtful they can be, you know?

And they can help you a lot, I think.

- Just get involved with your community.

The community will give you the stories.

They will give you them.

- Well, thank you all for joining us.

It's been a privilege to celebrate this 30th season with you all here with us.

- Thank you so much for having us.

- Thank you.

- It was a blast talking about the show.

- Yeah.

♪ This little light of mine ♪ ♪ I'm gonna let it shine ♪ ♪ Let it shine ♪ ♪ Let it shine ♪ ♪ Let it shine ♪ - That's a clip from "This Little Light of Mine."

The stories of Marian Anderson and Leontyne Price.

The "Black Nouveau" staff produced it 10 years ago.

It won an Emmy for its star and creator, Adrienne Danrich.

Other performance specials featured the Ko-Thi Dance Company.

♪ Joyful, joyful, Lord we adore thee ♪ ♪ God of glory, Lord of Love ♪ And the annual MLK concert with the Bel Canto Chorus and the choirs of the Holy Redeemer Church of God in Christ.

♪ Oh, freedom ♪ ♪ Oh, freedom ♪ We've produced specials on the fight for open housing.

- That bridge is forever.

I mean, when you step on that bridge and the further you get across that bridge, and you know what's waiting on you, it gets more, more, and more tense, okay?

- When we got to the end of the bridge on the south end, we were met by this angry, angry group of people.

I mean, they were calling us all kinds of things.

The police officers were standing ready but I didn't understand who they were ready for.

- [Earl] Remembering the 1963 March on Washington.

- When we got to Virginia and saw all of those buses with all of the, as Dr. King would say, all the God childrens going to Washington.

But one thing.

They're saying, Jim Crow, you dead.

- Between 1842 and the Civil War, more than 100 slaves were helped to freedom by Wisconsinites.

- [Earl] We also went tripping to show you places of interest in Wisconsin you might want to visit with your family.

- African-Americans played a major role in the history of American railroads.

This Pullman Sleeper at the National Railroad Museum in Green Bay is an example of the kind of luxury Pullman wanted.

- [Man] It has 10 of the original Pullman berth accommodations.

It has a bedroom and it has two compartments.

- [Bobby] It is part of an exhibit, Pullman Porters: From Service to Civil Rights.

- [Earl] We went with Milwaukeeans to the second Million Man March.

- America is under divine judgment as we speak.

- We've seen events firsthand of how justice is not being served for the Black community.

So we decided that we needed to be here to stay in solidarity with men, women, children of all ethnic backgrounds, and especially Blacks who are in support of making sure that justice is being served and being realized, or else.

- [Earl] We visited New Orleans with the Running Rebels Community Organization to clean up after Katrina.

- Before Katrina, they didn't have these trailers.

See these trailer homes here?

We didn't have them.

And they had a house at every block.

See this open section right here.

It was three houses here.

- [Earl] We've examined issues facing our community.

- We've all seen the images.

The shooting of Jacob Blake, the protest, the subsequent violence, and even the death of some of the protesters.

But what do we know about Kenosha and its citizens?

Especially its citizens of color.

What is life like for them?

Do Black Lives Matter?

- Diabetes is the fourth leading cause of death among African-Americans.

But having the disease does not have to be a death sentence.

Our guest, S. Epatha-Merkerson is living proof.

You have diabetes.

When were you diagnosed and how did that happen?

- It was about 12 years ago.

I was doing a health fair and got to the table that was set up for a medical school.

My blood sugar was taken.

- When you're a minority, you have all of these stresses on you.

So that stress, along with being not maybe HIV positive, or even just gay, and that point can heighten all of these stresses upon you.

So you have all this stuff on your shoulders.

So when someone isn't accepting of you and loving of you, the impact of the community and the people that are supposed to support and love you is very, very important.

And that's just what we're trying to do with the project, is to show people that love is the most important thing and you should love one another for who we are unconditionally.

- [Earl] But what we've done for the most part is to share our stories of who we are and how we contribute to society.

- Is there any itching or a discomfort, or any?

That's no problem.

We can get that cleared up.

With this antifungal preparation.

Apply a very thin film using a Q-tip.

Part the hair, apply it three times a day, shampoo it twice a week with just any cleansing shampoo.

Doesn't have to be an expensive medicated.

Just something to keep it clean.

- [James] This is Dr. Lester Carter's trademark.

His personal interest in his customers and their concerns.

It's the kind of medicine he administered since he opened up this pharmacy on the corner of 24th and Burleigh in 1968.

Back then, the neighborhood was mostly White and German.

- A former coworker of mine suggested I come skiing with her one day and I thought, you know, Black people don't ski.

But she said it's a lot of fun.

I was in my twenties at the time.

She said the parties are great, you should come.

And once I realized that it was going to cost a little money to go, I said, well, I might as well learn how to ski.

It keeps you in shape.

You enjoy the outdoors.

It gives you something to do in the winter, especially in a place like Milwaukee.

I mean, you can either sit around and wait for the snow to go away or you can do things that are enjoyable.

- [Marcia] 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.

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 to signify that I had broken the glass ceiling.

- [Man] A daughter's relationship with her dad is usually of a tale-tell sign of the type of man she'll end up marrying or spending the rest of her life with.

- [Man] This is our first official date.

You know, I just want to show 'em some different things and show the girls right.

You know, with some options in.

This is our prerequisite in showing them how they should be treated on an evening out.

- Before we wrap up this edition, I want to remind you to check us out on our website at milwaukeepbs.org.

You'll find the web exclusive with Dr.

Rob Smith, as well as other materials you just might find useful.

And before we close, a bittersweet moment for us, as this is the last "Black Nouveau" to be directed by Dr. Raul Galvan, who's retiring from Milwaukee PBS after two tours of duty and over 30 years of service.

We wish you nothing but the best in whatever else you plan to do, and we thank you for your professionalism and for your humanity, and all the stories about baseball.

For the entire "Black Nouveau" team, I'm Earl Arms.

Have a good night.