(bright music) (spirited music) - Hello, everyone, and welcome to "Black Nouveau."

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

It's also the start of our 34th season of providing news, information and entertainment by four and about African American people and communities here in Southeastern Wisconsin, the United States, and throughout the world.

This month, we'll take you to the recent celebration for native Milwaukeean, Michael Schultz, who received Milwaukee Film's first Michael Schultz Award for his more than 50 years as a stage, television and film director.

We'll talk with civil rights activists and former United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young about why he's still optimistic about America.

But we begin with another anniversary as Black Arts MKE celebrates its 10th anniversary this month.

♪ Glory to God in the highest ♪ ♪ O come let us adore Him ♪ ♪ O come let us adore Him ♪ ♪ O come let us adore Him ♪ ♪ Christ the Lord ♪ - Langston Hughes' "Black Nativity" is one of the annual offerings of Black Arts MKE, but it's by no means the only thing that the organization does.

Barbara Wanzo, Executive Director for Black Arts MKE joins us now to discuss some of the organization's other projects and the anniversary celebration plan for later this month.

Barbara, thank you so much for joining us here.

- Thank you for having me.

- So, 10 years, that's a pretty big deal.

So how are we celebrating?

- Well, we're gonna have a gala next month that we're very excited about, but we have been having various activities throughout the year and last year.

Because for us, the season runs across years.

So, but... And certainly "Black Nativity" is our signature production, so it's gonna be a big celebration as well.

- Absolutely.

So, I mean, it's not just Black Nativity, of course.

So just talk about some of the other programming and, you know, what it's meant for Black Arts MKE not just throughout the years, but even, you know, this present day.

- You know, our programming starts with our kids.

You know, we do after school programming.

Thanks to Milwaukee Rec, as a result, we've offered, been able to offer student matinees to our spring production for theater for youth, as well as our month-long summer camp, and also "Black Nativity" student matinees.

And we also do, of course, public programming.

That's our other programs similar to "Black Nativity."

And we do the Milwaukee Black Theater Festival in August where we support hundreds of local artists of color in the community.

It is... But for me, my heart is the kids.

You know, the impression that the children, 'cause our sweet spot are elementary kids.

And from the very first student matinee at "Black Nativity" where, you know, many of these kids had never been downtown, much less a theater.

And the joy of those kids seeing people on stage that looked like them, get to do that, it was, it broke my heart.

I was like, "Okay, we have stumbled upon something that we are gonna have to stick with for our community and for our kids."

- So, I'm glad you mentioned that because I'm gonna ask you how important is the art scene in Milwaukee and the work that you do with Black Arts MKE.

- I think the art scene is incredibly robust and very important.

But even more important is, you know, the art scene for everybody, including Black theater.

You know, a city the size of Milwaukee should have a Black theater, like Chicago, like New York, like LA.

And we're working on that.

But, you know, we want a platform to continue to hear the voices of the talent in our community.

We have incredible talent, and actually, I was blown away.

I come from a corporate background, so the arts sector was new to me.

And learning about all this talent we have in our community was, it really blew me away.

- We were talking a little while ago about how important this work is.

So I wanna ask you how it inspires the work that you do for Black Arts MKE, particularly in this environment.

- This is probably... This last year and so many months is probably the toughest environment that I've worked in.

You know, it certainly has changed with the lack of focus on, you know, DEI and organizations led by people of color.

And I'm hoping that that turns around, but this year has been a particularly challenging year.

We just simply hope that whatever decisions businesses make, funders make, that they won't abandon the arts, and particularly Black arts organizations.

Because it's not just important for me and my team, it's important for our kids.

It's important the artists we employ, you know?

I never thought that we would be doing a quarter of a million dollars in 1099 wages for artists.

And we are, and it makes a difference.

And we've also been a scouting ground for other theaters in our community.

And some of our artists have gone to direct in other cities, and they've gone on to act in national touring facilities.

And so without us, you know, that probably wouldn't happen.

And it also is an opportunity, most of our kids, after being with Black Arts MKE for some time, have never had the experience of doing performing arts around people who look like them, people who understand where they're coming from.

And it's incredibly important.

- So if people want to learn more about Black Arts MKE, they wanna celebrate with you 10 years, go to "Black Nativity," donate anything, how do they get in touch with you?

- BlackArtsMKE.org.

- Okay, okay.

- It's just that easy.

- All right, well, Barbara Wanzo, appreciate you joining us here on "Black Nouveau."

- Thank you very much.

Appreciate it.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Last month, Milwaukee Film honored Director Michael Schultz with the first Michael Schultz Award and screened three of his most known films, "Car Wash," "The Last Dragon" and "Cooley High."

In 1975, "Cooley High" offered a new reality for Black audiences.

A story about ghetto life on Chicago's north side that wasn't only about drugs, guns, and violence, but also about relationships and hopes and dreams for something better, despite tragedy.

It became a classic and influenced a generation.

One of the people that influenced was poet and community activists, Kwavana Antoine Nixon, who grew up in Chicago before moving to Milwaukee.

- Just like Preach... Just like Preach in the movie, the 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 "Cooley High."

And "Cooley 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.

Mas 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 stealing cars and doing a number of things, they got a story in them.

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

I got a chance to see Eric Monte 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, et cetera, on behalf of any of us that sat there, watched that movie and cried when Cochise died, today we give honor, and I would like to present, if you can't 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.

(crowd cheering and applauding) - That's a great story, man.

(crowd applauding) Thank you.

Thank you, Kwava, for that story.

You know, it's very humbling to just, not only listen to your story, but listen to John Singleton's story, you know, on and on.

And it really made me understand early on the power of the medium and the responsibility that comes with that power.

Because we are 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 in Hollywood is impossible because it's all about the money.

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

And so, in spite of myself, I wound up being a storyteller.

- [Narrator] Sherry Williams Pinnell and Everett Marshburn had the honor of interviewing Michael Schultz at the ceremony and in an extended Zoom interview prior to his arrival in Milwaukee.

- The whole project came out of an idea of Steve Krantz, who was a white, older Jewish guy who grew up poor in New York, Eric Monte, young Black guy who grew up poor in Chicago, and they were trading stories about growing up poor in these big cities.

And Steve was so taken by Eric's story, he invited him over to his office and recorded 20 minutes of Eric's story.

Took it to a studio and sold the idea right away.

And Eric didn't have, he didn't know how to write a screenplay, but he was a great storyteller.

So Steve was rewriting Eric's stuff, trying to make a script out of it.

And when I discovered that, I said, "Okay, let me... I'll spend four weeks with Eric.

I'll go to his house every day 'cause he doesn't have the discipline to, you know, (laughs) to show up.

I'll bring a stenographer and she or he will write down everything that we talk about, and then, you know, we'll work it out."

So I would do that five days a week for four weeks.

I would bring the material of the day, the day's material home, and my wife and I would edit it.

We'd throw out all the garbage and keep the really good stuff.

And after four weeks, we had a script.

That's how I got involved in "Cooley High."

- [Sherry] That's a great process.

- Yeah.

Were you prepared for the success of the film?

'Cause it really became a classic film.

And even to the point, 'cause I saw it initially in 1975.

And then a year later, they brought it back and then they sent... I remember Glynn Turman actually went on tour with the film again, and that was sort of unusual.

And I know that part of that was because the film had begun to make a name for itself in a lot of places, and people were calling it an "American Graffiti" for Black folks, which, well, we know how that goes, but... - Right.

- And, you know, and even Jay Cox, who was writing for The Times, actually took to write, "No, it isn't.

It's something else altogether."

Which really pissed me off, but that's my personal issue.

But, yeah, it really did.

And it was one of the first times I saw Black people who looked like me, who acted like me, who weren't running around selling drugs or killing or trying to get whitey.

We're just trying to make a living.

- Yeah.

- Right, right.

Trying to live... You know, trying to live a kid's life, you know?

Which is growing up and making mistakes and fooling around, you know, hopefully learning something.

But the studio, the head of the studio, a guy named Steve Arkoff, American International Pictures, they did movies like "Hell Up in Harlem" and "Sheba, Baby" and "Beach Blanket Bingo" and all that stuff, right?

But Steve... Sam Arkoff was smart enough to know that this story could change a lot of things.

And so he gave the green light to do it once we got a script.

But his organization had no clue.

When they saw the film, they said, "How are we gonna sell this?

It doesn't have any sex, doesn't have any violence."

'Cause they used to "Sheba, Baby," you know?

And the first stuff they put, the posters and things that they proposed to put out really me off because they had kids in thug gear and, you know, the whole thing.

So we went round and round about how to sell the movie, but they didn't think that it would appeal to any other than a Black audience.

And I kept telling them, you know, "I made this movie so Black, it's gonna appeal to everybody."

And they said, "So Black?"

(laughs) I said, "Yeah."

It's real, the people I cast are people that I would know growing up, you know?

And it's not about any get whitey stuff.

This is gonna be a Black, Black movie.

(laughs) It's gonna be so true to our culture that people aren't gonna see the color, you know?

They're gonna see the kids.

- [Sherry] Yes.

- So that was my attitude at the time.

- You mentioned "Sheba, Baby."

I have to tell you, I'm, as a Black woman, so proud of the development of the characters, the women in the film.

And this continue to influence the development of other women, Black women characters in films that followed "Cooley High" and, you know, "Car Wash," and all the other wonder, the television shows.

I really appreciate the respect that Black women are shown in the development of those characters.

- Great.

- Talk a little bit about some of the people you've worked with.

For example, you directed "Carbon Copy," which was Denzel Washington's first film.

- It was a film about a wealthy white guy who had an extramarital affair in college with a Black woman.

And little did he know, they had a kid.

And the kid shows up on the guy's doorstep one day, and that kid turned out to be Denzel Washington.

And the father was George Segal.

Well, George Segal was this very gifted actor, comedian, you know, seasoned veteran.

And Denzel, I saw him sitting out waiting for an interview, and he had such a presence that I went in and told the people I was working with, I said, "I think we found that guy.

Let's bring him into audition."

And when he auditioned, they looked at me and said, "Yep."

I'm right.

And Denzel was so secure in himself at that young age, that being toe to toe with George Segal didn't phase him one bit.

And I remember George and I was sitting and Denzel was shooting a scene, maybe basketball or something, I can't remember.

And we looked at each other and said, "Yeah, that kid's a star, you know?"

And he was very, so easy to work with.

I can't remember much about the process except how much fun it was, you know?

- [Narrator] You can watch more of the award ceremony online, and there is much more of our extended interview as well.

(lively music) - I'm not hopeful, I'm certain.

I'm certain that this is a great country.

- [Earl] Not even the current political and social environment can deter Andrew Young from his vision of a more equitable society.

At 93 years old, Young served as a clergyman, civil rights activist, politician, and ambassador to the United Nations.

But here in Milwaukee with the Milwaukee fellows, what he says he's most proud of is how he's done it all with non-violence.

- Seriously.

It sounds strange, but most of what I did, I did without getting a scratch on me.

And I could talk my way out of most conflicts.

And if you're not afraid and you're calm, you can make those around you calm.

You can't create non-violence in the midst of violence if you're gonna be angry.

And my daddy always told me, "Don't get mad, get smart."

- [Earl] It was that lesson that took Young from his hometown of New Orleans all around the world.

His largest impact is likely in Atlanta, where he marched and fought alongside Dr.

Martin Luther King, Ralph Abernathy, and other activists.

As a congressman, he helped to find investors for Hartsfield-Jackson International, now recognized by multiple measurements as the world's busiest airport.

As mayor, he was instrumental in getting the 1996 Summer Olympics to Atlanta.

Young says his motivation for the latter came from his exclusion from athletics as a child.

- But I never got a chance to do anything, really, in sports because of combination of segregation.

We were not allowed to run in the track meets with the white kids.

The Nazi party headquarters was 50 yards from where I was born.

And I was four in 1936.

And my daddy took me to a segregated movie.

And he said, "We don't usually like to go to these, but I want you to see how Jesse Owens handled himself when Hitler refused to give him his medals and walked out on him."

And the point he was trying to make was that Jesse Owen didn't pay any attention to Hitler.

He went on and won three more gold medals.

- [Earl] Young's legacy continues to take shape as he's now on the board for Rodney Cook Sr.

Park, named for fellow Atlanta and Georgia politician outspoken on the issue of civil rights.

The park was designed to mitigate flood water and also serves as a symbol of revitalization and hope.

- What is now Rodney Cook Park, it was a disaster area.

It was an environmental disaster.

It's just below... It's one block below where Martin Luther King lived before he was killed.

And it is a steep slope.

And anytime we had a heavy rain, that gully would fill up with wastewater.

In addition to an eyesore, it was a health hazard.

And Rodney Cook's family had owned the property and they were aware of the difficulties, but it had always been their dream to turn it into a well-designed park, which is what we were able to do.

And again, it's one block east of where Martin Luther King lived, but also on that same street, Julian Bond's family lived there.

The founder of the Urban League, Lester Granger, was on that street.

And it was just... It's Sunset Avenue.

- [Earl] Young concluded our interview in part with lasting words from his old friend and his father.

- You know, Dr.

King used to quote, it's a hymn.

"It's not with swords loud clashing or roll of stirring drum, but through deeds of love and mercy that the heavenly kingdom comes."

And we've always been on the side of love and mercy, and it hadn't failed us yet.

And, I mean, from four years old, having to go by the Nazi party headquarters every day, and my daddy telling me, "Don't start anything."

See?

That he said, "They're white supremacists.

You know that God made a one blood all the nations of the world."

He said, "But you don't have to convince them."

He said, "Let God worry about them.

You just get your butt to school and do what you're supposed to do to."

- Before we close tonight, there's bit of housekeeping.

Due to special programming in November, our November edition will air on Thursday, November 5th, 2025 at 7:30 PM.

That's the first Thursday in the month at 7:30.

And remember, you can always find us online at our YouTube channel, as well as additional digital content.

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

Have a great evening.

(bright music) (bright music continues)