(gentle music) (upbeat music) - Hello, everybody.

and welcome to Black Nouveau.

I'm Earl Arms and this our April edition.

The Milwaukee Film Festival starts this month.

Dr. Donte McFadden will join us to preview the films in the Black Lens strand of the festival.

There's an incredible exhibit on South African beadwork at the Paine Art Center in Oshkosh.

We'll visit the Ubuhle Women: Beadwork and Art of Independence exhibit.

Financial journalist Rodney Brooks joins us to discuss fixing the racial wealth gap, with tips on how we can build wealth for future generations.

April is Minority Health Month, and also Alcohol Awareness Month.

In observance, we take you to the Friendship Club, which was the first African-American-operated sobriety club in Milwaukee.

The group has provided a safe, social, and recreational setting for recovering people and their families for nearly five decades.

(somber music) - It's a lot of hard work getting sober and staying off drugs and alcoholúinitially, until it becomes a way of life.

And then you have a place like the Friendship Club, where you can sustain that way of life just by having it as a part of where you go and socialize.

And you go and take part in the meetings, if that's what you need.

Friendship Club's organization started in 1974 by a group of primarily black alcoholics.

They started the organization because the black alcoholics in the city of Milwaukee felt and had reason to feel like they were not welcome in the other clubs.

And we needed a place of our own, for our people.

See, there's a difference between a 12-step club and a social club that has a component where alcoholics and drug addicts are the focus.

A 12-step club is simply what it is, if you know the 12 steps, Alcoholics Anonymous, you will go to that club, to a meeting, and leave.

And that's the way it's set up in a lot of places.

There was a big argument among the members about whether it would be a social club or just a place for the alcoholics to come and socialize, and not have these meetings because they wanted to get away from 'em.

But they settled on, we'll have a social club, and we will have AA meetings in the facility.

So this is what we've been doing since 1974.

- Well, I go downstairs and I play my little music, I play spades.

We grin and laugh down there, you know?

And that's a lovely thing to do.

That you have somewhere you can come everyday.

Everyday.

Recovery done changed my whole life.

You know, just being clean.

It changed my life because I lost my children in the system when I was on drugs and alcohol.

I didn't have my family because they didn't care for me as that person who was on drugs.

But when I found myself again, and got back clean again, that's when I won my family back.

All I wanted to do was get clean and get off drugs.

So when I came in here, I did the work.

I came in, I went to meetings.

Every night and day, I still go to meetings.

- I knew I had to make a change, I knew the stuff I was doing out on the streets, I knew I couldn't go on wit' it.

It actually made me say, hey, these people ain't doing any drugs or messin' up they lifestyle so, maybe it'll rub off on me and then I'll be able to maintain some clearness on my life, my lifestyle.

- The peoples, they gentle, they care.

They want the best for you.

They are my family, you know?

Friendship Club are my family because of, I don't have it confused that, when holidays come around, I don't go around my family.

Because they drink and they do drugs.

So that's why we have Christmas here, Thanksgiving here, every holiday that a family have, we have it here.

- All people need to have a social life.

That's part of a healthy human being.

And regardless to who you are, what your religious faith is, or whatever it is you believe in, there's gotta be a place for socialization.

We've had our arguments around here over the years about staying in this part of the black community.

And the argument is consistently being won by, we stay in our community where our people need us.

Those who don't have resources to take a bus or a cab to go outside of the inner city, they trusted me, that I would protect this place, especially for those who don't have resources.

'Cause people who do, they can afford to pay a psychiatrist or go to, I went to a fancy hospital, because I had a job that provided me with the best insurance, but a lot of us in this community don't have that, even today.

- Well, we had a young man came in here the day before yesterday.

And he was high.

And he cried, he cried and cried.

And I had tears coming out my eyes, and he was saying how it's hard for him to get off drugs.

And I told him, you take it one day at a time.

You're welcome to come back here when you choose you want to.

And I seen how he feelin', because I been there.

It's a fight to get off drugs.

It's a fight, you got to want it.

And when I finally found him, that's when I found me again.

So I felt that young man who came in here the other day.

I felt him.

He said, y'all just don't know, it's hard, yes, we do know.

'Cause we been there.

- I'm just a guy who, 40 years ago this June, said he wasn't gonna drink no mo' whiskey and snort no mo' cocaine or take no more money that didn't belong to him.

That's what I did.

There is a brighter day, but you have to stay, stick it, stay, deal with the pain, and that brighter day will come.

And be there for that person when he or she needs someone that they can talk to just to hold their head up.

You have to own your own sobriety, it's yours.

Don't allow anyone to take that.

And that's about all I can do.

(upbeat string music) (intense piano music) - [Buddy] The story begins in Lettsworth, Louisiana, where I was born 84 years ago.

- (Recording) Buddy Guy, Buddy Guy.

- And ladies and gentlemen, I've been around the world.

From the plantation to the concrete jungle of Chicago.

I came to Chicago September the 25th, 1957.

- That right there, changed the course of music to this day.

- You just saw a clip there from Buddy Guy: The Blues Chase The Blues Away, which is one of the many offerings from this year's Milwaukee Film Festival.

And joining us now is Dr. Donte McFadden, who is the programmer for the Black Lens strand of Milwaukee Film.

Dr. McFadden, thank you so much for joining us.

- I appreciate you having me, thank you so much.

- Absolutely.

So first off, we're gonna talk about the film festival for a little bit, it runs from April 21 to May 5, but talk about the Buddy Guy documentary a little bit, or the film, I should say.

- Yeah so, the film is Buddy Guy: The Blues Chase The Blues Away.

And this is a definitive documentary about Buddy Guy, who turns 85 this year.

And it's a journey through his life and career, looking at, from his humble beginnings in Louisiana, coming to the west side of Chicago, and becoming the blues luminary that he is, and influenced so many rock and roll guitarists.

And the documentary features people such as Eric Clapton, John Mayer, Gary Clark Jr., Carlos Santana, just to name a few, just to talk about the influence that he's had on their careers.

And we've had music documentaries that focus on people such as Miles Davis, Black Lens has also screened the film about the blues called Two Trains Runnin' so, I think this film follows in that tradition.

- Yeah, Buddy Guy, a legendary name absolutely, and one more clip we're gonna look at is from Queen of Glory, let's take a look.

- This house is for family, do you have a family?

- (Woman) You don't live here anymore.

- (Man) You just can't use people and throw 'em away.

This a Christian bookstore, not a Walmart.

(laughs) (percussive music) - Get out of my house!

- (Woman) I'm very good at being my mom.

- You don't have to be your mother.

You get to define you, mama.

- All right, Dr. McFadden, your thoughts on that film and what folks are gonna see.

- So Queen of Glory, it stars Nana Mensah, who also wrote and directed it.

Some people may be familiar with her in another film that screened, was part of the Black Lens program in 2020.

It was called Farewell Amor, and it was a film that focused on the African immigrant experience in New York City.

She was also most recently featured on the Netflix series, The Chair.

And in this film, she plays a doctoral student at Columbia University.

Her partner, who happens to be married, just was appointed to a new position at a university in Ohio, she has plans to move with him.

However, things become disrupted when her mother dies.

She is bequeathed not only the home of her mother, but also a Christian bookstore that she owns in the Bronx.

And as she's dealing with how to transition with all this, her father from Ghana, who's been estranged for so many years, also reappears.

So amidst all of this, the character that Mensah plays, it's really about her own self-discovery in terms of what her motivations are, what her goals are, and what family means to her and what legacy means to her.

- Absolutely, and remember, this film festival is live and virtual.

And before we wrap things up, we're gonna watch one more clip, and that's One Pint at a Time.

(funky music) - I tell people all the time, we as black folks, people of color, we consume a lot of stuff.

But what do we own?

We're getting what, less than .2 percent of a billion-dollar industry?

That's not right, not on my watch.

- All right now, this film is unique in its own way in regard to Milwaukee Film.

Talk about it, why it's important, and what makes it so unique this time around.

- So obviously, you drink the city where we live in, right?

And people who live in Milwaukee think that they know everything that there is about beer.

And that maybe, indeed be true, but I'm sure beer connoisseurs are always open to more education.

And what One Pint at a Time, the director, Aaron Hose, explores black entrepreneurs in the craft brewery business.

And so, he chronicles the stories of people from all over the country, black craft beer entrepreneurs, about getting the products out, about getting their products on the market, and also just building a coalition among each other.

Just to build community while also looking at craft brewery as another way to build black business.

- All right, Dr. Donte McFadden of Milwaukee Film, thank you so much for joining us.

Looking forward to this film festival.

- Absolutely.

Be sure to check out those three films and we also have our Black Love Through a Black Lens shorts program showing as well, it's gonna be wonderful.

- And it's live and it's virtual.

- Thank you so much.

- Thank you.

(upbeat music) (lighthearted music) - (Narrator) Bead art is one of the world's oldest art forms, using skills handed down through generations.

And working in their own unique style, directly from the soul, the Ubuhle women of South Africa have given it a more contemporary feeling.

(lighthearted music) The exhibit is currently on display at the Paine Art Center and Gardens in Oshkosh.

It features the work of five African women.

- When I first saw the exhibit, I was amazed, I was awed, at the incredible, meticulous skill that the women artist have who have created these.

When you look at them, you might be blown away at first by how they shimmer from afar.

But then, as you get closer, you see each individual beadwork, and you'll just be amazed at the incredible talent and the time that it takes to create such a masterpiece.

(lighthearted music) So the women artists behind Ubuhle beadwork are women who live and work together in rural Kwa-Zulu-Natal, South Africa.

They live in a former sugar plantation and the exhibition actually was born out of their need to create a means of income.

So they live and work together, they create the beadwork, and they create these beautiful works of art.

- (Narrator) The Ubuhle Women were established in 1999, by Ntombephi Ntobela and Bev Gibson.

Changing economic realities changed South African society.

Men had to leave their rural homesteads for up to nine months of the year to make money in the mines or cane fields.

That caused the breakdown of traditional family life and values.

Ntombephi began to teach the women how to create bead art they could sell, giving them a source of income and a route to financial independence.

Due to the slow, meticulous process of creating the art, the act of beading itself became a form of therapy, a way of bonding, a way of sharing feelings and memories.

(gentle music) This is a centerpiece of the exhibit, the African Crucifixion, roughly 24 feet by 15 feet.

Seven artists spent almost a year creating the seven panels for a cathedral in South Africa.

(gentle music) Since 2006, the Ubuhle community has lost five artists to HIV/AIDS and other illnesses, almost half of its membership.

Much of the artwork serves as a memorial to them.

- (Noell) These are stories of hope.

The artworks themselves are depicting loss, they're ways of grieving for these women, so one thing I think is really powerful that people can take away from the exhibition is hearing those remarkable stories of the women, learning the behind-the-scenes stories of the artworks, and then that powerful recognition that you can do something with a challenge.

You might come on a hard time, but you can make beauty out of darkness.

(triumphant music) (upbeat hip-hop music) - Let's face it.

Most of us could do a better job at saving and investing.

But for the most part, financial literacy is something we don't talk about.

What determines a credit score, and how much money do you need to retire?

These are all topics discussed in Fixing the Racial Wealth Gap, a book for African Americans to start building wealth by author and veteran journalist, Rodney A. Brooks.

Mr. Brooks, thanks for joining us.

- Thank you for inviting me.

- So, how wide is the wealth gap between blacks and whites, and how long will it take to close it?

- Well, a couple of examples, The average wealth of a white family is $171,000.

The average wealth of a black family is 17,000.

That gives you some indication of the gap.

And another way to look at it is home ownership, which is one of the ways people accumulate wealth.

The black home ownership rate hovers around 42, 43%.

The white home ownership rate is 72%.

So that gives you some indication of how wide it is, and how much of a problem it's gonna be to close it.

- It's interesting that you mention home ownership, but what happens when, when is the right time for an African American to buy a home?

Can you talk about that?

- There's so many issues when it comes to African Americans, which I talk about in the book and you know, so we have redlining, we have credit issues, and if on average, black Americans have a lower credit rate than white Americans.

So that leads to higher interest rates.

Higher interest rates, harder to qualify for a mortgage.

So whenever you're, I just say, whenever you think you're financially ready, when you can afford the down payment, and you're not gonna be, that you're not gonna have trouble covering that payment.

So, it's not a time, people sometimes have to get, they have to get established, have to have kids, get married, have kids, have a family.

But there's no, there's no real good time, it just depends on your individual financing.

And this is not a great time, because you know what the housing market is now.

And we don't know, we got caught in the 2008 crash, and that's when we lost, a lot of housing loss.

At this time, houses are selling for a premium, and it's probably not the best time for first-time home buyers.

- Now, your book takes a historical approach in looking at wealth and wealth-building, but throughout history, when African Americans started to build wealth in parts of this country, there was whites who tried to stop it.

How many black massacres have we had in this country when it come to maintaining black wealth?

- I did a magazine article, and I mentioned that Tulsa, which became, all of a sudden, everybody was talking about Tulsa during the social justice protests, so I said, there was Tulsa and there were dozens of other cities across America, where black wealth was stolen by white mobs, angry white mobs, they burned down cities, they burned down parts of cities, and it wasn't just Tulsa.

And the editor came back and said, is this number correct?

And I said, well, I could've said hundreds of cities, because it was that widespread, all across America, and several of them, you're hearing about today.

The beach in LA County that was taken away from a black family in the early 1900s.

Because, basically, a black couple had built a resort and black families were enjoying it.

Well, the county just basically took it, took it.

There was very little payment, and LA County just did the right thing and returned it, but this is 2022.

It's like generations later.

So there's many, many instances, and that's why I started out the book that way, because there are so many things that were done to keep us from getting black wealth first, and then when we did get it, to take it away.

- Let's talk about reparations for a minute.

It appears that African Americans will never receive the 40 acres and a mule that was promised to enslaved people.

What would reparations look like today for African Americans?

- Well, William Darity did a book on reparations, and he estimated, From Here to Equality is the name of the book, and he estimated that somewhere around $12 trillion, which would basically close the wealth gap, I mean, that's how he estimated what it would be worth, which would be about a quarter of a million dollars per family.

And there would be ways to qualify, to make sure, but that was the estimate.

And his, under his form, the government would pay it, because the government was implicit in the racism and discrimination that kept us from building wealth in the first place.

- You mentioned in your book that it used to be considered like a million dollars was what you needed to retire.

Is that still needed today, and what would that number be for African Americans to retire off of?

- Well it's, one thing, it varies from where you live across the country.

If you live in New York City, it's gonna be more.

Some people can do it with a couple of hundred thousand dollars.

It depends on your lifestyle.

Now if, if you maintain that lifestyle with a low standard of living, then you don't need, necessarily need a million dollars But my caution is, don't depend on Social Security to be a big part of that income, because the average Social Security payment is like $1,500 a month, and there's a lot of reasons for that, because people take it early.

But it depends, and you can, if you don't have enough to retire on, you will need to either lower your standard of living for retirement or keep working.

But for some people, to continue working is not an option, because either health issues or caring for a relative or children, gets in the way.

- We got less than a minute to go.

Quickly, tell me, what's the one thing that African Americans could do right now to really start saving and investing?

What's the one thing we could all do?

- If I pick one thing, I would say start talking to your children about finances.

Make sure you don't have another generation that goes without financial literacy.

And if you don't know, learn with your children.

But let's have those discussions at dinner tables, like white families do.

Let's talk about stock.

Don't be afraid to talk about how much money you earn.

There's a business owner in New York who says her mother basically made her write the checks when she was a little girl, and that way, she knew that there was no money, so she never asked for anything.

But involve your children, that would be the biggest thing I would say.

- [James] Okay.

Well, thanks a lot, Mr. Brooks.

Take care.

- (Rodney) Thank you, you have a good one.

- And that's our program for this month, but next month, we invite you to join us as we celebrate Teacher Appreciation Month, with special segments and programs.

Speaking of, if you had a teacher who's inspired you or ignited a passion for learning, and haven't we all?

Share that experience with us, go to our website, milwaukeepbs.org, and tell us about it.

We'll make sure to share some of those on our air.

For Black Nouveau, I'm Earl Arms.

Have a good evening.