And so Taylor put his nose to the grindstone and quite remarkably six months later, he is putting the finishing touches on “Leaders of Madison’s Black Renaissance.”

“I’ve probably aged a couple of years during this project because I’ve been literally working 12-14 hour days since September,” Taylor said. “It’s been 5-6 months from conception to the finished product. It hasn’t been a straight road. I don’t want anyone to think this has been a piece of cake. It’s been up, down, take two steps forward and take one step back. But I had my eye on the prize. I envisioned this thing 6-7 months ago. And I knew what I had to do to get it done. I remember talking to County Executive Joe Parisi. I interviewed him in September. I told him we were going to have the world premiere in late February. He didn’t want to be negative. He said, ‘That’s pretty ambitious.’ I agreed with him. I didn’t realize how accurate his words were. But I was determined to make that deadline. Once I set a deadline, I worked towards meeting that.”

Taylor has employed videography, photography from The Capital City Hues and Hedi Rudd, interviews, narration by Deana Wright and music composed by Leotha Stanley to tell the contemporary story of Madison’s Black community through a high production value vehicle.

“I had a great team,” Taylor said. “We did use three cameras when we filmed the artist scene. We had three cameras in Café CODA. But for the most part, we just had one camera. Sometimes we had two cameras. But I would say that 85 percent of the film was one camera with the Emmy award winning Jeremy Nichols. He’s just outstanding. He was a pleasure to work with. It took me a month to write the script. I sat down with him with the script and told him, ‘These are what I needed.’ You saw his work in the trailer. He captured the B-Roll that I needed. We worked back and forth, even on this trailer. It took us almost a week and a half because we had to go back and forth. But we worked very well together and we worked it out. There are some special shots of the Isthmus or above the State Capitol that we took with a drone. I selected the music, but he selected the shots. We worked together like that so that we played off of each other’s strengths. Even now, he’s also working because he has a full-time job. He worked on this project in the evenings after he got off of work for 6-7 hours. He’s been totally committed to this project as well.”

Like most artists, Taylor was focused on the project itself and somehow the financing took care of itself.

“I start my projects with an idea and I worry about the money later,” Taylor said. “I know that’s not the right way to do it. But as I was getting into it, people asked me how I was being funded. I said that I funded it myself, my small company ROAR Enterprises. They would recommend people I should talk to. UW Health is a sponsor. American Family is helping with the World Premiere. They are paying for that and the reception. And Housing Ministries of American Baptists in Wisconsin are the primary sponsor. With these three funders and my company, we were able to budget it. Documentaries are not cheap. They helped me to get the funds to do this thing correctly.”

What began as a 20-36 minute documentary turned out to run one hour and 45 minutes because of all of the rich activity that Taylor found. And he wanted to tell as complete of a story as he could.

“The first part of the film raises the question, ‘Is there really a renaissance,’” Taylor said. “I get a variety of opinions. We have some people say that we are in a renaissance. Others said we aren’t. Others say that they are going to wait and see. It’s too early to tell. And the documentary talks about how we got to this place in the present day. How did we get here? We talk about some plausible reasons ranging from the Race to Equity Report and the response to that to the response to George Floyd’s public murder to Black leaders demanding change. We look at some reasons for that. And then we talk about some disparities between Blacks and Whites in this city. And then we begin to introduce some of the key people in town who are addressing these disparities in 10 different genres. And if you recall, you helped me identify many of these genres. We look at education, media, criminal justice and a number of areas. And within those areas, I talk to 2-3 people. In some case like artists, I talked to maybe 6-7 people. In criminal justice, I talked to 6-7 people. I put a little more emphasis in some areas. We look at each of these areas to see if there is a renaissance going on in the particular area and which Black person is leading that. That’s how it is put together. I don’t want to reveal the close, but we have a powerful close that answers this question, ‘Do we really have a renaissance in Madison?”

And what was important to Taylor was to emphasize that the Black Renaissance didn’t begin overnight.

“We also want to give the leaders from 25 years ago their props,” Taylor said. “They cleared the field for our present day leadership. And our present-day leaders, when I was interviewing them, acknowledge that. They understand that they didn’t get here by themselves. They stood on the shoulders of those who came up before us. In my credits, I’m going to acknowledge some of our former leaders because without them, we wouldn’t have this ‘renaissance’ today.”

For Taylor, there are two things that are important. One is he hopes that the documentary gives Madison’s Black community a clearer perspective on what is going on.

“Some of the people who don’t think there is a renaissance going on are actually right in the middle of it,” Taylor observed. “Some of them are not recognizing their own contribution. They are looking at it from a different lens. People will begin to tie it together. And also they begin to say, ‘Well it’s happening over there, why isn’t it happening over here. What can we do to make it happen over here?’ We know in criminal justice, there isn’t a renaissance going on. Blacks are still getting arrested and jailed at higher rates than anyplace else in the country. We know there are areas where we have work to do. But there are some people doing some things that may change that 5-10 years from now. And so they are planting the seeds for it.”

And Taylor hopes that the documentary positively impacts people outside of Madison’s Black community as well.

“We have an opportunity to help move this city forward,” Taylor said. “And we also have an opportunity to perhaps shift some minds and attitudes so that people can maybe look at the Black community a little bit differently now. Once they see that it isn’t just one area that we are excelling in; it’s not just one area that we are making all of these contributions in, but we are involved in everything in the city and people need to recognize that and welcome us to the table.”

The impact could even go beyond Madison’s borders.

“Someone on the outside looking in, especially from another city like Milwaukee or Chicago, may say, ‘Man you are doing some wonderful things in Madison,’” Taylor said. “’We wish we had that in our city.’ Sometimes when you are right in the midst, you are still clearing the field, so you can’t see the forest for the trees. But there are some tremendous things going on in Madison. And I think people are going to be amazed when you tie it all together. When you have all of these different contributions in all of these different areas and you lay it out in a film, then you begin to see what is happening in the city.”

The world premiere of “Leaders of Madison’s Black Renaissance” will be Saturday, February 26, 2022 in the Capitol Theater of the Overture Center for the Arts at 7 p.m.

“People need to probably get there about 6 p.m. because they have these COVID-19 protocols,” Taylor cautioned. “They have the lines and you have to furnish your ID. You need to have proof that you’ve been vaccinated. People need to get there earlier because they won’t be able to just walk in. Seating is at 6:30 p.m. and the film begins promptly at 7:00 p.m. The screening is free and open to the public. That’s due to the sponsors, American Family and Nyra Jordan and her shop. Half of the seats have been committed and they are going fast. If people don’t get their seats now, they may be out of luck. Seats can be reserved by calling the Overture ticket office or go online. My Facebook page has a link not only to the trailer, but also to the Overture Center’s box office online.”

Be a part of what is going on in Madison by attending the world premiere of “Leaders of Madison’s Black Renaissance.

Tickets may be reserved by visiting https://www.overture.org/events.