Radio Play(s) Ep.1 Scene 12
From Old Heads to Young Bloods: Advice from Black Men to Those Who Will Be

From Old Heads to Young Bloods: Advice From Black Men To Those Who Will Be
Scene 12 from Radio Play(s) Ep. 1 Resistance & Resilience

Words by Regie Gibson
Music by Guy Mendilow

Gibson based the text for this scene on talks with his father, and with his sons, together with conversations conducted with other Black men with and without sons who wanted to pass on advice to Black boys coming of age in America.
Gibson and Mendilow chose to conclude Episode 1 with this scene both because it speaks to realities lived by Black/Brown children and parents and because it feels especially important for this piece to be heard by audiences whose skin colour means they are neither required to give nor receive such guidance.

Artistic decisions about this piece emerged from deliberative reflection. The choice to have Mendilow, an immigrant considered White, score for Gibson’s words, and accompany Gibson onstage, was itself partially an effort to stir questioning by holding similarities and differences in tension: Like Gibson, Mendilow is a father. Yet Mendilow’s son grows up with privilege and protection not shared by Gibson’s sons, or the child in the scene.

In a time of increasing racial tensions, it is important to consider the lived experiences and mindsets portrayed in this scene on a variety of levels. What are moments from other times and places in which entire groups have had to give versions of “The Talk” to children growing up in societies in which they are perceived as “enemy” by members of other, more powerful, groups? European Jewish ordeals, or even the assimilationist pressures faced by Levantine Jewish immigrants in the US, may appear quite different on the face of it. But, beneath the surface, in what ways do they thematically relate?