Be Bold. Speak Out. "King Hedley II"

Curt Bright Author

01/28/2021 Added

32 Plays

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Performance Major Nadia Williams reads an excerpt from "King Hedley II" by August Wilson.

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[00:00:00.374](emotional piano music)
[00:00:12.800]I ain't raising no kid to have somebody shoot him.
[00:00:17.130]To have his friend, shoot him.
[00:00:18.900]To have the police, shoot him.
[00:00:20.510]Why I want to bring another life into this world
[00:00:22.460]that don't respect life?
[00:00:24.788](scoffs)
[00:00:26.520]I don't want to raise no more babies
[00:00:28.670]when you got to fight to keep 'em alive.
[00:00:33.936]Take little buddy Will's mother up on Bryn Mawr road.
[00:00:38.089]What she got?
[00:00:40.400]A whole lot of heartache that ain't gonna never go away.
[00:00:43.130]She sitting up there in her living room right now,
[00:00:45.670]just sitting there.
[00:00:47.030]She can't stand.
[00:00:49.190]She's sitting there trying to figure out what happened.
[00:00:53.680]One minute her house is full of life.
[00:00:55.810]And the next it's full of death.
[00:00:57.130]She was waiting for him to come home
[00:00:58.580]and they brought her a corpse!
[00:01:02.360]Say "Come down and make the identification.
[00:01:06.050]Is this your son?"
[00:01:09.430]Got a tag on his toe that say John Doe.
[00:01:13.330]They got to put a number on it.
[00:01:14.670]John Doe, number four.
[00:01:18.520]She got dinner on the table.
[00:01:22.144]Say "Junior like fried chicken."
[00:01:26.080]She got some of that.
[00:01:27.830]Say "Junior like string beans."
[00:01:29.460]She got some of that too.
[00:01:30.300]She don't know that Junior ain't gonna be eating no more.
[00:01:35.932]You got a pile of clothes she got to wash up.
[00:01:39.300]Don't know that Junior don't need clothes no more.
[00:01:42.960]She look in the closet, Junior ain't got no suit.
[00:01:45.420]She got to go buy him a suit
[00:01:46.690]and he can't try it on, she got to guess the size.
[00:01:51.080]Somebody come up and tell her,
[00:01:52.127]"Oh Miss So-and-so, your boy got shot."
[00:01:56.560]She know it before they say it.
[00:02:00.340]Her knees start to get weak.
[00:02:02.446]She's shaking her head.
[00:02:03.500]She don't want to hear it.
[00:02:04.370]And somebody called the police.
[00:02:08.490]They come and they pick him up off the sidewalk
[00:02:11.530]dead nigger on Bryn Mawr Road.
[00:02:16.000]They got to quit playing cards to come pick him up.
[00:02:21.900]They used to take pictures.
[00:02:24.960]They don't even take pictures no more.
[00:02:27.900]They pull him out of the freezer and she look at him.
[00:02:31.610]She don't want to, but they make her look
[00:02:33.310]and what to do now?
[00:02:37.070]Only thing left to do was call the undertaker.
[00:02:39.840]Oh, but the line is busy.
[00:02:42.330]She got to call five times.
[00:02:44.160]The undertaker got so much business
[00:02:45.700]he don't know what to do.
[00:02:48.530]He losing sleep.
[00:02:50.620]He got to hire two more people to help him.
[00:02:53.020]On top of the other two he already got.
[00:02:57.050]He don't even know what the bodies look like no more.
[00:03:00.060]He couldn't tell you what they look like.
[00:03:02.240]He only remembered the problems we have with them.
[00:03:04.680]This one's all big and fat over here.
[00:03:06.610]If he fall off the table,
[00:03:07.480]it's gonna take six men to pick him up.
[00:03:10.930]And this one, that one ain't got no cheek.
[00:03:13.850]Oh, and this one's eyes won't stay closed.
[00:03:15.770]This one,
[00:03:18.080]This one been dead so long,
[00:03:19.230]he got maggots coming out of his nose.
[00:03:23.690]And this one right here,
[00:03:26.750]his mother won't go home.
[00:03:31.536]And the other-
[00:03:33.051]Hmm.
[00:03:35.930]I ain't going through that.
[00:03:39.350]I ain't having this baby,
[00:03:40.530]and I ain't got to explain it to nobody.

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Be Bold. Speak Out. "King Hedley II"

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