2 days ago
Father's Day show at Tacoma McMenamins celebrates the bond of fathers and sons
A show celebrating fatherhood through live music and poetry is coming to Tacoma this Father's Day.
Father and son pair Leon Walker and Rob Young will perform 'Said By The Father and Son' at the Spanish Ballroom at Tacoma's McMenamins Elks Temple on June 15. Blending live hip hop, soul and gospel music and spoken poetry, the production explores fatherhood, the Black experience and universal themes of human familial relationships, Young told The News Tribune.
Put on by Rob Young Productions and L61 Productions, the story is authentic to Tacoma, where Walker raised Young and where they have performed for years, he added. Sponsored by the City of Tacoma Arts Commission (TAC), the Tacoma Urban League and the Black Future Co-op Fund, the show also hopes to provide an opportunity to honor and uplift fathers on Father's Day, he added.
'It's almost like it's interwoven between our relationship and the human experience, and so both are happening at the same time in a way that I think is very unique,' Young said. '.... It's our relationship, but it's not our relationship. We're only a representation of what other people do.'
Young, now 39 — who was born Robert Walker but performs as Rob Young — said he has long been inspired by his father's work as a motivational speaker and poet. As he became a young adult, they performed poetry shows together often, he added, which led to their nickname of 'the father' and 'the son.'
Now, the two have delved into that history to co-write a show that showcases and traverses the beauty, messiness, pain and growth of their relationship through their favorite forms of communication: poetry and music, Young said. All the music is original and will be performed with a live band and singers, he added.
'It's literally taking our works and seeing how they correlate and how they are different from a place of generational wisdom and how my pieces are questions to his answers very easily,' he said. 'And I think that's what makes this so unique. This is our first time doing this.'
Naomi Strom-Avila, funding and cultural programs manager for the City of Tacoma's Arts & Cultural Vitality division, told The News Tribune the TAC was excited to select 'Said By The Father and Son' for their 2025 Community Arts Projects funding program. Their proposal stood out for its inter-generational reach and its focus on Black fatherhood, vulnerability and personal growth, she said. Strom-Avila added that she was excited to see the show and plans to attend with her own family on Sunday.
'Both Leon Walker and Rob Young bring years of experience in producing impactful community projects, partnering with organizations and schools to engage audiences in social justice and cultural storytelling,' Strom-Avila added in an email. 'The Tacoma Arts Commission is thrilled to help bring this inspiring project to life, enriching our community through the transformative power of the arts.'
The show will take place in four chapters, with a stage design made to resemble their own living room, Young said. Each chapter takes the audience through various time periods and emotions of fatherhood, starting with the first, titled 'In the Beginning,' and progressing through 'Generation Gap,' 'You'll Always Be My Little Buddy' and finally, 'Love Is the Answer.'
Originally from Pittsburgh, Walker, now 76, told the News Tribune that he arrived in Tacoma after serving in the Air Force. He raised Young in northeast Tacoma while working as a Department of Corrections parole officer and a teacher at McNeil Island Corrections Center and the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission, he said, adding that he sought to be a friendly and accommodating father to Young, who he called his 'little buddy.'
Walker was also the founder of JasLeRob Gallery in the '90s at South 12th Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Way. Now closed, he said it was the largest gallery of Black art in the state.
He hopes the show will leave people thinking about their own relationships and histories. He said it will delve into African-American history that is increasingly overlooked or ignored in the current political climate.
'We can't solve everybody's problems, but maybe we can talk about our relationship and what we've been through — you can see something from that that binds together relationships that are important, like father to son, family to community, family to the larger Black experience in this country,' Walker said.
The first two poems of the show were created during real events between father and son prior to the show's concept, Young said. The show opens with a poem Walker wrote when Young was born, about giving him a name. As a young adult, Young had disliked and questioned what he felt was a lack of African influence on his name — upon discovering his father's poem, he felt newly understood, Young said. For his father's 70th birthday, Young wrote a response to that poem from his point of view, speaking to God about what father he had hoped to be sent to. That poem will be the second piece presented in the show to finish introducing both performers, he said.
The show is also special in its ability to offer something to audiences from across different generations, with both modern and historic influences on its themes and music, Young said. The music will serve as the foundation that ties the show together as the audience is guided through emotional poetry performances, he added.
Following this performance, Walker and Young plan to release a joint poetry album by the same title, which will include some pieces from the show, Young said. Some works from the show will also be put into a poetry book Walker plans to release in the future, he added.
'I personally believe that doing art and doing this kind of matter of the hearts, is stewardship,' Young said. 'It is doing a higher-purpose work, and that's incredibly, incredibly important, and we take it serious.'
The show is at 6 p.m. on Sunday evening, and doors will open at 5 p.m. Tickets can be purchased online at the McMenamins events website.
