Talk to me: lessons from a family forged by history

0

0

Benjamin, Rich (Richard M.)

Benjamin, Rich

Eva H. Perry Regional
Fuquay-Varina Community
Middle Creek Community
Southeast Regional
Southgate Community
Wendell Community

Biography

Eva H. Perry Regional - Biography
Fuquay-Varina Community - Biography
Middlecreek Community - Biography
Morrisville Community - Biography
Southeast Regional - Biography
Southgate Community - Biography
Wendell Community - Biography

"Rich Benjamin's mother, Danielle Fignolé, grew up the eldest in a large family living a comfortable life in Port-au-Prince. Her mother was a schoolteacher, her father a populist hero--a labor leader and politician. The first true champion of the black masses, he eventually became the country's president in 1957. But two weeks after his inauguration, that life was shattered. Soldiers took Danielle's parents at gunpoint and put them on a plane to New York, a coup hatched by the Eisenhower administration. Danielle and her siblings were kidnapped, and ultimately smuggled out of the country. Growing up, Rich knew little of this. No one in his family spoke of it. He didn't know why his mother struggled with emotional connection, why she was so erratic, so quick to anger. And she, in turn, knew so little about him, about the emotional pain he moved through as a child, the physical agony from his blood disease, while coming to terms with his sexuality at the dawn of the AIDS crisis. For all that they could talk about--books, learning, world events--the deepest parts of themselves remained a mystery to one another, a silence that, the older Rich got, the less he could bear. It would take Rich years to piece together the turmoil that carried forward from his grandfather, to his mother, to him, and then to bring that story to light. In Talk to Me, he doesn't just paint the portrait of his family, but a bold, pugnacious portrait of America--of the human cost of the country's hostilities abroad, the experience of migrants on these shores, and how the indelible ties of family endure through triumph and loss, from generation to generation"--

Book

Books

8973dd0f-18d8-4675-6714-3e152db91e35

9780593317396

2025-06-07T09:12:42.461Z

-1

Non Fiction

Non Fiction

B BENJAMIN

Six Months
Year

Wake County Public Libraries

Eva H. Perry Regional
Fuquay-Varina Community
Middle Creek Community
Morrisville Community
Southeast Regional
Southgate Community
Wendell Community

9780593317396

2025

Pantheon Books

grouped_work

Benjamin, Danielle, -- 1944- -- Family
Benjamin, Rich -- (Richard M.) -- Family
Exiles -- New York (State) -- New York -- Biography
Fignolé family
Fignolé, Daniel, -- approximately 1913-1986 -- Family
Haiti -- Politics and government -- 1934-1971
Haitian Americans -- New York (State) -- New York -- Biography
New York (N.Y.) -- Biography
Port-au-Prince (Haiti) -- Biography

Talk to me : lessons from a family forged by history

Talk to me : lessons from a family forged by history / Rich Benjamin

Talk to me

lessons from a family forged by history

Benjamin, Danielle
Benjamin, Rich
Exiles
Family
Fignolé family
Fignolé, Daniel
Haitian Americans
Politics and government