Working-class people need to be seen, says Jamaican-born writer Nicole Dennis-Benn

Nicole Dennis-Benn says she never could have become a writer if she had stayed in Jamaica -- that took living in the U.S. and encouragement from her wife. But returning to the land of her birth, she was confronted with all of the things she had run away from, yet also with the desire to tell the real stories of the people behind the fantasy. Dennis-Benn gives her Brief But Spectacular take.

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Now to another in our Brief
But Spectacular series,

where we ask people
about their passions.

Tonight, Jamaican-born
writer Nicole Dennis-Benn.

Her award-winning novel,
"Here Comes the Sun,"

was named a best book of the year
by The New York Times.

I was raised in a working-class family

in a town called Vineyard Town, Kingston 3,
in Jamaica.

Growing up working-class, there was this expectation
that you would be the one to make it in your

family, you know, first-generation college
student.

I was premed at Cornell, thinking that
I was going to go to medical school.

However, I wasn't passionate about that, you
know?

And what was really plaguing me was the fact
that I wanted to be a writer.

It wasn't until meeting my wife, who challenged
me.

She said, are you a writer or are you a researcher?

Had I lived in Jamaica, I could not have been
a writer.

I would be -- first of all, I wouldn't be
courageous to challenge the issues that I

challenge in my work, you know, especially
homophobia, sexualization of our young girls,

race, class, socioeconomic disparities.

Being here in America gave me that opportunity.

I didn't come out.

I was found out.

My mother discovered -- well, overheard a
conversation I had on the phone with another

woman.

And I had no idea that she was even present
in the house.

And so, after the conversation ended, she
approached me and she said, "You know, Nicole,

was that a woman on the phone?"

And I said, "Yes."

And she said, "Well, you know, two women don't
speak like that to each other."

I had spent my whole undergraduate career
trying to please her and my father, being

premed.

So, here was that one thing that I had no
control over.

And so, when that happened, I was devastated.

When I met my partner in 2008, she said she
wanted to go to Jamaica just to see that part

of me.

I took her back home in 2010.

And we actually spent a great time.

It was at a resort, because we couldn't have
stayed with my parents, given the obvious

-- for obvious reasons.

And it was then that all the things that I
was running away from came back to me, the

classism, the complexionism, the homophobia.

One of the most memorable experiences there
was interacting with a waiter at the resort.

And, at first, he was speaking to me as like
he was British, but thinking that I was a

tourist.

I knew the class he's from because I'm of
that same class, right?

So it wasn't until he found out that I was
Jamaican that the mask came off.

I reflected on the fact that we were socialized
to be performers, to be ambassadors for our

country.

We were responsible for selling the fantasy.

I actually wanted to show the people behind
the fantasy.

Who are these waiters serving us the resort?

Who are the maids making our beds?

Who are the hotel clerks, the JUTA bus drivers?

Those are the people who are often neglected,
often invisible, the working-class Jamaicans.

And so I wanted their lives, especially our
working-class women, to be out there.

People need to be seen.

I wanted to show that.

I wanted to document that, right, so that,
next time, the next person who comes to the

island can actually see us, as well as the
beauty of our country.

My name is Nicole Dennis-Benn,
and this is my Brief But Spectacular take

on writing untold stories.

And you can watch additional
Brief But Spectacular episodes

on our Web site,
PBS.org/NewsHour/Brief.