Dante Peace to speak about his nephew, the subject of ‘The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace’

We invite UNC staff to join the Employee Forum book club on February 25, 2016 from 12pm-1pm at Bulls Head Book Shop. We will discuss The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace by Jeff Hobbs. Lunch will be provided by the Employee Forum with registration.

Dante Peace, Robert Peace’s uncle, will attend and participate in the book discussion. He will share his reflections on Robert’s life.

The book can be purchased at a special discount online here or in the store at Bulls Head Book Shop. Please email employeeforum@unc.edu if you have special dietary concerns.

More about Dante Peace:

Dante Peace is currently employed at Johnson & Johnson Healthcare Systems. He is currently pursuing a degree in Global Business Management at University of Phoenix. Dante is the uncle of Robert DeShawn Peace. He lived with Robert for many years, watching him grow and face the challenges of losing a parent to incarceration and ultimately to death, as well as being raised by a single mother and moving away from home to go to a college that was very unfamiliar to him. He has had a chance to reflect on the support, or lack of support, that his nephew had as a seemingly well-put-together child, and now wants to spread the message that all children need support after a loss of any kind, not just death.”

Publisher’s description:

A heartfelt, and riveting biography of the short life of a talented young African-American man who escapes the slums of Newark for Yale University only to succumb to the dangers of the streets—and of one’s own nature—when he returns home.

When author Jeff Hobbs arrived at Yale University, he became fast friends with the man who would be his college roommate for four years, Robert Peace. Robert’s life was rough from the beginning in the crime-ridden streets of Newark in the 1980s, with his father in jail and his mother earning less than $15,000 a year. But Robert was a brilliant student, and it was supposed to get easier when he was accepted to Yale, where he studied molecular biochemistry and biophysics. But it didn’t get easier. Robert carried with him the difficult dual nature of his existence, “fronting” in Yale, and at home.

Through an honest rendering of Robert’s relationships—with his struggling mother, with his incarcerated father, with his teachers and friends and fellow drug dealers—The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace encompasses the most enduring conflicts in America: race, class, drugs, community, imprisonment, education, family, friendship, and love. It’s about the collision of two fiercely insular worlds—the ivy-covered campus of Yale University and Newark, New Jersey, and the difficulty of going from one to the other and then back again. It’s about poverty, the challenges of single motherhood, and the struggle to find male role models in a community where a man is more likely to go to prison than to college. It’s about reaching one’s greatest potential and taking responsibility for your family no matter the cost. It’s about trying to live a decent life in America. But most all the story is about the tragic life of one singular brilliant young man. His end, a violent one, is heartbreaking and powerful and unforgettable.