It’s 1989, Toussaint is an 12 year old, first generation Haitian American kid living in Brooklyn. His mother, Guerda, is a nurses’ aid, who sells Avon and works the graveyard shift in a hotel laundry room. His dad, Theophile, is a dishwasher, janitor, night shift taxi driver and a workaholic. Toussaint’s insanely hard-working parents made all the necessary sacrifices to send him to a private catholic school where he’s relentlessly teased by rich white kids for being black and poor. In the hood, the kids bully him because he wears sneakers his mother bought from the grocery store. They call him “Dirty Haitian” and he’s constantly the butt of their jokes.

 

     Toussaint plays dumb to hide his brilliance because he doesn’t want to be called a nerd on top of everything else. Out of desperation, he starts rumors that he’s not actually Haitian, he was adopted. To say he’s suffering from an identity crisis would be a tremendous understatement.     Toussaint grows to hate his cultural identity. His whole life becomes about fitting in at all costs. He starts delivering newspapers to buy the latest B-boy fashions and goes behind his parents back hosting hip hop house parties to impress the hood. Toussaint strategically hires some neighborhood kids to deliver newspapers for him all around the city, multiplying his profits ten times over so he can buy more funky fresh gear.     

     At school, he concocts more lies that his family is not really black but are dark skinnedFrench Aristocrats. For the first time Toussaint’s being accepted by both groups. Unfortunately his web of lies begin to unravel the day his seventy year old Grandma Roselette moves in from Haiti.​     Grandma Roselette escaped the violent clutches of the Duvalier regime. Now her plan is to help as many family members as possible move to the US, with Toussaint’s house being the refuge. When she moves in she makes the whole house and everything in it (including Toussaint’s new designer clothes) smell like Haitian Bouillon. She insists Toussaint use his money to help her purchase food and resources for struggling families in Haiti. He tries to avoid her like the plague, but she’s too relentless to be denied.     

 

     Grandma shows up unannounced at his school and stalks him around the hood wearing Jerusalem sandals and a big ol’ house dress. If absolute embarrassment was a person, it is Grandma Roselette. She observes first hand the mess of a person Toussaint has become. Her new mission becomes to inspire and connect her grandson with his immensely powerful and beautiful legacy. The legacy that defeated the great Napoleon Bonaparte inspiring generations of oppressed peoples around the world. She reveals Toussaint was named after his 4x great grand uncle the Legendary Toussaint L'Overture.​     

 

     In this comedic heartfelt series, a young conformist victimized by his world becomes an inspired world changer through the persistent love of his Grandma. He literally leads and inspires change that impacts everyone in his world. This story takes place on Planet Brooklyn in the late 80s so you better believe Toussaint’s mission won’t be easy. It’s going to be a fun exhilarating ride, so buckle up.