While all of these events are happening, Tish remembers the first time they had sex in Fonny's apartment in the Village. The women are left in the Rivers home, and Tish's sister, Ernestine, fights with Adrienne and Sheila until they all leave. In response, Frank backhands his wife and she falls on the floor, and then he and Joseph leave to go drinking and celebrate the coming baby. Hunt insults Tish and the baby, saying that the 'Holy Ghost will cause that child to shrivel in womb' (68). Hunt and her daughters are upset and judgemental. When Tish tells the Hunt family she is pregnant, Frank, Fonny's father, is overjoyed while Mrs. Hunt, and sisters, Sheila and Adrienne, who believe they are better than Fonny and the Rivers family because, among other reasons, they have lighter skin. Following this, Tish's father, Joseph, calls Fonny's family and tells them to come to the Rivers household for a 'summit meeting.' At the meeting, there is open hostility between Fonny's mother, Mrs. From that moment on, they were in each others' lives.Īfter Tish tells Fonny she is pregnant, she goes home to tell her family, who are supportive and loving. A few days later, they met up again, and apologized to each other. After this, he ran after her, and once he caught up to her he spat in her mouth. Tish swung a board that had a rusty nail on it at Fonny, which caused him to bleed. They lived across the street from each other in Harlem growing up, and the first time they officially met was when they got into a fight with their friends Geneva and Daniel.

While the events of the novel unfold, Tish tells us of her history with Fonny, starting with how they met each other. Fonny is in jail because he was falsely accused by a Puerto Rican woman, Mrs.

In the first scene of the novel, Tish speaks to her lover, Fonny Hunt, who is in jail, and tells him she is pregnant. If Beale Street Could Talkis told from the point-of-view of Tish Rivers, a 19-year-old from Harlem.

Beale street baldwin