Sunny Nash Honored for Nonfiction Writing
Sunny Nash's passion is nonfiction writing, particularly, the historical influences of race and race relations on the development of American popular culture.
The Brazos Valley African American Museum (BVAAM) in Bryan, Texas, will honor Long Beach, California, resident Sunny Nash (left) in an unveiling of inscribed copies of several books she has written and an exhibition piece representing her award-winning book, Bigmama Didn't Shop At Woolworth's(Texas A&M University Press), on Saturday, June 16, 2012, at 2pm.
Located at 500 East Pruitt St. in Bryan, BVAAM occupies the former site of Booker T. Washington Elementary where Nash attended school near her old Candy Hill neighborhood.
Bigmama Didn't Shop At Woolworth's is about life in Nash's Candy Hill neighborhood with her part-Comanche grandmother, family, teachers and friends before and during the Civil Rights Movement and the struggles they faced in everyday life in American society. Recognized by the Association of American University Presses in New York for its contribution to the understanding of U.S. race relations, Nash's book is listed in the Bibliographic Guide to Black Studies by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York and recommended for Native American collections by the Miami-Dade Public Library System in Florida.
Robin Fruble of Southern California said, "Sunny Nash writes the story of her childhood without preaching or ranting, but she made me realize for the first time just how much skin color changes how one experiences the world."
Other Sunny Nash books being collected in the BVAAM library are: Fighting for People about Long Beach civil rights activist and Negro League baseball player, Ernest McBride, Sr. (1911-2007); Untold Legacies: a Pictorial History, Black Long Beach 1900-2000 & Beyond; and BREAKING THROUGH Lighting the Way about 12 African American women who pioneered civil rights in Long Beach, California, and made a difference in the history of the city.
These books share a common theme with Bigmama Didn't Shop At Woolworth's--Sunny Nash, Texas and civil rights. In addition, many of the people in these books came to California from Texas during the Second Great U.S. Migration that lasted through World War II. More than five million African Americans from the South, including McBride and others in Nash's books, migrated to northern, mid-western and western states for good jobs, education and better lives offered by cities like Long Beach. Because of the significance of these books to California history, they have been collected by the Historical Society of Long Beach; African American Heritage Society, Long Beach; National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; and other organizations, universities and repositories across the nation.
Bigmama Didn't Shop At Woolworth's earned author, Sunny Nash, a 2003 California Artist Fellowship Award from the Public Corporation for the Arts and the Arts Council for Long Beach, nonprofit organizations established in 1976 to "foster, promote, encourage and increase the knowledge, appreciation and practice of the arts in the City of Long Beach."
Sponsor of readings, photography exhibitions and other arts events in which Nash has participated, the Arts Council for Long Beach awarded Nash a 2010 Arts Council for Long Beach Artist Fellowship for her upcoming nonfiction book for Texas A&M University Press, yet to be titled, which Nash will deliver to her editor this summer.
In 1999, Nash's former teachers, Willie Pruitt and his wife, the late Mell Ruth Pruitt, founded the African American National Heritage Society dedicated to raising funds to build BVAAM in Bryan, Texas, to house objects, photographs, documents and African American memorabilia the couple had assembled for more than a half century. BVAAM has since become a collector and national narrator for African American life, ancient to present, and preserves and shares local history through artifacts, historical reports, family legacy, genealogical records, oral accounts, educational resources, lectures, workshops, exhibitions, performing arts productions and books like Nash's Bigmama Didn't Shop At Woolworth's.
Nash's popular blog, Sunny Nash - Race Relations in America, based in part on her book, covers the historical effects of Jim Crow laws and modern implications of U.S. race relations on education, news, social media, the legal system, college attendance, employment, housing, food, music, film, radio, television, entertainment, publishing, sports, military, fashion, performing arts, literature, history, politics and all other aspects of American life.
"Everything comes full circle, it seems," said Sunny Nash, one of the first black female graduates of Texas A&M University ('77). "I had no idea it would lead me back to where it all started."
The Brazos Valley African American Museum (BVAAM) in Bryan, Texas, will honor Long Beach, California, resident Sunny Nash (left) in an unveiling of inscribed copies of several books she has written and an exhibition piece representing her award-winning book, Bigmama Didn't Shop At Woolworth's(Texas A&M University Press), on Saturday, June 16, 2012, at 2pm.Located at 500 East Pruitt St. in Bryan, BVAAM occupies the former site of Booker T. Washington Elementary where Nash attended school near her old Candy Hill neighborhood.
Bigmama Didn't Shop At Woolworth's is about life in Nash's Candy Hill neighborhood with her part-Comanche grandmother, family, teachers and friends before and during the Civil Rights Movement and the struggles they faced in everyday life in American society. Recognized by the Association of American University Presses in New York for its contribution to the understanding of U.S. race relations, Nash's book is listed in the Bibliographic Guide to Black Studies by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York and recommended for Native American collections by the Miami-Dade Public Library System in Florida.Robin Fruble of Southern California said, "Sunny Nash writes the story of her childhood without preaching or ranting, but she made me realize for the first time just how much skin color changes how one experiences the world."
Other Sunny Nash books being collected in the BVAAM library are: Fighting for People about Long Beach civil rights activist and Negro League baseball player, Ernest McBride, Sr. (1911-2007); Untold Legacies: a Pictorial History, Black Long Beach 1900-2000 & Beyond; and BREAKING THROUGH Lighting the Way about 12 African American women who pioneered civil rights in Long Beach, California, and made a difference in the history of the city. These books share a common theme with Bigmama Didn't Shop At Woolworth's--Sunny Nash, Texas and civil rights. In addition, many of the people in these books came to California from Texas during the Second Great U.S. Migration that lasted through World War II. More than five million African Americans from the South, including McBride and others in Nash's books, migrated to northern, mid-western and western states for good jobs, education and better lives offered by cities like Long Beach. Because of the significance of these books to California history, they have been collected by the Historical Society of Long Beach; African American Heritage Society, Long Beach; National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; and other organizations, universities and repositories across the nation.
Bigmama Didn't Shop At Woolworth's earned author, Sunny Nash, a 2003 California Artist Fellowship Award from the Public Corporation for the Arts and the Arts Council for Long Beach, nonprofit organizations established in 1976 to "foster, promote, encourage and increase the knowledge, appreciation and practice of the arts in the City of Long Beach."Sponsor of readings, photography exhibitions and other arts events in which Nash has participated, the Arts Council for Long Beach awarded Nash a 2010 Arts Council for Long Beach Artist Fellowship for her upcoming nonfiction book for Texas A&M University Press, yet to be titled, which Nash will deliver to her editor this summer.
In 1999, Nash's former teachers, Willie Pruitt and his wife, the late Mell Ruth Pruitt, founded the African American National Heritage Society dedicated to raising funds to build BVAAM in Bryan, Texas, to house objects, photographs, documents and African American memorabilia the couple had assembled for more than a half century. BVAAM has since become a collector and national narrator for African American life, ancient to present, and preserves and shares local history through artifacts, historical reports, family legacy, genealogical records, oral accounts, educational resources, lectures, workshops, exhibitions, performing arts productions and books like Nash's Bigmama Didn't Shop At Woolworth's.Nash's popular blog, Sunny Nash - Race Relations in America, based in part on her book, covers the historical effects of Jim Crow laws and modern implications of U.S. race relations on education, news, social media, the legal system, college attendance, employment, housing, food, music, film, radio, television, entertainment, publishing, sports, military, fashion, performing arts, literature, history, politics and all other aspects of American life.
"Everything comes full circle, it seems," said Sunny Nash, one of the first black female graduates of Texas A&M University ('77). "I had no idea it would lead me back to where it all started."