Sunny Nash Writes “The Tutu”

Sept. 3, 2010 - PRLog -- In her book, Bigmama Didn’t Shop At Woolworth’s (Texas A&M University Press), Sunny Nash tells the story of black Texas families, her own and others around her, in the 1950s and '60s. Without enciting anger, Nash moves through the span of her childhood and gives a detailed sketch of how she lived. Many Americans either have no idea how black people lived or have an erroneous idea of these people’s lives. Nash pulls off the veil, revealing a private reality seldom seen on the pages of books..

“Bigmama Didn’t Shop At Woolworth’s started as a column that later became syndicated nationally, through Hearst and former Knight-Ridder newspapers,” Nash said. “I was really surprised to learn that people in New York and on the West Coast were interested in my little stories about life with my grandmother in Texas in the 1950s and ‘60s. But as it turned out, I also talked about racism and how we felt about it. People are interested because, as their letters indicated, my stories are like eavesdropping on someone’s private thoughts.”

“I used to read Sunny Nash's column in the Bryan-College Station Eagle,” wrote Cahiron Suir of Silicon Valley, California. “It was my favorite part of that paper and I was saddened when she left. Bigmama Didn't Shop at Woolworth's is an amazing look back at what for some Americans--either for our age or our background--is an unknown history.”

The video below is a reading from “The Tutu,” in which Sunny Nash describes how difficult it was for her to acquire a simple costume that her ballet teacher required for her performance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8epKCVlwvng


An Excerpt follows from “The Tutu,” an essay from Bigmama Didn’t Shop At Woolworth’s, recognized and recommended by the Association of American University Presses, about Sunny Nash’s mother’s search for a seamstress to sew the tutu, her spring festival costume.

The steady pumping sound of Aunt Lucille’s dusty shoe on the sewing machine pedal sent the fragile pink fabric cascading upon the floor, to the rhythm of the faint machine buzz. Stopping every now and then, Aunt Lucille straightened seams, adjusted fabric, put in or removed a pin, and pulled threads. Without thinking, she seemed to know what to do. Catching  a glimpse of me looking at her, she smiled and held the tutu out to me. “Come try this on.”

Bigmama Didn’t Shop At Woolworth’s can be purchased from all major bookstores and the Republic of Texas Museum in Austin, operated by the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, whose mission since 1891 has been to preserve Texas heritage and historic structures and landmarks around the state, such as the Alamo.
Buy Now -  Bigmama Didn’t Shop At Woolworth’s:
http://sunnynash.blogspot.com/p/bigmama-didnt-shop-at-woo...

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About Sunny Nash: Author of Bigmama Didn't Shop At Woolworth's, Sunny Nash is an award-winning writer, photographer, producer and public speaker. Nash's work appears in the African American National Biography by Harvard and Oxford Universities; African American West, A Century of Short Stories; Reflections in Black, A History of Black Photography 1840 - Present; Ancestry Magazine and Ancestry.com; The Companion to Southern Literature: Themes, Genres, Places, People; Black Genesis: A Resource Book for African-American Geneanlogy; African American Foodways: Explorations of History and Culture; Southwestern American Literature Journal and many other anthologies and collections. Nash is listed and quoted in reference editions: The Source: a guidebook to American genealogy; Bibliographic guide to Black studies; Interdisciplinary journal for Germanic linguistics and semiotic analysis; Ebony Magazine; Southern Exposure; Hidden Sources: Family History in Unlikely Places; and other research.