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The Brazos Valley African American Museum (BVAAM) will unveil two inscribed copies and an exhibition piece representing the award-winning book, Bigmama Didn't Shop At Woolworth's (Texas A&M University Press), by Sunny Nash, daughter of James Nash and the late Littie Nash of Bryan, on Saturday, June 16, 2012, during a reception that starts 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. “Everything comes full circle, it seems,” said Nash, one of the first black female graduates of Texas A&M University (’77). “I hope to see a lot of my old friends and meet some new ones on Saturday.” In 1999, Nash’s 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 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 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 and performing arts productions. “The Pruitt’s were like my second parents,” Nash said. “I spent a lot of time with them throughout my childhood in Bryan. Mr. Pruitt taught me gracefulness through gymnastics when I was eight. Mrs. Pruitt guided me to winning the Miss Texas High Contest when I was fifteen. The Pruitt’s deserve my best for helping me become the person I am.” Nash’s book is about life with her part-Comanche grandmother, Bigmama, and her family, teachers and friends before and during the Civil Rights Movement. 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 also won a 2003 California Artist Fellowship Award from the Arts Council for Long Beach and the California Public Corporation for the Arts, and 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.” “What I have always attempted to do is to make my family and my community proud,” Nash said. “I had no idea it would lead me back to where it all started.” Contact Sunny Nash: www.sunnynash.blogspot.com. For more on this event, contact Donna Pittman, Executive Director, Brazos Valley African American Museum,
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