Sugar Hill: Where The Sun Rose Over Harlem

by Terry Baker Mulligan

Overview

Using Harlem's cultural institutions and memorable characters as her backdrop, Mulligan writes joyously about weathering adolescence while history unfolds around her. This feel-good story resonates with humor and warmth as she chronicles her life among evangelists, curly-haired doo wop boys, snuff-dippers, Fidel Castro's entourage, interracial marriage, chitlin' parties and testy interactions between West Indians and blacks. Meet Mr. Big B, the neighborhood numbers banker; join her at the Apollo for Thursday matinees and visit Smalls Paradise and the Hot Cha, when she and her father go bar-hopping on Sunday mornings. She befriends baseball's Willie Mays in the shoeshine parlor, paints posters for the 1957 March on Washington, and tries, but fails to ingratiate herself into junior black society. This book is a living document of mid-20th century Harlem with appeal for all America.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940015743029
Publisher:	Impulse Press
Publication date:	12/07/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	13 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Terry Baker Mulligan, winner of the 2012 Independent Publishers Award for Multicultural Adult Non-Fiction, grew up in Harlem and attended both public and private schools in New York City. She received her Masters of Arts at the City College of New York, and has studied fiction and non-fiction writing at Washington University's Summer Writers Institute and the Iowa Summer Writing Festival. In 2000, her article "Sugar Hill" appeared in Labor History. In 1998, Terry won first-person runner-up, non-fiction, at the Heartland Writers Conference. She is a member of the Harlem Arts Alliance. Currently a resident of St. Louis, she is member of the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) and secretary of the St. Louis Publishers Association. She teaches writing at St. Louis Community College, and also volunteers with several non-profit organizations that seek to improve education for inner-city children.

Editorial Reviews

Most of us who have grown up west of the Hudson River have a preconceived vision of that part of Manhattan called Harlem as a no man's land of crime and danger. Mulligan proves us to be gravely mistaken. She reaches deeper into our souls with a vivid portrait of those compelling and sometimes inspirational personalities who formed her. With well chosen words and colorful descriptions, she opens a misty window onto the clarity of Harlem as it really was. I highly recommend Sugar Hill.

Amazon - Arlington Nuetzel

Mulligan's accomplished memoir reveals a lively Harlem of the 1950s-60s from the perspective of a little girl surrounded by a nurturing family and neighborhood, peopled by the likes of Adam Clayton Powell, Lena Horne and Sugar Ray Robinson, plus a formidable grandmother and a range of quirky relatives and neighbors. Though a history of a largely African-American family and community, it is foremost a quintessential American tale, where we recognize ourselves, our ambitions and our shared dreams.

Good Reads - Rick Skwiot