TSAL READING ROOM TSAL READING ROOM TAMIKA NUNLETAMIKA NUNLEY TAMIKA NUNLEY

INTERVIEW BY TRISTEN HALL

GROWING UP IN CLEVELAND:

"When I think about my roots in Cleveland, especially as a military brat, I always begin actually, with my great grandmother, who migrated here to Cleveland from Alabama, during the Great Migration. She arrived here in the 1920s right around the time of the Great Depression, and had six children with her, and came and worked as a domestic servant, and then also was a seamstress. She actually was able to take advantage of the Roosevelt administration's WPA program for widows and she became a seamstress for Metro Health when she came in. What's cool about that is that, you know, she was really, like financially frugal and savvy, and eventually saved up to purchase a home off of 105st on North Boulevard. That house is still in our family. One of her daughters still lives in that house, my Aunt Estelle and she'll be 101 years old this month. So my Aunt Estelle is sharp, amazing. You know, sometimes, she'll come over and I'll just listen to her talk and just kind of soak in all the history, like your living history, you know, once you're 101 years old.

So when my dad retired from the military, we moved back to Cleveland, and I spent a lot of time in Glenville because my dad was a bus driver. He worked really odd hours, so my Aunt Estelle would get me to school. I would stay at her house and spend my summers you know, in the neighborhood, go to Corey church and get my free lunch, go to the corner store and you know, get a lil grab bag of candy, and you know, just kind of hang out with my cousins. So that's kind of what brought me to Cleveland and then I went to Euclid High School, which was close by."