Permanent exhibit highlights Roberta Flack's local roots
Swannanoa Valley Museum & History Center unveils banner of five-time Grammy Award winner
The Valley Echo
October 7, 2022
A permanent exhibit in the Swannanoa Valley Museum & History Center recognizes five-time Grammy Award winner Roberta Flack, who was born in Black Mountain in 1937. Photo courtesy of SVM
In preparation for the Swannanoa Valley Museum’s 2023 exhibit, “Striking A Chord: Music And Community in the Swannanoa Valley,” the museum is installing a 7-foot banner to commemorate the life and work of Black Mountain-born superstar Roberta Flack.
Black Mountain boasts other musical artists, but none hold Flack’s global prominence. With a professional music career dating back to 1968, she has earned world renown and countless awards, including an American Music Award, 13 Grammy nominations, and five Grammy wins.
“This is the first time a celebrity of international fame has been featured in the museum, and the panel gives us a unique insight into what life was like for African Americans who lived in Buncombe County in the 1930s.” said SVM Director LeAnne Johnson.
A mural with Flack’s image, installed by muralist Scott Nurkin in July of 2020, looms prominently off Broadway Avenue on the Black Mountain Brewing building. The project was funded by donations from the community, and is part of Nurkin’s N.C. Musicians Mural Trail.
A mural of Roberta Flack, installed on the north side of Black Mountain Brewing in 2020 by muralist Scott Nurkin, prominently touts the iconic singer’s local roots. Photo by Fred McCormick
Swannanoa Valley Museum partnered with Black Mountain native and Atlanta publicist Regina Lynch-Hudson to implement the permanent museum exhibition.
“Her former work for the museum and her projects with notables nationwide made her our viable choice to connect the dots to compile exhibit information,” Johnson said.
To connect with Flack, Lynch-Hudson originally reached out to her friend Carl Nelson of Carl Nelson and Associates of New York, producer of the annual multicultural festival Drums Along the Hudson.
“Carl is always two degrees of separation from any celebrity,” she said. Nelson, a relationship broker, had been instrumental in connecting Lynch-Hudson to Congressman John Lewis and other luminaries for early interviews.
At the onset of 2022, Nelson was having lunch with 76-year-old Tony award winner George Faison, former famed dancer and current choreographer with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
Over cocktails, the two called Lynch-Hudson to discuss the museum project. Faison, a longtime friend of Flack, put Lynch-Hudson in touch with her manager, Suzanne Koga, who facilitated interviews with Flack and put Lynch-Hudson in touch with Flack's cousin, Carol Briggs Hovey.
Regina Lynch-Hudson, left, meets with Carol Briggs Hovey, a cousin of Robert Flack. Lynch-Hudson, a Black Mountain native and Atlanta publicist, interviewed Briggs Hovey and Flack to gather information for a permanent exhibit in the Swannanoa Valley Museum & History Center that highlights the five-time Grammy Award winner’s connection to the area. Photo courtesy of SVM
“The universe is serendipitous,” Lynch-Hudson said. “As it turned out, Carol lived only an hour from me; and after she supplemented her cousin Roberta’s family history, we discovered that we are in fact cousins through our Stepp family connection.”
Briggs Hovey then joined the Cragmont Community DNA Project, hosted by FamilyTreeDNA, where it was confirmed that she shares DNA with descendants of Black Mountain pioneers John Myra Stepp and his brother Ed.
Another intriguing discovery occurred during the research phase of exhibit production.
While Black Mountain has long been recognized as the birthplace of Flack, her 1937 birth certificate records Asheville as her place of birth. It’s not uncommon for a birth certificate to state the nearest major city when someone was born in a small rural town, according to the museum director.
Additional research uncovered that Flack's father, Laron Flack, was employed as an orderly at Aston Park Hospital. Coincidentally, this was the same location as the hospital director, Dr. Harley G. Brookshire, the birth certificate’s certifying physician.
Revelations from Flack’s interview included the family’s motivation for relocating from Asheville to Arlington, Virginia.
“My ‘mountain years’ were pre-Civil Rights Movement. When potential landlords saw my mother’s dark skin, we were refused decent housing,” she recalled. “Our voices were spoken with our tongues and mom and dad’s feet — as they left for a better life for us all.”