In early 2017 Cynthia Simien was doing some reading and came upon an interesting article that inspired an idea. After reading about the 40 million dollar National Museum of African American Music being built in Nashville, she decided to get to work. She made a couple modest donations to the museum to get dialed in. She sent a few emails inquiring about a contact in the curation dept. She was determined to get someone to respond to her about an idea she had. Done and done! Her persistence paid off and after exchanging a few emails, Dr. John Fleming, PhD picked up the phone and called her. They spoke for 45 minutes and just like that – zydeco becomes part of their Rivers of Rhythm exhibit! They decided together what it would consist of. Dr. Fleming requested Terrance’s traditional Fulani hat and she suggested a custom made Creole flag, a Hohner accordion from Queen Ida and a zydeco rubboard or frottoir from Reggie Dural (Buckwheat Zydeco’s son). She went to work again finding someone to custom quilt a Creole flag and began coordinating with Reggie and Ledra (Ida’s daughter) to get these artifacts sent in and catalogued with Dr. Marquita Reed, PhD. The museum will open in 2020, and we are extremely honored to be part of this state of the art museum!
