Who is Brittney Flowers and how would you describe yourself to someone who has never met you?
I’m curious, thoughtful, and deeply interested in people – their stories, their relationships, and the things that shape how they understand themselves and the world around them. I’m a researcher and a writer by nature. I tend to notice connections, ask a lot of questions, and keep digging until I understand not only what happened, but why it matters.
At my core, I’m someone who wants to understand things deeply, create things that mean something, and leave the people and places I encounter a little more seen than I found them.
Where were you born and raised? What was your upbringing like?
I was born in Petersburg and raised in Prince George, Virginia. Some of the best parts of my childhood were spent outside – in a cow pasture, wandering through the woods, or swimming in the pond. I grew up with a lot of space to explore, imagine, and be curious about the world around me.
I was also raised in a deeply religious community, which shaped much of my early understanding of the world. I’ve spent much of my adulthood unpacking what I was taught and deciding what I want to carry forward, what still serves me, and what I’m ready to let go of. That process has made me more intentional about the person I want to be and the values I want to live by.
After high school, what was the next chapter of your life?
After high school, I didn’t have a career plan. The only thing I had ever really wanted was to get married, have kids, and be a soccer mom with the best chocolate chip cookie recipe. I never imagined I would go to college – in fact, I was encouraged not to. I was warned that college might talk me out of my faith, and for a long time, I didn’t think I was smart enough to go anyway.
So, I worked. I did a little bit of everything while I figured myself out – home construction, waitressing, even running a cupcake shop. It turns out I was good at a lot of things; I just didn’t love them.
Eventually, I became brave enough to try college, and it changed the trajectory of my life. Rather than losing myself there, college became the place where I found myself most. I became more rooted in what mattered to me, more confident in my own mind, and discovered what would become my life’s work: finding, documenting, and helping restore omitted and forgotten Black history.
What is your official title, and what do your responsibilities consist of?
I wear a few hats these days. I’m a Library Assistant with Roanoke Public Libraries, a consultant with HC Smith Ltd., and I continue my independent work as a public historian and genealogist.
The work varies from day to day, but there’s a common thread: I get to help people find what they’re looking for, solve problems, make connections, and sometimes uncover things they didn’t know were there. As a historian, I’m continuing to research and document local Black history, and I’m currently working toward a collaboration that I hope will give the community a new and exciting way to engage with that history.
How important is family to you?
I define family pretty broadly. I grew up with very little extended biological family around me, so I learned to create family through community and the people I loved. As an adult, I’ve had the privilege of finally meeting cousins and aunts who are wonderful human beings, so my understanding of family has continued to grow.
Both of my parents live with me now. My mom is the easy one. She’s my best friend. My dad is more stubborn than a mule who knows you need somewhere to be, so nothing with him is ever quite simple. Caring for him as he navigates early dementia can be challenging, but there’s something grounding about knowing that I’m doing right by both of my parents. Even on hard days, that matters to me.
If you were building the ultimate music playlist for a six-hour road trip, which artists would be on it?
For six hours on the road, I’d need Whitney Houston, Billy Joel, Mereba, Sade, Kenny Lattimore, Musiq Soulchild, Coldplay, Bill Withers, Donny Hathaway, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Tevin Campbell, Hall & Oates, Alanis Morissette, Ray LaMontagne, Fleetwood Mac, Earth, Wind & Fire, Amy Winehouse, Eric B. & Rakim, Aliah Sheffield, Frank Sinatra… and there’s a lot more.
What are some of your favorite City of Roanoke memories?
Most of my favorite memories here are tied to the process of making it home. So much of that has happened through people. I’ve had the privilege of sitting with people and listening to their stories, digging through records and old newspapers, walking through neighborhoods with a better understanding of what happened there, and sometimes getting to put a piece of history back into the hands of a family who didn’t know it existed.
What are some of your hobbies?
My hobbies and my work have an increasing amount of overlap. I genuinely love researching, writing, genealogy, and going down a good rabbit hole just because I want to know the answer. I love reading, especially beautiful writing that makes me think differently about something. Most of what I do centers around what I love to do, so the boundaries between work and hobbies are pretty loose.
Which people have had the biggest impact on your life outside of family?
There are a lot of people, and they’ve impacted me in very different ways. Some of my professors at Hollins, particularly Pauline Kaldas and T.J. Anderson, were incredibly instrumental in helping me recognize and pursue the things I love. They took my ideas seriously and challenged me to become a better thinker and writer.
There are also people I’ve never met who have profoundly shaped me. Writers like James Baldwin, David Walker, and Toni Morrison make me want to think more deeply, write more beautifully, and be more courageous in what I have to say. Historical figures like Nat Turner and Harriet Tubman challenge me in different ways. I’m fascinated by people who looked at the world as it was given to them and refused to accept that those were the limits of what was possible.
More than anything, the people who have impacted me most are the ones who have expanded my world, people who challenged what I thought I knew and encouraged me to think for myself or helped me imagine that I could become something I hadn’t imagined before. In different ways, they continue to whisper, “The world is so much bigger and so much more wonderful than you thought, and there is so much room for you in it.”
If you could go back and give your younger self some advice, what would it be?
Nothing will go as planned. That’s okay. That plan didn’t fully see you or all the things you would eventually discover you were capable of. Trust yourself a little sooner. Your curiosity is not something you need to be afraid of. Follow it. It’s going to lead you toward some of the best people, places, and work of your life. And when the life you build looks nothing like the one you once imagined, that doesn’t mean you got it wrong. Sometimes you must become more of yourself before you can imagine a life big enough to fulfill you.
