Pierce Freelon

Durham City Council Member Pierce Freelon is an accomplished Hip Hop/soul/electronic musician and Emmy-award winning producer and professor from Durham, NC whose work has been featured on the TODAY Show, NPR, Now This, Rolling Stone, and more. For over 16 years Pierce has traveled the world teaching Hip Hop and music production to youth in community centers. He is the co-founder of Beat Making Lab, an Emmy Award-winning PBS web-series, has taught in the departments of music and African American Studies at the University of NC at Chapel Hill, and is the writer, composer and co-director of an animated series called History of White People in America, an official selection of the Tribeca Film Festival. Pierce is also the founder of Blackspace, a digital maker space where he has mentored dozens of youth, teaching digital storytelling through music and film. In 2022 Little, Brown will release his debut children’s book Daddy Daughter Day (based on his song of the same title). He is the son of famed Grammy-nominated jazz vocalist Nnenna Freelon, and the late preeminent architect of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Phil Freelon. Pierce lives in Durham with his wife and their two young children. 

Pierce's photo was taken by Mark Maya.