Pierce Freelon

Pierce Freelon is an accomplished Hip Hop/soul/electronic musician and award winning producer, director and professor from Durham, NC. He is the co-founder of Beat Making Lab, an Emmy Award winning PBS web-series and has taught in the departments of music and African American Studies at the University of NC at Chapel Hill. Pierce is the writer, composer and co-director of the PBS musical animated series The History of White People in America, which was selected by Whoopi Goldberg to premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival twice. The first three episodes aired in July 2020 to critical acclaim, and twelve more episodes have been green-lit. 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. He has toured internationally and released a series of albums, EPs, and mixtapes as the frontman of Jazz/Hip Hop quartet The Beast.

Pierce’s debut Children’s album D.a.D was released on July 31 2020 earning praise from NPR, Parents Magazine, and Fatherly. 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.