Durham City Council member Pierce Freelon is an accomplished Hip Hop/soul/electronic musician and Emmy-award winning producer, director and professor from Durham, NC whose work has been featured on the https://www.today.com/video/pierce-freelon-performs-with-daughter-on-children-s-hip-hop-album-91266117697 (TODAY Show) and at https://www.npr.org/2020/08/01/896920635/pierce-freelon-on-his-childrens-album-and-the-legacy-of-his-creative-black-famil (NPR), https://www.parents.com/fun/entertainment/music/musician-celebrates-black-fatherhood-with-new-family-hip-hop-album/ (Parents Magazine) and more. He is the co-founder of the Emmy Award winning PBS web-series Beat Making Lab- an 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 an animated series called History of White People in America, an official selection of the Tribeca Film Festival. As the founder of Blackspace, a digital maker space, he has mentored dozens of youth, teaching digital storytelling through music and film. Pierce is the frontman of critically acclaimed Jazz/Hip Hop quartet The Beast and has toured internationally and released a series of albums, EPs, and mixtapes. His debut children's book, Daddy Daughter Day is set for release in 2022. 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. More at http://piercefreelon.com/ (piercefreelon.com)

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What You Will Hear:

Pierce’s early childhood environment, influences and lessons

What happens when you merge the world of art with activism

Ancestry, spirituality and community

Nurturing mental health in the black community

White supremacy

Navigating through movement work, politics and activism

Tools of the oppressor

Musical and creative inspirations

Blackspace

White institutions vs black institutions

Racial caste system and the creation of the black and white divide

Changing the narrative

Quotes:

“‘Lift as you climb”

“No is a love word”

“We don’t just carry ancestral trauma, we also carry our ancestral resilience” -Omisade Burney-Scott

“There is no check that you can cut that is worth me devaluing my soul.”

“I wanted that university caliber of resource to be available and accessible to black children at all times…..that’s what they deserve, that’s what we deserve.”

“Everything you touch you change, everything you change, changes you.” - Octavia Butler

“God is change.”

Mentioned:

Social Media @PierceFreelon

Omisade Burney-Scott

Black Girls Guide to Menopause

https://www.piercefreelon.com/b2tf (Black to the Future)

http://theblackspace.org/ (Blackspace)

Octavia Butler