Picture book author and Grammy-nominated artist Pierce Freelon brings two worlds together with Books + Beats: an interactive book reading and performance, featuring Pierce’s two children's picture books published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers: Daddy and Me: Side by Side and Daddy-Daughter Day. This storytime performance features a hands-on sound garden for kids weaved in with colorful illustrations and dynamic storytelling.

Pierce Freelon is a GRAMMY® nominated artist, picture book author and podcaster. His GRAMMY® nominated children’s music albums AnceStars (2023) and Black to the Future (2021) have been featured on Today Show, NPR and Billboard. He has written songs for the PBS Kids animated series’ Alma’s Way and Work it Out Wombats! Pierce is the author of two children's picture books with Little, Brown Books for Young Readers: Daddy and Me: Side by Side (2023) and Daddy-Daughter Day (2022). He is co-creator of the PBS Kids podcast Jamming on the Job and is the voice of its star Beat-master BoomBox! Pierce is a Dad to two creative and hilarious kids, loves reading Octavia Butler books with his wife of 16 years, and aspires to dunk a basketball with two hands as a 40-year-old.

Pierce is a former Durham City Councilman, who has traveled the world educating youth about Hip Hop, beat making and Black culture. He founded Blackspace, a digital maker space offering teens free programming rooted in Afrofuturism. Pierce co-founded Beat Making Lab, an Emmy Award-winning PBS web-series. He is the writer, composer and co-director of the animated series History of White People in America, an official selection of the Tribeca Film Festival. He has taught in the departments of Political Science, Music and African, African American and Diaspora Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina Central University.