Pierce Freelon

Pierce Freelon is a member of the Beat Making Lab. He's blogging about the lab's project in Ethiopia for PRI.org.

He traveled to Congo to teach hip hop and ended up giving a beat-making class on US race relations

July 20, 2015Music

It’s Swahili. It’s French. It’s English. It’s hip hop created by American professor Pierce Freelon on his latest trip to Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Except this time, news broke back home in the US about black churches set ablaze. Freelon soon turned his beats making lab into a masterclass on race relations.

A return to Ethiopia rekindles the spirit of the Beat Making Lab

November 13, 2013Arts, Culture & Media

Presentation outside Beat Making Lab studio.

How do you say hello when no one speaks the same language?

October 30, 2013Arts, Culture & Media

Rap? Meh. Poetry is the rage at the Ethiopian Beat Making Lab

October 23, 2013Arts, Culture & Media

Stephen Levitin aka Apple Juice Kid on a site visit with IntraHealth.

Can you mix a masinko and a soccer game chant into a beat?

October 16, 2013Arts, Culture & Media

What happens when you mix culture, talent, health and passion? Music

October 9, 2013Arts, Culture & Media

The Beat Making Lab’s trip to Ethiopia was about more than helping people make music. It was about using music to help understand the health issues on the minds of people in Addis Ababa and elsewhere in Ethiopia.

And the Beat Making Lab goes on, to Ethiopia

October 2, 2013Arts, Culture & Media

If you’ve ever wondered what the world sounds like, the Beat Making Lab wants to help you find out. Armed with a few laptops and a lifetime of music-making experience, the two men behind the project are bringing community music labs to communities all over the world.