If you’ve lived in Durham for a while, you’ve probably heard of Pierce Freelon.
From serving on the City Council from 2020 to 2021, to his career as a Grammy-nominated musical artist, to his founding of a creative arts organization for Black teenagers known as Blackspace, Freelon has worn many hats. Now, he is adding one more.
In an unassuming former church, former coffee shop, and most recently former vacant property in East Durham, a hand-painted sign gives a hint at what lies inside: Freelon’s newest project, a freeze-dried ice cream company named Coco Fro.
Freelon, 42, explains the name as a “bit of a triple entendre.” Coco is a nod to one of the main ingredients, coconut cream. Fro refers to the freeze-dried aspect while also tying in to Afrofuturism, a movement that aims to empower Black communities with a technology-driven, futuristic aesthetic. The theme is central to his music and other work.
Always busy, Freelon said that he thought through various ideas for his next venture, including children’s toys, but ultimately settled on freeze-dried ice cream. While it might seem out of place from his other projects, to Freelon, it’s a fitting next step. He sees Coco Fro as similarly being able to benefit the community by providing a safe space for children in East Durham, while simultaneously producing a unique version of a product he has always loved.
“What absolutely does not exist in the market right now is a clean label, organic, dairy-free, freeze-dried ice cream,” he said.
Coco Fro will change that. It is organic and vegan, using coconut cream instead of milk and natural sweeteners like maple syrup and date sugar.
The social enterprise component is important to Freelon, too. After his time serving the city of Durham in various capacities, Freelon said he wanted to pioneer a move from pure philanthropy into a “wealth-building, social entrepreneurship model, where the work is being underwritten by a product of some kind.”
“We’ve got our own triple or maybe even quadruple bottom line, where of course we’re trying to make money, but what we’re gonna do with those profits is transform a community in East Durham,” he said. “We’re employing people at a living wage, building culture around Black youth media, fatherhood, and community.”
1004 Morning Glory Avenue
Donned in knee-high work boots, a long-sleeved top and work pants, Freelon isn’t letting the difficulty of starting a business and transforming a production space stop him.
“Right now this is pretty much just a facility,” he said. “The primary function of the space will be a production facility for the freeze-dried product.”
But Freelon’s vision for the space goes far beyond that.
In his acting office space, Freelon pulls out a hand-drawn map listing out the plans he has. One thing about Pierce Freelon? He’s always working toward his next big idea.
“And so here,” Freelon said, gesturing toward the side wall of the large room at the front, “we’re going to have churros and coffee eventually,” along with traditional ice cream offerings.
The Coco Fro campus spans two buildings, 1004 and 1006 Morning Glory Avenue, with a large grassy field in between.
Outside, he has plans for a stage to host children’s programming like picture book readings and concerts. His goal is to have a soft opening by the end of the year.
The marketing of Coco Fro connects Freelon’s latest endeavor to his past work. A large puppet with futuristic glasses adorns the space, paired with a graphic version on the flyer — Coco Fro’s mascot, Orion.
Freelon explains that Orion was a character that he created initially for his music, gesturing toward the CDs of his original music that decorate the wall in the main space.
“Basically all the stuff that I do is really inspired by futurism and kids.”
The Beginnings of Coco Fro
As a kid, Freelon grew up going to Durham’s Museum of Life and Science. He always had a soft spot for astronaut ice cream, which is sold in their gift shop.
In Fall 2022, Freelon went to a children’s birthday party there. He had a “rude awakening” when he realized his lactose intolerance had progressed so much that it prevented him from enjoying the astronaut ice cream he loved growing up.
When he read the label on the back of the package, besides being disappointed at the lack of flavor options, he was shocked at what he saw.
“It’s not just dairy,” he said. “It’s high-fructose corn syrup, tons of refined white sugar, all types of things you can’t pronounce. It’s like 50 ingredients.”
He thought that there must be somewhere online selling an organic, non-dairy alternative. His searches came up short.
And so began the journey to Coco Fro.
“F*** it, I’m going to Williams Sonoma at Southpoint [Mall],” he recalled thinking. “I bought an ice cream maker, and I said I’m gonna try to make my own ice cream.”
For two years, Freelon, along with his wife Kathryn Freelon, 41, rented space at a commercial kitchen and used their freeze drier.
When he got his product freeze-dried, he realized “this shit was delicious.”
“Like the nostalgia of the Neapolitan experience at the Museum of Life and Science,” Freelon said. “But it was better. It was like melt in your mouth, super tasty. And I immediately came home. I was like, babe, you got to try this.”
After raising $20,000 on Kickstarter to buy their own freeze dryer, their first bag was sold to the Museum of Life and Science in January 2025.
They soon realized they needed to scale. Interest had exploded, even internationally.
“January 2025 was not chill,” he said. “It was every single day, 20-hour days making ice cream and shipping products all across the country, all across the world.”
After talking to some producers in Summer 2025, the Freelons decided they wanted to make the product themselves instead of shipping it out of state.
As they looked for properties, 1004 Morning Glory Avenue seemed to be the perfect fit. Not long after buying it, the home next door went on the market, and Freelon bought it, too, to serve as the company’s office space.
“This is East Durham,” Freelon said. This is a Black neighborhood. We’re a Black-owned business.”
Far and beyond his hope that the business will be successful, Freelon hopes to help revitalize an area of Durham that is sometimes overlooked.
“One of the reasons poverty exists is because people don’t have jobs,” he said. “Well, when a building like this is sitting empty, when it could be serving the community by providing living wage jobs, it’s a problem.”
Looking Forward
Coco Fro’s product is off the market for now, pending the N.C. Department of Agriculture’s approval for the production space. But it won’t be long, Freelon hopes, before it is back on shelves again.
Despite Freelon’s claim that he has stepped back from other commitments to focus on Coco Fro, he casually drops that his band will be touring and playing Austin City Limits, the music festival in Texas, next month.
“I’m not running for office or or any other kind of major commitment outside of my career as an artist at this time, which again is also infused into the Coco Fro space, especially as a venue,” he said.
Down the road, he has plans for Coco Fro and Blackspace’s work to intertwine.
He hopes that Blackspace kids will be able to “participate in Coco Fro as either as a business or as an incubator for some of the things that we’re teaching them, and also it’s going to be a performance venue.”
“It’s a labor of love,” he continued. “I’m not like asking for anyone to pat me on the back. I’m not doing it for the money or the praise. I’m doing it because I live here and I see something that needed to be done.”
Photo at top: Pierce Freelon in the future Coco Fro production space. Photo by Fiona Shuldiner – The 9th Street Journal
fiona shuldiner
