Pharrell Williams Teams Up With Kenya Barris For Juneteenth Musical

AP Photo / Chris Pizzello – Pharrell Williams
Pharrell Williams takes charge during the halftime performance for the NBA All-Star Game at Staples Center in Los Angeles Feb. 18.

Juneteenth, the holiday honoring the final day of slavery in the United States, will be the inspiration for a musical to be produced by Pharrell Williams and “Black-ish” creator Kenya Barris.

The music will be written by Williams and his I am OTHER collaborator Mimi Valdés. The “libretto” will be written by Barris and Black-ish’s Peter Saji.

The catalyst for the project was an episode of “Black-ish” that touched on the subject of Juneteenth. 

The plot will deal with families in modern times and in the Civil War era.

“I dream about projects like this. Kenya and Peter are geniuses and Juneteenth will change culture and change history,” Williams said in a statement. “We couldn’t sign up fast enough. We are thrilled to collaborate with them.”

June 19, 1865 was the day the U.S. Army forced Texas landowners to free the last slaves being kept after the Emancipation Proclamation two years earlier.

“The acknowledgement and celebration of Juneteenth as an American and possibly international holiday is something that I would put in the life goals column for me,” Barris said in a statement. “For Peter and me to be able to team up with Pharrell on such an important project like this is something that neither of us in a billion years would have thought possible.”