Freedom has always been practiced here.

Home for the Brave is NorthStar's July 4th celebration; a cocktail evening honoring the artists who are the living fabric of this country's culture. The Sunday Service facilitators, the Spotlight Exhibition artists, the Movement Artists, you...the people, who show up, create, and build something extraordinary in Durham every single day.

This is the closing night of our No Independence Without Us campaign. We are gathering to celebrate a week of collective investment in the art, the artists, and the community that make NorthStar what it is. The evening includes live community driven activations woven into a night designed to feel as good as the work we are sustaining.

NorthStar exists because artists deserve a home. Tonight, you get to be part of building it.

Founded by Phil and Nnenna Freelon, NorthStar emerged as a response to the gentrification reshaping Durham, standing as a symbol of creativity and resistance against displacement. Our home is a historic church built in 1930, one of only four in the United States designed specifically for a deaf congregation and the only one in the South. This remarkable legacy of inclusion and accessibility informs our mission to protect and uplift communities that have been pushed to the margins.

No Independence Without Us

A Fundraiser for the Brave