She recalled, "I started singing in the church, like so many others...."[2] Nnenna graduated from Simmons College in Boston with a degree in health care administration.

She suggests that her influences included several "not famous people" as well as Nina Simone and Billy Eckstine, whose records her parents played at home.

[3] She has worked with Ray Charles, Ellis Marsalis, Al Jarreau, Anita Baker, Aretha Franklin, Dianne Reeves, Diana Krall, Ramsey Lewis, George Benson, Clark Terry, Herbie Hancock, and Terence Blanchard.

Her Babysong workshops, which she started at Duke University Medical Center in 1990, teach young mothers and healthcare providers the importance of the human voice for healing and nurturing.

[6] Their son Pierce Freelon is a hip hop artist, a Visiting Professor of Political Science at North Carolina Central University and the founder of the website Blackademics, for which he has interviewed many notable figures such as Angela Davis, Maya Angelou, Nikki Giovanni, and Jesse Jackson.

[7] Deen Freelon is a Presidential Professor in the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania studying social media and politics.