Meet Jeanetta
Jeanetta C. Powell is a church musician, music educator, and leader at the intersection of sacred music, education, and community. Raised in the Black church and classically trained as a pianist, violinist, and violist, she brings more than 20 years of experience and a conviction that Black church music is not supplemental to education or worship.
It is foundational.
Jeanetta is the Founder and Director of Bull City Music School, a Durham music school serving children, families, and adults through private lessons, ensembles, and community programs rooted in culturally grounded teaching. She also founded the Brown Sugar Music Project, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit whose programs include Brown Sugar Strings, a leadership and mentorship string program for girls, and a performing arts based microschool, Aya Renaissance.
As Minister of Music at St. Mark AME Zion Church in Durham’s historic Hayti community, Jeanetta leads the church’s choirs and worship arts ministry. She developed the ministry’s 12- and 24-month worship arts strategic plan and created Audacity of Praise, a choir workshop that brings choir members together for hymn singing, testimony, vocal health, choir governance, and a renewed call to why we sing.
Through Standing Ovations, her consulting practice, Jeanetta partners with churches, schools, and arts organizations on worship arts, leadership, professional development, and strategy.
Her career in music education spans Montessori, independent, and public school settings. After years in the public school classroom, she left to build Bull City Music School and the community of programs that has grown around it. She has also given a decade of leadership to religious education.
Jeanetta has presented at national conferences, including the American String Teachers Association (ASTA) and the North Carolina Music Teachers Association (NCMTA), on underrepresented composers and mentorship in strings, and she has served as a guest lecturer for the John Hope Franklin series. She serves on the executive board of the Northern Orange County NAACP branch, supporting its ACT-SO program.
Jeanetta holds a Bachelor of Music Education from Jackson State University and a Master of Education in Educational Leadership from Grand Canyon University. She is pursuing her Master of Divinity at Duke Divinity School, with certificates in Black Church Studies, and Nonprofit Leadership. She is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., based in Durham, North Carolina, and can be found on Instagram at @jeanettacpowell and on Substack at Jeanetta Powell.
I believe praise is an act of audacity. To sing hope in a world that gives every reason to despair is a courageous act, and our ancestors knew it. I believe the music of the Black church is not supplemental to education or worship. It is foundational. And I believe every child, every choir, and every community deserves to be formed by it.