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Who
is Jackie Harris?
 Jackie Harris has spent the
past 25 years providing convention planning,
festival/music production, program
administration/coordination, and event
management services to a variety of clients in
Haiti, Aruba, Germany, France, Jamaica, and many
cities throughout the United States.
After spending the start of her professional
career at a major oil company, Harris began
pursuing creative opportunities in the areas of
culture, tourism, music, entertainment and the
arts. She spent nearly 10 years at the New
Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, the world’s
largest out-door event of its type, as Assistant
Fair Director and Night Concerts Producer. She
then led the City’s Music and Entertainment
Commission for eight years marked by tremendous
success in re-positioning New Orleans as an
entertainment mecca and marketing its rich
cultural legacy as the “Birthplace of Jazz.”
Harris led the charge that resulted in the first
airport in the United States to be named for a
jazz artist – Louis Armstrong International
Airport -- employed jazz artists as
“ambassadors” to represent the City of New
Orleans at national and international cultural
exchange program; advocated for and co-produced
the firsts United States Conference of Mayors
Winter Arts Program that showcased jazz artists;
wrote proposals and developed strategies that
resulted in attracting and retaining major
conventions and events to New Orleans including
the Essence Music Festival, NAACP Convention,
Rainbow Push Coalition, TD Jakes “Woman Thou Art
Loosed” Convention and the International
Association of Jazz Educators Conference.
As a free lance professional, Harris provides
services to a number of non-profit organizations
– Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation (of New
York), New Orleans Arts and Cultural Host
Committee and the National Urban League –
providing program development, tour management,
marketing, artists management and bookings, in
addition to cultural exchange initiatives. Since
her relocation to New York City following
Hurricane Katrina, Harris has been able to share
her skills and experience with the US State
Department, native New Orleanian, Wynton
Marsalis and Jazz At Lincoln Center – developing
tours and cultural exchange programs around the
world.
She also serves as executive director of the
twelve year old, Louis
“Satchmo” Armstrong Summer Jazz Camp which
was created by Harris that has provided jazz
music education to more than 1300 young music
students. Jazz Camp students have and are now
attending The University of New Orleans,
Berkley, Oberlin, Juilliard and Stanford
University. Camp alumni are also managing
professional careers as local, national and
international artists, educators and business
executives. The camp has gained an international
reputation for excellence.
Having spent the last decade producing
festivals, developing and marketing programs,
working with local and national musicians all
over the world, Harris is dedicated to
perpetuating, preserving and exposing the world
to the art form that was created in her home
town – New Orleans.
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