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Krystal "Gem" Jackson

Home Featured Authors & Panelists Featured Participant Lineup 2025 Krystal "Gem" Jackson

Krystal ”Gem” Jackson is a Grammy-nominated vocalist, performing artist, and talent coach. Miss Jackson has performed in Italy, Mexico, across the Caribbean, and Carnegie Hall. She has done voice work for and with John Legend, Kevin Costner, Bill Gates, Flo-Rida, and John Musker. She holds an MFA in Performance from the California Institute of Arts and is currently a Miss America partner and professor of Theatre at Dillard University in New Orleans.

Schedule

2:00 pm to 2:45 pm
State Library, Fourth Floor
Scenes from She Danced with a Redfish
Join playwright Carolyn Nur Wistrand as she examines her award-winning play with actors Michael C. Forest, Kendall Harrison, Krystal "Gem" Jackson, and TaNiya Latiker. The discussion will be brought to life through dynamic, staged readings of key scenes.

3:00 pm to 3:45 pm
Cavalier House Books Tent
Book Signing

She Danced with a Redfish: A Play in Two Acts

From New Orleans's vast mythology springs this play featuring Marie Laveau, a young free woman of color, as she is transformed from a Catholic bride to an active participant in African spiritual traditions in the pre-Civil War French Quarter. When the Saint-Domingue priestess Sanité Dédé performs a midnight ritual cleansing in Marie's cottage, the unexpected return of Marie's husband, Jacques Paris, disrupts the ceremony, ultimately leading to her awakening to African mysticism. The magic of the Vieux Carré is brought to life in this tale of love, betrayal, and empowerment. She Danced with a Redfish pays tribute to the African traditions that shaped New Orleans and still reverberate in and beyond Congo Square.