Jennifer's body of work as a musician and playwright and educator includes four original albums, four theatrical works , television, film and musical recording projects in the U.S. and abroad in France, Spain and Senegal, Africa. As a performing singer/songwriter she's performed in Jacksonville's Florida Theatre, she's opened for such Grammy winners as: The Doobie Brothers, The Rippingtons, and Lisa Loeb.
In 1996 she founded and spearheaded, j.a.n.e. (Jacksonville Artists' Night of Entertainment), a non-profit local artists' project boasting two concerts, an original CD and $10,000 in proceeds that funded child-care scholarships for single parents pursuing a college education. For this she received the University of North Florida's Women's Leadership Award. In 1998, a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship Award sent her to Senegal, Africa. While there she recorded and performed with some of Senegal's most prolific artists including: Les Freres Guissé and Pape Niang, performing on Goree Island and the Khalil Gueye TV Show, radio shows and night clubs in Dakar. Subsequent trips to Africa gleaned work on her musical Majigeen, which has enjoyed four successful runs on Florida stages and is an officially recognized Florida Heritage Month Event. She performed and wrote original music for, the P.B.S. documentary, In Marjorie's Wake, by writer Bill Belleville. The film is in syndication on PBS stations nationally. She recorded a subsequent album Marjorie's Wake with, and produced by artist Goliath Flores.
Her B.A. is from the University of North Florida in International Studies and French. She has an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of New Orleans. As Professor of English at Florida State College at Jacksonville, she recently founded J.A.C.K. (off Broadway) Jacksonville Artists' Company at Kent, with Handmaid Director, Roxanna Lewis, colleagues, and some incredibly driven students. J.A.C.K is an organization dedicated to development of student, faculty and alumni original works in the Performing Arts. Her dramas include: Majigeen, a musical drama of historical fiction, which explores the life of a 19th century Senegalese teenager, Anta Majigeen Njaay, Handmaid, directed by Roxanna Lewis and funded in part by an FSCJ Learning Communities Grant. Current projects include a new musical La Caroline: The Quelo Nayo story with music by John E. Citrone and an autobiographical fiction film/theater project, Artichoke Soup, with filmmaker Antonio Sarte. Jennifer and legendary musician Longineu Parsons were recently honored with an invitation to the 2011 Rendez Vous de l'Erdre in Nantes, France to perform music from Majigeen. She continues to follow her bliss: to write, teach perform and travel.