Venue management, production and impact support for one of South Africa’s beloved platforms for jazz education and youth development

The National Youth Jazz Festival runs as part of the National Arts Festival in Makhanda every year, bringing together young musicians from high school through to university to learn from some of the country’s finest jazz educators and international guests.

Over more than ten years Leila has worked wherever needed: running a late night jazz café, managing venues, logistics and musicians, and producing the festival’s online edition during COVID-19 to ensure the program could continue, even through a screen. Across this time she has also been building an archive, filming performances and conducting interviews each year to develop a growing body of material for storytelling and impact evaluation. More recently this has extended into trying to better understand and evidence what we already know: that this festival connects cultures, builds collaborations and changes the relationship young South Africans have with jazz.