ALEXANDRA JACKSON

Given the breadth and depth of Legacy & Alchemy, Jackson’s background makes her the perfect actor to tell the story. As the youngest daughter of Atlanta’s first African-American mayor, the late Maynard Holbrook Jackson Jr., and businesswoman and NPR personality Valerie Richardson Jackson, she comes from a musical family. She learned piano as a child and studied classical music, but at home she was influenced by classic music that surrounded her. “My father would play music by the Blind Boys of Alabama then move on to Take 6,” she says. “My mother loved Johnny Hartman and Phoebe Snow. And I was into Earth Wind and Fire, Michael Jackson and Maxwell. My older sister had a strong connection to Latin culture, so I heard a lot of Celia Cruz, Mark Anthony and Gloria Estefan.” Opera also played a role in her family, given that Jackson’s grand aunt was Mattiwilda Dobbs, read more...