Wes Jackson

Wes has been named president of BRIC, the pioneering Brooklyn-Based arts and media institution in 2024. Prior to that, he was the where he was the Director of the Business of Creative Enterprises (BCE) Program and Senior Executive In Residence at Emerson College.

Wes’ career began with producing concerts for Nas, The Roots, The Dave Matthews Band, The Fugees, and A Tribe Called Quest. His first venture, Seven Heads Entertainment, was a vanguard for progressive and community based Hip-Hop.  Seven Heads helped launch the careers of Yasiin Bey (Mos Def), Talib Kweli, El-P (Run The Jewels), Common, and others. Music from Seven Heads Roster was included in HBO’s “The Wire”, “The Boondocks”, and the film “Brown Sugar” among others.

Wes would later found and lead the Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival, an annual event that ran for 15 years with the mission to create a world class event to honor Hip-Hop music and culture and the borough of Brooklyn. The Festival hosted a range of talent including Jay-Z, Kanye West, NYS Attorney General Letitia James, Deray McKesson, Kendrick Lamar, Fab 5 Freddy, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, Q-Tip, and many others.