A Minnesota native, Jade, dove into the local music scene early on. Her first love was dance, which she brought to her middle school and Central High School’s Blackbox concerts. While studying journalism at the University of Kansas, she kept her Minnesota ties close as an intern for 2024 Records, while booking bands like Spoon and Sharon Jones to play at her university. Minnesota pulled her back after graduation and she worked promoting independent musicians to radio stations across the nation with Tinderbox Music. Starting at The Current as an overnight host in 2008, Jade continued her work to promote Minnesota artists by curating musical events around the cities, most notably the Summit Backyard Bash and Wing Young Huie’s University Avenue Project (where she dug into the Frogtown music scene and created a soundtrack to the art show and live event series). She organized and booked The Current’s Road Trip, a Legacy-funded project that showcased Minnesota artists around the state. That led her to work as the principal at Minnesota Music Coalition, taking it from an idea to a stable and functioning non-profit. She recently won a Knight Foundation grant to put together art-filled pop-up events in St. Paul.