Annual Booker Fest

The 100 Men Hall hosts its third annual Booker Fest to celebrate the musical genius of James Booker. The festival is sponsored by the Silver Slipper and features a rollicking good-time that allows festival goers to enjoy a weekend of good music, food trucks and a drag brunch.

James Carroll Booker III (December 17, 1939 – November 8, 1983) was a New Orleans rhythm and blues keyboardist born in New Orleans, LA and raised in Bay Saint Louis, MS. Booker's unique style combined rhythm and blues with jazz standards. 

Musician Dr. John described Booker as "the best black, gay, one-eyed junkie piano genius New Orleans has ever produced."

Booker Fest is designed to bring awareness to one of the town’s most gifted artists who played with the St. Rose de Lima gospel choir and on the historic stage at the 100 Men Hall. Booker Fest will include a gospel tribute by the esteemed St. Rose de Lima choir and a piano tribute by two of New Orleans piano greats, Josh Paxton and Tom Worrell, a piano night with Joe Krown Trio, a concert with Sunny War, a screening of Lily Keber’s acclaimed documentary on Booker, Bayou Maharajah, ending with an outrageous Drag Brunch in Booker's honor.

The Fest is an annual fundraiser for the maintenance and preservation of the 100 Men Hall and also to attract regional, national and international attention to this African American landmark, one of the few standing buildings on the Mississippi Blues Trail.