Photo: Angela Jimenez, ©Walker Art Center | Jordan (left) at the Twin Cities Youth Media Network Showcase, Walker Art Center 2015
Jordan has been a teaching artist for youth and adults with organizations including FilmNorth, Saint Paul Neighborhood Network, SPEAK MPLS, Minneapolis Television Network, and Twin Cities Media Alliance.
From 2018-2022 Jordan managed up to 20 teen staff at the Science Museum of Minnesota, working with community partners to develop skills and initiatives to create a more environmentally just and equitable future, through technology, advocacy, education, and coalition building. Read an interview with him about this work here.
Jordan spent his days from 2014-2018 as the Youth Media Coordinator at CTV North Suburbs (now Nine North) where he directed the Youth Media Department and its award-winning CreaTV afterschool program. Jordan and his team developed and facilitated on-site and mobile workshops on media literacy and production for youth, helping teens write, produce, and distribute their own short films and animations. Jordan's students had their work screened at the Walker Art Center and in the Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival, and were nominated for or received regional and national Student Television Awards from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, among other screenings and accolades.
"I'm Happy" by Animation @ The Station 2016
(Recipient of National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Upper Midwest Emmy® Chapter: Student Production Award)
(Nominee of National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences: National High School Student Production Award)
(Recipient of National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Upper Midwest Emmy® Chapter: Student Production Award)
(Nominee of National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences: National High School Student Production Award)
For many of these youth and young adults at CTV Teens, it was their first foray into media-making. Jordan facilitated workshops and classes on pre-production skills, camera and camcorder operation, lighting, audio, and editing using professional software—with some groups, they learned all of this and produced a documentary or narrative short in less than a week. Other workshops and partnerships lasted through the summer, semester, or academic year.
A short collection of works made by Jordan's students and interns under his supervision at CTV Teens: