Jordan Lee Thompson is a media/narrative art worker and educator of mixed ancestry based out of Minneapolis, Minnesota, on occupied Dakota and Anishinaabe land. He works in video production, projection, drawing, animation, performance, installation, and other new media to combine his passions of participatory art, microsociology, and speculative storytelling towards the goal of envisioning and creating the future he wants to live in. He believes that the future depends on the stories we tell and how well we tell them.
Jordan has produced, performed, directed, or projected at the Guthrie Theater, the Cowles Center, the Southern Theater, Intermedia Arts, the Phoenix Theater, O'Shaughnessy Auditorium, Public Functionary, and the University of Iowa Museum of Art, among others. Jordan has worked with the Arab American National Museum, FilmNorth, Mizna, ArteEast, New Arab American Theater Works, Wilder Research, Iraqi & American Reconciliation Project, James Sewell Ballet, MN Opera, Savage Umbrella, Twin Cities Media Alliance, SPEAK MPLS, Minneapolis Television Network, Saint Paul Neighborhood Network, The People’s Canvass, Monkeybear’s Harmolodic Workshop, and other organizations.
Jordan serves as the Executive Director at Listen Up Youth Radio. He previously co-directed a pickup dance company (Dance & Other Behaviors), served as coordinator for Mizna's Arab Film Festival, directed programming for youth filmmakers and animators - who earned regional and national accolades - at Nine North, and managed a team of high school staff working towards environmentally-just futures at the Science Museum of Minnesota. Jordan holds a BFA in Painting, a BA in Art History and Arts Management, and a certificate in Museum Studies from the University of Iowa.