Today we’d like to introduce you to Jordan Daniels.
Hi Jordan, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I would say I’ve identified as a creative since I was a kid. My parents were both great storytellers of their lives and I strived to do the same. I was always animated and fluid with how I moved my body and told stories with it. But what some folx might not know about me is that language was actually quite hard for me growing up. I had an intense stutter as a kid, and forming sentences was a challenge because of the speed in which my brain processed things; my mouth struggled to get out. I realized, however, that I was most fluent and able to speak when I acted. So, I do theatre through much of my childhood and into adulthood. I have great memorization skills because of this, and when I memorize words, it’s easy for me to speak them.
This said when I went to college, and as I learned more about justice movements and social change, I discovered that I wanted to stop telling stories as other characters. I wanted to tell stories as myself and tell my own story in the process. I wanted to find my voice and master my voice, so I went into journalism and got my degree in it. I name this because a lot of my work today is about using voice – whether it’s on the podcast I cohost, in the questions, I ask people on social media, the articles that I write, the engagements I speak at for myself, or the San Diego Black LGBTQ+ Coalition.
I got here, I believe, through a mix of intentionality and relationship. I have so much gratitude for the people – my people – who have helped me get to a place that I love, who held the door for me and taught me how to do the same. I often reflect on a saying one of high school teachers told class every day, “It’s not what you know. It’s who you know and how you treat them.” That advice has informed so much about how I show up in relationship with community, and I know it’s gotten me far in this work.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Nothing has been smooth on this journey, especially as a Queer mixed Black/Jewish Fat Femme person. Nothing is smooth for a lot of people with identities that have been intentionally marginalized. Some of my obstacles are probably typical to these experiences – bullying, self-harm, not experiencing belonging – and some are more personalized, such as having to be a caretaker to one of my parents when I was teenager and us experiencing housing/financial struggles in the midst of it. When my dad passed away, it shifted everything in the plans I had for myself. I had dreams of becoming a fashion influencer in LA and an editor of either a fashion publication or local magazine. I was going to stay in Long Beach, where I went to school, and live this hyper-creative life.
I didn’t do any of that. I moved back to San Diego, got a job doing Communications at an amazing Foundation. I stepped more into my Jewishness than ever before. I got to embrace all my identities wholly. I cohost a podcast, BFF: Black Fat Femme, on iHeartMedia. I support San Diego’s Black Queer and Trans community through the Coalition. I freelance write, and I do fashion in my own way still. I appreciate so much that I’m able to live out these dreams in other ways now, but it’s wild how different my path is now than from what I envisioned just five years ago.
I think loss gives you so much perspective, and it helped me get clear on what came next.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
My 9-5 job, which I love, focuses on supporting Jews of Color through philanthropy. It’s a niche and interesting space to be in, but something that I know is really tuning my lens of justice, change-making, and how capital works. Outside, I’d like to believe I’m known for my fashion, my advocacy for all the communities my identities touch, my vulnerable online discussions, and my podcast.
I’m proud of all of them for existing together at once and for being work that sustains me and fulfills in the best ways. I think what sets me apart is just how I show up as my whole self in any space that I’m in. I strive to radically be myself, even through discomfort. I’ve spent too long hiding parts of myself, and once I saw how possible it was to be fully me, I haven’t turned back!
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
That I’m all up in nerd culture. I used to be an intense gamer, comic-reader, tech head, and anime watcher. I still enjoy the latter quite a bit, but I haven’t felt like I’ve had the time to game as much or read comics like I used to. But recently I was at my friend’s house, and we played Smash Bros on her switch for hours, and I was out here helping unlock all these characters and able to tell her what games they were from and such!
Contact Info:
- Website: jordandaniels.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/johodaniels
- Twitter:twitter.com/johodaniels
Image Credits
Tarik Carroll
Sylvana Uribe
