My name is Justin Kocher and I’ve recently started a marketing and media internship with Joel Hall Dancers & Center at the beginning of the Fall 2020 semester. For 46+ years, Joel Hall has established a black-led non-profit organization that has focused on being an inclusive and diverse art incubation center, offering a variety of dance classes for different skill levels. As their marketing intern, it’s my job to help them celebrate their rich jazz history, sharing Joel’s story via social media outlets, video editing, and digital marketing campaigns. Most days I’ll be perched up at my computer at home, editing historic footage from previous decades for future livestreams and digital content. Currently, we’re working on fundraising for our new space in Albany Park, “The Hall” , the majority of our efforts being offered digitally. It’s a unique experience- coming up with new strategies to accommodate the new consumer behaviors that were brought with Covid-19.

With the pandemic in full swing, JHDC found an opportunity to really build their brand presence online, which gave me the chance to work on building media branded material; this meant clarifying language, colors, fonts, shapes, and animations. All of these smaller parts had to reflect the image of the JHD rebrand. All JHD admin meetings are held online, but it didn’t stop our community from communicating and collaborating (thanks Zoom)! Typically, a marketing & media intern at JHD would be creating marketing materials centered around physical events, shows, and fundraising efforts. Instead, my work is centralized around building virtual engagement to keep the dance studio fresh and present in everyone’s minds. This meant I still had the chance to create new avenues to engage the Chicago dance community, but in the virtual realm. Now, as a digital media intern, we are learning how to emulate those same experiences in a virtual world. Just as an example, I’m currently working on building a virtual showcase of Joel Hall’s past performances, Nightwalker & Anja the Unexpected. To keep the show interesting, I am currently building slides and animations for the beginning, intermission, and closing notes so the audience has a more engaging and interactive experience during the show.

All in all, I couldn’t ask for a better opportunity. I’m so happy that I can help celebrate a black-led local non-profit that has been established for 46+ years, and keep producing new and fresh content for them. I’m so proud to have the opportunity and responsibility to preserve black jazz history solely through the medium of digital marketing: gaining experience with social media management, brand identity, virtual events, and long-form content. This experience serves as a great example as to why I chose to major in digital marketing; I get to work alongside these fantastic local Chicago organizations and celebrate the features that make them so unique and special.

JHDC Show Intermission Example:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PXAhMe8TU6hZFhtQIaEuFULoNF4QMVGh/view?usp=sharing