We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jordan Martins a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jordan, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you tell us a bit about who your hero is and the influence they’ve had on you?

My grandmother (or “Vovo” in Cape Verdean Kriolu) is my hero. She is uneducated (she cannot even read or write), but she is one of the wisest people that I know. She emigrated from Cape Verde, West Africa in the late 80s with my grandfather who opened a store in the Dorchester neighborhood in Boston.

Her line of work has always involved her hands and hard labor. She grew up in a rural part of Cape Verde—we hail from a specific island known as Fogo—where opportunities are limited, but there is beautiful nature. Growing up, she always told me in (roughly translated) Kriolu that I should, “work with my brain and not my back.” Along with some blessings and praises to God, since she is very religious, a staunch Cape Verdean Catholic woman, typical of her era.

Education was always highly prioritized in my household, which is very typical hailing from a West African immigrant family. I was always pushed to excel in school by my family, but particularly by her who was obsessed with my grades. “Do well in school so you can make a lot of money” was my grandma’s sentiment, but also shared by every African or Caribbean grandma.

In 2010, when I first came to New York from Boston as a student intern for Complex, she gave me $1000 towards my first-ever Macbook Pro to help power my creative work. It was a surprise because I remember saving up all of Summer 2009 to help relocate for an unpaid media job. I was relying on money from a part-time job and my student refund check to help fund intern life in NYC. She never has had a lot of money, but has always motivated me. She is always either working in some form or cooking and is a classic strong matriarch typical of the Black experience. Her work is crucial to the (large immigrant) family unit, but goes unnoticed, undervalued, and unappreciated by Western society (that doesn’t have the range).

Her tenacity and willpower are also extremely strong, and although I can be persuasive, she is hard to convince. In more recent years, I have made steps to help her retire. I even sent her back to Cape Verde, in an attempt to have her stop working in America. When she went to Cape Verde, it was better for her overall health given the climate and lifestyle (tropical vs. cold New England winters), but she was restless and wanted to work and clean a hotel my dad owns and manages there. The workers had to tell her to chill out, but she is used to being active every day. I look just like my dad, who has a lot of my grandma’s features. So I resemble her inside and out.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Since 16-years-old I have been obsessed with finding ways to merge my art, creativity, and giving back. My inspiration for this path came from a college essay that asked, “What would you do if money was no object?” Giving back to others has always been a through line in my work, inspired by my personal journey as a low-income first-generation American. I grew up in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and my dad emigrated from Cape Verde, I was raised by my Trinidadian-American mother.

I became fixated on art and drawing at a young age. At 7 years old, I begged my mom for a copy of “Draw the Marvel Comics Super Heroes.” In 1996, my mom’s boyfriend passed away tragically in a car accident, and I was given all his art supplies in a Nike shoebox, along with other late 90s ephemera like black and white skate and graffiti magazines. He used to draw Spider-Man and wrote graffiti—I wanted to be like him.

I decided to pursue writing instead of art in college because I got the full-ride Torch Scholarship to Northeastern University for my writing promise and leadership potential. I earned my BFA in Journalism in 2012, but took business classes and was a Sociology minor. While in college, I won several grants and awards for my writing, including the First-Year Writing Award, and laid the groundwork for my web platform, Screens And Rhymes. I also did college radio and interviewed my favorite rappers, with my video interviews with artists making it onto the biggest music blogs (including Kanye’s) while I was still a teenager. In 2010, I leveraged my college radio interview experience into an Editorial Internship at Complex, which allowed me to live and work in New York for the first time. While in Boston for college, I worked for streetwear brands and helped my friend and mentor run a series of apparel Pop-Up Shops in Boston’s fashion district Newbury St. I also did a business study abroad trip where I did social enterprise consulting in Cape Town, South Africa.

I bought my first rental property at 27 and became a full-time entrepreneur at 30. Prior to that, I worked in the media space (Complex), music and event space (Beat Haus), politics and housing (Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Anti-Displacement Initiative), and community organizations (Brooklyn arts non-profit Groundswell). I have combined my interests and career experience into my Pop-Up Art Fair events.

I currently develop and teach workshops on financial literacy and college readiness through my strategy and design company, Screens Shift Culture LLC. I have partnered with community organizations, schools, colleges, and municipalities across the East Coast. Screens Shift Culture does strategy, business development, and grant writing for artists, business and non-profit organization clients. In 2023, we raised $100K+ in grants between clients and our own organization. I currently manage and execute a wide range of projects, including large-scale art events and educational programming.

What sets me apart is my strategy and how I scale lean operations. I have built my business off being creative with both arts, content, and managing finances. I have 100% ownership in all my entrepreneurial endeavors, from LLCs to real estate, with no outside investment besides grant funding support.

The Pop-Up Art Fair is an art event series spotlighting a diverse array of artists and uplifts and celebrates the unique cultures found throughout the New York metro area. In 2023, we have done a variety of artist vendor markets (“Pop-Up Bazaars”) and gallery shows (“Pop-Up Galleries”) with an intergenerational and multicultural group of artists. The platform is built on blending art and entrepreneurship, and we offer training, resources, and workshops to our participants.

We have done a number of large-scale and community events over the past year. At Newport Centre, we did a store takeover and transformed a former Coach location into an art gallery, and ran a two-day artist and apparel market at the mall. At our Fall Festival event, we converted a 4600 sq. foot warehouse in Williamsburg into a gallery and wellness experience, along with a vendors market with wellness and plants.

We have collaborated with Jersey City Women’s Collaborative for an all-women’s vendors market event at Lincoln Park in Jersey City. We have done gallery shows at Black-owned businesses like vintage shop LastPlaceWinners Co. and Ko Cafe, celebrating Black women and African-inspired artwork, respectively.

I started the Pop-Up Art Fair in 2019, with the pilot event in Gowanus, Brooklyn, at a community space. The first event was with a group of young artists 16-24 who worked in art programs I used to manage. They generated close to $4000 in sales in 3 hours.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I wish I had known more about write-offs and the benefits of working with a CPA. I started my freelance journey at 20 years old, working remotely as a Staff Writer, and was racking up expenses. My college would have tax preparers on-site who would do an okay job.

Had I known better, I would have started an LLC sooner because I had so many technology-related expenses early on (Macbook Pro, DSLR camera, camera lenses, and accessories) that I could have written off. Or I could have financed it on a business credit card rather than grind away at part-time jobs to invest in my setup.

Working with my CPA since 2018 has completely changed my business. I have operated as an S-Corp for the past few years and technically have a 3 LLC structure. I know amazing artists who are deathly afraid of personal taxes and are years behind in doing them. The US tax code is expensive and confusing by design compared to other countries. But you have to play the game to benefit. I believe no artist or business owner should be doing their taxes and should invest in a dedicated professional.

The workshop work that I do is designed to simplify the business world for artists, small business owners, and creators. I can process business terms, concepts, and overall strategy, but it goes over the heads of most people, particularly artists.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

I do a workshop series called Mind Right, Money Right. I reference a lot of these texts in my workshops.

“Steal Like An Artist” by Austin Kleon. I give this away often to creatives I work with and friends. Kleon has a series built around this book that includes workbooks and activities for supporting artists.

“The Alchemist” by Paul Coehlo. I have been gifted this book several times in life. I read it for the first time at 18 and it was one of the most inspirational things I’ve ever read.

“The Art of War” I think back to this often during negotiations or tense scenarios.

“Shoe Dog” Phil Knight tells his journey, ups and downs from scaling Nike into from an upstart into a monolith. Scratches my itch as a world traveler, sneaker head, and curious business mind.

Philosophy: the Japanese concept of “Ikigai.” There’s a philosophy from one of my favorite anime series, “Fullmetal Alchemist” called equivalent exchange that states, “to gain, something of equal value must be lost.”

Steve Jobs’ lecture for Stanford about purpose and a life well lived. I enjoy his biography by Walter Isaacson as well. Sometimes I rewatch his Apple event announcements (the first iPhone is a highlight) because he was one of the greatest marketers to ever live.

Neil Gaiman’s concept of “Good Fast Cheap” for freelancers. It was from a commencement speech, but has been summarized into a book called “Make Good Art.” I’m a huge Neil Gaiman fan in general, particularly his “Sandman” comics. He linked to my Screens And Rhymes site when he announced his Norse Mythology book, because I covered a preview reading he did at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts.

Virgil Abloh’s lecture at Harvard Graduate School of Design. Also compiled into a book, “Insert Complicated Title Here” and is on Youtube. Prior to his passing he also released a platform called Free Game that is an info archive for upstart brands.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://campsite.bio/popupartfair
• Instagram: @Jordan_Martins
• Other: Instagram: @PopUpArtFair

Image Credits
All photos taken by Jennifer Brown or Nylah Hindsman.