To pursue my goal of working in social media marketing, I wanted more experience in that area that I could add to my portfolio. Through a volunteering platform called Catchafire I connected with Class Act Detroit, a growing non-profit based in Detroit, MI that runs digital arts programs for youth. The task was to take over their Instagram account for a couple months, creating images, illustrations, and captions and scheduling at regular intervals through the week.

The goal was to increase enrollment while expanding and polishing their presence on the platform. Furthermore, my work would allow executive staff to spend their limited time on more important projects.

I provided a sample of my work based on a prompt, and they loved it. From there I got started with research and brainstorming.

The biggest issue on my mind when starting was authenticity. Hip-hop, the Detroit area, and Black culture are not natively familiar to me, so I would have to immerse myself in appropriate content to even get close to something that seemed authentic. I complied a research document covering Hip-hop history, Detroit history, current hip-hop scene in the mid-west, and visual styles associated with all those topics.

Furthermore, the organization was trusting me with posting during Black History Month. I dove deeply into the history of that event and current trends, with a focus on sensitivity and appropriateness.

Other research areas:

• Listening to Detroit hip hop artists
• Demographicsd of Class Act Detroit's Instagram community
• Most successful recent Instagram posts
• Notable Black digital artists