Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Chris Jones. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Chris , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

The Loft is a 50 year old organization dedicated to readers and writers and I’ve now worked there for 15 years. One of the largest challenges I’ve seen for us is that we create a large slate of amazing, first-class offerings and then quickly have to do it all over again. Each of those class offerings acts like a single glass that we need to fill with water, and if any does not receive enough water, we have to remove it. This hurts in a number of ways: disappointed teachers and students and lost revenue for the organization.

So the idea was: what if we had a fountain instead of all these glasses we constantly needed to fill drop by drop? So we looked at our programming and asked ourselves, why are people coming to us? What are they hoping to achieve? And by doing that, we identified the five most common goals our students shared: Skill Building, Unlocking Habits, Navigating Publishing, Sparking Creativity, and Finding Community.

With those goals in mind, we built an entirely new subscription offering that could meet people on that journey and help them reach those goals. We called it Lit!Commons—and invested in a new platform and hired 10 contract teaching artists to help lead it.

Where has it gone from there? Well, we’re still living into it. The program has been live for 8 months and is adding members all the time. There have been some growing pains as we figured out this entirely new program and we would always like more participants as we grow into it, but in general, we’re very happy with the initial response.

One of the best signs for this for me is the participant response. Many of the participants have become quite active in the pathways and community spaces, and that has led to a sense of co-ownership and co-creation. Which is exactly what we were hoping when we started this program.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I came to the Loft about 15 years ago. My path at that point combined more than 10 years in conference and nonprofit marketing, graphic design, and video work with some creative writing of my own through an MFA in poetry. Since then, I’ve published a book that profiled 11 debut authors with the intention of helping people define their own.

My path connected with this wonderful community organization called the Loft. The Loft was founded in 1974 by group of activist poets. It has since grown to be one of the nation’s most respected literary arts centers. We define our purpose as advancing the power of writers and readers to craft and share stories, to create and celebrate connections, and to build just, life-sustaining communities.

Each year the Loft engages more than 3,000 beginning, intermediate, and advanced writers in learning opportunities, hosts more than 200 authors in readings and dialogues that draw more than 5,000 people, connects with more than 200,000 unique visitors through digital resources on our website, collaborates with at least 20 local and national organizations to enrich the literary environment and, through contracts, awards, and grants, pays writers more than $400,000.

In their evaluations, 96% of students report that their class helped them improve their writing, 96% identified their next steps as a writer, and 96% said they made progress toward their writing goals. Of Loft event attendees who completed evaluations, 96% said the event introduced them to new books or authors, 97% said the event will make them a more engaged reader, and 97% said they were inspired to have conversation with others about the book’s or author dialogue topic.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I align very well with our organizational core values which drives our work.

Creativity: We advance the craft and capacity of writers to create across diverse forms and platforms. We are adaptive and cultivate the conditions that allow for our imaginations and our humanity to thrive.
Connection: Our literary experiences cultivate belonging and inclusivity. We recognize our interdependence and accountability to community. We draw on the wisdom of our ancestors to build resilience and consider the impact of our actions on future generations.
Justice: We recognize that oppression, colonization, and extractive economies threaten life in our communities and on our planet. We are committed to antiracist, equitable, and life-sustaining practices in our literary offerings and our approach to work.
Care: We center people and promote a culture of wellness in all aspects of our work.
Courage: We meet discomfort, fear, complexity, anxiety, trauma, and uncertainty with radical openness, generosity of spirit, and love. We continually evolve our skillfulness. We recognize the value of generative conflict. We cultivate trust-based relationships with people and values-based relationships with money.
Curiosity: We play, practice, and experiment. We recognize that joy and ongoing learning are necessary for innovation, restoration, and resilience.

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

One book that comes to mind for me is Maria Konnikova’s The Biggest Bluff. Her journey as a New Yorker writer turned successful poker player is a compelling story, but it is also a great frame of reference for how any level of entrepreneurial thinking needs to appreciate risk. Leaders and organizations that appreciate risk, when to take it when to avoid it, are usually the most successful, and I love how this book gives readers the potential to rethink their own relationship to risk in the more controlled setting of a game.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://loft.org/about-us
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/loftliterarycenter/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheLoftLiteraryCenter/

Image Credits

Third image (classroom) is Anna Min Enterprises.
Other three can be The Loft Literary Center