About Classes

This winter, the Loft presents Needs, featuring a number of linked classes and events to explore the theme.

No human can exist without food, water, and safety. After that, we need a reason to get up, explore, and connect. As Joan Didion said, "We tell ourselves stories in order to live." Through the sharing of ideas and experiences we come to understand the world around us and imagine what it might be like to wander in someone else's shoes.

The Loft believes that stories are a basic need. But how do stories teach us to live well? Why do we react with outrage or joy from news stories about people we've never met? Are there poems that get you out of bed in the morning? Do you read to your child (or to yourself) in order to sleep at night? Through the theme of Needs, the Loft will explore the ways in which the written word unpacks need and helps keep us alive, nourished, and connected.