You're invited to gather here - welcome to Gentle Company.
A new platform to learn, a new invitation for all of you, a new way to connect. This feels a little bit messy and a little bit beautiful. I think that means it's alive.
Hello dear friends. I would love to tell you what I’ve been working through this year, where it’s led me, and where I’d like for us to go together.
If I were going to choose, like, fancy, tidy words for how to describe this year, I’d tell you that this has been a year of building, experimenting, and offering. I’d tell you something like I’ve been mucking about in the sandbox of entrepreneurship and creative autonomy and learning how to emerge as a Professional Creative. (wow that’s good. I should keep that. I’ll write that down and try to memorize it as a soundbite that I recite when people ask me what I do for work instead of something like, "I um, I write these things? And share them? I do instagram stuff I guess? No, not an influencer. No, not a journalist. I am sort of a poet? And I host online events for people to talk about deep stuff. No, not therapy. No, not a cult. I’m a writer-facilitator-artist I guess? If that’s a thing? This of course would fall under the category of ‘How We’re Not Supposed To Introduce Ourselves To The World.’ It’s a work in progress.)
What this year has felt like as the person going through it is: muddy, messy, and vulnerable; I have put myself out in the world in new ways, creating offerings like four week writing workshops, poetry commissions, online events, poetry clubs, and hosting dinners, writing collective poems every week (not to mention sharing poems about longing and heartache and all the unknown and stories about my personal life and dating profiles and stories about getting it wrong and not knowing anything and captions that are too long and posts that are too long and way too much enthusiasm to ever, ever be considered cool and chill). I ticketed and charged for registration to most of these things and have been profoundly moved and profoundly terrified that people continue to sign up. I’ve tasted a magical, mystical slice of actually making a living out of being an artist. My twenty-year-old self wouldn’t believe her weary, worried eyes.
The four week writing workshops have been an absolute highlight of my year - I hosted six glorious groups of tender-hearted writers. It’s shifted our relationship from myself as a singular, insular artist who writes something, shares it, and then some people respond, to using art as a way to connect with each other, to share what I’ve learned from making a life out of asking questions and stating impossibilities out loud, and getting to meet people online (and IRL!) and make real, kindred connections with humans all over the world. But because of the format (limited to 8 people at a time) and time constraints (being able to log in and have enough quiet to commit to a window of time within a timezone where we are alert AND free all at the same time) and price point (north of $200), this limits who can participate, and for only a finite amount of time. We all bond and fall in love and then it ends.
All of this muddling has led me to these questions: how do I make a space where that is interactive, ongoing, and maybe something that we all participate in together? Can I be the ringleader of a community that belongs to all of us? And where could that live?
So here’s the plan for this space: I’ll be sharing weekly insights and observations of navigating a creative life, share what I’ve been reading and listening to - other artists’ work that is lighting my way - and offer prompts for all of us to participate in. I wonder what we can make when we are all on the lookout for the things that make this life worth the fuss.
I’m excited to explore and build this corner of the internet as a place that we can connect and share our work and our wondering with each other - I’m learning my way around, and will have content and projects launched exclusively for subscribers, starting with weekly prompts, and in January, I’ll be launching a 31 day deep dive, sort of an anti-resolution for us. Something for us to nestle into and curl up together just as we are, which is what January is for (or beach vacations. We’ll see what is more attainable for us when we get there).
For now, if you would like to support my work and receive weekly insights, you can become a subscriber for $5/month. For cheaper than an oat milk cappuccino (how are oat milk cappuccinos at my local coffee shop $5.63 + tip? The cost of fuelling my coffee addiction and getting me out of the house is astonishing, baby), you help sustain my creative endeavours and carve out time to run this community that I have many dreams for. You can also pay for the year all in one go, which is $50. Business Folk would call this an Incentive. (Right?)
I also have a Founding Member option for you for $150; if you have the means, and would like to support me as I begin to build this space, this is a way for you to participate from the ground up. You will get ongoing reports of my career milestones, first dibs for sign ups, occasional snail mail, All Of The Perks when my *as of yet unsigned* book finally comes into fruition, and my eternal gratitude and adoration. (I would love to create a program for founding members that feels ~exclusive~ and fun - any and all suggestions can be sent to jessjanz@gmail.com).
Thank you for walking alongside me through all the iterations of where my work lives.
Any thoughts, insights, and feelings you’d like to share can be posted in the comments or send me a note at jessjanz@gmail.com
Softly, softly,
and in deepest gratitude,
xo jess.
I’m short on time so for now I will just say YAY, HOORAY, and THANK YOU!