September 24, 2023 • 27 mins
Christopher Hope, Founder and Executive Director of the Loop Lab in Boston, discusses the Loop Lab’s mission to empower Woman and People of Color in media and arts to develop careers in audio/video through job training and job placement.
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(00:05):
Welcome back to What's at Risk.I'm Mike Christian. Christopher Hope is the
founder and executive director of the LoopLab. Pope graduated from Tufts University and
then received his masters at Harvard DivinitySchool. He now serves on the Board
of Advisors for Mass Higher and isa Creative Community Fellow for the National Arts
(00:26):
Strategies. He's also a lecturer atBoston University College of Communications and runs his
own D and I and staffing company, Equity Intelligence Consulting. The Loop Lab's
mission is to empower content creators ofcolor to have careers and media arts through
job training and paid internships. TheLoop Lab believes that having access to affordable
(00:50):
higher education is a significant career pathwayfor the youth they serve. Through their
partnership with Leslie College of Art andDesign, they have a program the Counts
as thirty college credits toward a digitalfilmmaking degree. Students are also able to
take advantage of free dual enrollment atLeslie College of Art and Design. We
(01:21):
are here with Christopher Hope, founderand executive director at Loop Lab and Equity
Intelligence Consulting, along with being alecturer at Boston University Chris, you're dedicated
to workforce development and diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in underestimated communities.
What inspired you to follow that pathin life? Now? First of
(01:42):
all, I want to say thankyou, Mike, and also what's at
risk for really allowing me to havethis platform and to be able to talk
to all the listeners there, Sothank you. Yes, my journey was
really marked by my parents, Jamesor in a hope. They were very
informative of the values of diversity,the values of humanity, that there is
always the threads and strains of beatbelonging, that it should exist in our
(02:07):
society. And with that kind ofupbringing, it really, you know,
already oriented me to kind of acommunity focused perspective. And you know,
when I was eleven twelve, I'llnever forget this, my mother decided to
go to a pursue in our associate'sdegree and she originally really wanted to do
(02:27):
media. You know, she wasalways passionate about film, passionate about television
and wanted to be a camera woman. And I will never forget going to
her when you know she would havelike an internship and she was working at
a local NBC station in Atlanta,Georgia, and she just had a great
time. It was amazing to keyher in her element because she would take
me along every now and again,and I always thought that was really cool,
(02:51):
just to be there with the youknow, seeing the news, the
news people do what they're doing theirthing. And but one of the things
that I realized then, and Idefinitely brings home a realness to the challenges
that we face today, is that, you know, she faced a lot
of sexism and a lot of racism, you know, being one of the
(03:12):
only black women behind you know,below below the line in terms of production
at at that station and at ministations in the early nineties, and she
ultimately gave up on her dream andyou fast forward in her life and she,
you know, obviously she found employmentin other areas, but she never
really was fulfilled, at least frommy perspective, the way that I felt
(03:36):
like she would have had she pursuedwhat her dream was, her aspiration,
her love was, which was media. And you know, that does something
to the human spirit. You know, it breaks a man, it breaks
a woman in a way that afew things can when you have a dream
deferred. And you know, shedied at the age of fifty seven years
old from a heroin overdose, andyou wonder about how much of that reality
(03:59):
contributed to her downfall, and howmuch, you know, similar instances contribute
to the downfall of so many Americansin our in our wonderful country. And
so when we think about the importanceof equity, diversity, belonging, and
creating spaces where people can feel likethey belong, they're not just tolerated,
but they can actually contribute their talents, their time, their treasure to the
(04:24):
American economy and to the workforce,it becomes the human rights issue. There's
a lot of gate keeping happening,and that gate keeping, unfortunately has led
to misrepresentation of different races, ethnicities, people of sexual orientation in media.
There's been a lot of challenges inmedia, not only behind the camera,
behind the audio production console, butalso in front that we really need to
(04:46):
come to terms with. And that'swhat the Loop Lab is about. The
Loop Lab is about empowering people ofcolor, women, underestimated populations, not
underrepresented, not right. Thank youfor sharing that personal story. That's a
difficult story, and I know thatthe death of your mom and her career
and everything, and that really inspiredyou to start the Loop Lab. And
I think it's hard to share it, I'm sure, but I think it's
(05:10):
motivating and inspiring for other people tohear you say that. Tell us a
little bit about the loop Lab's missionand how you thought about bringing that up
to reality, because you're the founderof the loop Lab and I know it's
starting to thrive now, so maybejust tell us a little bit about that.
Absolutely, absolutely well. Roughly almosteight years ago, I was working
(05:30):
as a director of a workforce developmentorganization in the city of Boston, and
at my time there, I noticedthere was a lot of challenges, not
only institutional challenges and systemic challenges withthat particular organization. There was a lot,
at least from my perspective, inthe perspective of meeting of my colleagues,
there was some racial issues happening behindthe scenes with upper management. And
(05:53):
in addition to that, we alsosaw a lot of the young adults that
would go through the programming at thisparticular organization mostly were black and brown,
but upper management was almost completely whitemen. Within the nonprofit world that that
is not a foreign thing to see, but in terms of people potentially profiting
(06:14):
off of black and brown pain andpoverty. I think there's something very deeply
exploitative about that. And so withthat being said, uh, you know
a lot of the young adults alsothat we're going through this program did not
necessarily fit a particular workforce development moldthat I think that the you know,
certain organizations say that you have tofit in order to get from point A
to point B. You know,some some people aren't fit for it.
(06:39):
Some people aren't fit for a financeTalking about a different generation and this and
a lot of this, the folksfrom this generation want options, they want
agency, They want greater agency withtheir lives and to be able to do
multiple kinds of things, not maybejust one particular outcome, multiple outcomes.
So I brought a lot of thatto at least at that time, to
my supervisor and really try having tocreate some transformation. And I was essentially
(07:02):
handed my hat, but not inthe explicit way. You know, what
we see oftentimes in corporate spaces isthat you get pushed out right, you
stop getting invited to certain major meetings, and you stop getting called on,
called upon by certain figures, andyou start to feel the alienation Eventually I
was laid off and I was givena severance package. And with that severance
(07:28):
package, you know, I thoughtto myself, you know, I could
for the next several days, weeks, months, be sit here depressed,
upset, or I can really gointo these communities with the time and an
opportunity that I have for the nextcouple of months and really find out for
myself what it is that this demographicwants. What does this your demographic want
(07:48):
to learn if they had a blankcheck, Mike, what kind of skills
would they want to gain? Andso I went throughout Greater Boston, Cambridge,
Massachusetts, Roxbury, Dorchester, outof Pen. I would go to
where young adults from the ages ofeighteen to thirty year olds were hanging out
in the basketball courts, hanging onthe park benches wherever I could find them,
(08:09):
and just say, hey, Iwould just like to talk to you
about some things. You know.I really engaged the communities and from there,
thankfully, I had so many participants, over two hundred and fifty folks
were willing to talk to me,and they ultimately helped inform me about what
this was because what I did notwant to do is help to create something
(08:30):
that I made presuppositions of. Iwanted to work with this demographic. I
wanted to work with and not necessarilydo something for this demographic. And so
in doing that, I learned somuch, probably more from them than they
learned from me. And those conversationsI learned from them that the you know,
there was a heavy interest in businessacumen, in business management. You
(08:52):
know, a lot of questions aroundhow do they wanted to know, how
do I start a business, howdo I get my business certified through the
state and the irs, how doI work with clients? You know,
there we got questions around financial education, which was huge, you know,
where we're certain financial products. Howdo I negotiate my salary, how do
I have difficult conversations with a clientor with a co worker in challenging situations,
(09:18):
you know, how to navigate thosemurky waters, or how do I
even deal as a black or orLatino in a space that's predominantly white,
a PWI organization. You know,those were some really interesting input that I
received from a lot of these youngpeople who are brilliant, and the Loop
Lab you know, ultimately became thiskind of Swiss army knife for young adults
(09:41):
to use to direct their path.And so the way that it looks essentially
is that we have a media Artsapprenticeship program that's certified through the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts, and through that one yearprogram, eighteen to twenty six year olds
from Greater Boston are paid to reallyparticipate in hands on training and develop being
up their audio production, video production, and digital storytelling skills. So for
(10:05):
the first six months they're working ona variety of projects. Now, mind
you, we pay them to dothe program, and they are actually given
all the equipment in software they needfor the program. After the first six
months, they then go on tothese paid fellowships. And so in the
past we've worked with WBR which isyou know, a partner WGBH, other
(10:26):
local television radio organizations as well asmusic studios such as Q Division, other
organizations and companies like Black Black MathTV, which is an animation studio in
Chinatown, Boston. So really avariety of employers and partners that see the
vision and so our interns end upworking there for another five to six months
(10:48):
and then once they graduate, there'stypically my three different outcomes that can come
of it. Some decide to goright into the workforce, and for those
folks, we try to get themplaced into jobs, whether at the employer
that they're currently interning with or ata different employer. The second pieces that
some of them decide to start theirown business, and so in that case
we actually teach a lot around entrepreneurship, what it is to be an entrepreneur,
(11:11):
what is it like to be acontractor. Many of the media artists,
photographers, videographers are W nine contractors. They're also creating access or having
access to start up funding, andso because of some of the partnerships we've
leveraged, our students have access toroughly around five thousand dollars worth of startup
funding if they decide to start theirown business. And so we've had several
(11:35):
young adults that have graduated the programthat are now photographers videographers. They'll do
weddings by mitzpahs, you name it, which is fantastic and for us it's
a win. The third outcome,in addition to employment entrepreneurship is also education
higher ed specifically, and so forthose that decide to take that route,
(11:56):
many of them recognize that although theytook this year with the lab to grow
and develop their skills. There's somuch more that they want to learn,
and oftentimes what becomes a prohibitive aspector barrier for them is the cost of
higher education in of itself. We'retalking about in some cases at some school
seventy five thousand a year, seventythousand a year, and so for folks
(12:18):
that we're targeting and really reaching outto and working with, most of them
cannot afford that. And so thankfullywe are partnered with Leslie College of Art
and Design, which is in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and through that partnership,
we have a Leslie University Scholarship,and so if one of our apprentices graduates
and decides to go that route,they have access to thirty college courses with
(12:41):
the college credit, which is afull year. In addition to that,
as long as they maintain a twopoint five GPA average at Leslie, they
are tuition free and so really kindof a transformative, life changing opportunity that
otherwise may not have happened for thatperson. You know, this year,
we just graduated our first apprentice andnow is just graduated from Leslie College of
(13:03):
Art Design with a bachelor's degree indigital filmmaking and now he's going on to
a master's degree and he's living alife. But to go from someone who
is chronically unemployed and under employed togoing through our program and now he's speaking
around the country at events, Ithink it's remarkable to look at that human
(13:24):
development aspect, and so really theLoop Labs role is essentially beyond just workforce
development human development. How can wetransform the narrative of these young adults who
have historically come from the margins andto bring them in the forefront of empowerment
so that they can begin to createwealth for themselves, create wealth for their
(13:48):
families and their communities, and notjust financial wealth, but we're talking about
social wealth, right, We're talkingabout bringing goodness into their communities, communities
that have historically been marginalized, rightand uprooted in so many ways. Yeah,
that's well said, Chris, andthe work that you do it,
Luke lad is pretty amazing. Letme let me turn it around and look
(14:11):
at the other side of the coinhere. When historically you mentioned it,
people of color have not been ableto really make careers in general in the
arts industry and audio in an entertainmentin film industry. I would think that
a lot of that has to dowith unconscious bias, with some of the
just the way, and frankly Isuffer from it being a white man in
(14:35):
business. I know that you alsotalk about that and you talk about education
and critical thinking when it comes tothat side of the equation, because this
is coming from someone who has experiencedthat, and frankly, unconscious bias is
a very difficult thing to address becauseit's unconscious for one thing, really a
hard thing to address, and Ithink your thoughts about education and critical thinking
(14:58):
are in that area. Maybe youcan just talk about absolutely absolutely. You
know, we do a lot oftrainings or I do a lot of trainings
through my consultancy, Equity Intelligence forthose who want to know about it www.
Dot Promoting Equity dot com. Butthrough Equity Intelligence, essentially, what
we do is we look at thingsbeyond just race, because race is definitely
a critical important part and there's intersectionalitywith other spaces. Right We're talking about
(15:24):
sexuality and sexual orientation, gender discrimination, so many kinds of ways that people
can be othered, you know,people that are physically disabled, cognitive disabilities,
all of those things. Really Ithink run the spectrum of social justice.
And so for us, when wethink about and when I think about
(15:45):
the work and advancing equity and advancingjustice and the lives of our society,
we first have to identify what's happeningand what's that play. And so the
only way to combat racist ideas isyou really with anti racist ideas. You
know, my colleague doctor Ibramex Kindy, who really has written so much and
there's so much research on this topic, I think really speaks truth to power
(16:10):
when he talks about the importance ofmaking sure that we are actively combating racist
ideas with anti racist ideas, becauseunfortunately, when we have silence, when
we have these arguments that we don'tsee race, that unfortunately it is complicit
in racism and of itself, becauseyou're recognizing or choosing not to recognize the
(16:33):
differences that make us unique, thatmake us who we are, and recognizing
the other recognizing our backgrounds, whichare diverse backgrounds. Right, my ancestry
comes from a very different part ofthe world than yours. But with that
being said, different should not meandeficient. In some cases, it could
be a good thing, but ina lot of cases it's not because there
are so much, so many differentkinds of contributions that you can have in
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our society by incorporating there are kindsof ideas that normally would not come from
the hermetically sealed environment. And wesee this again and again in our society
where we've had people from other kindsof ideological ideological spaces as well as racial
and ethnic and cultural spaces add value. You look at the music industry,
(17:18):
where would we be without the blues? Where would be we be without rock
and roll? Where would we bewithout R and B? All of these
are musical traditions from African Americans andAfrican American experience. What if there was
this movement to say, you knowwhat, we don't want to hear any
of that because these people, thesepeople are black, and they're producing it,
and they're putting it on our culture, and which is what people had
(17:40):
said historically, to be honest,right, rock and roll is the Devil's
music, and blues was. Youknow, we've heard those arguments, and
what I'm saying is that that wayof thinking hasn't gone anywhere. It's just
changed into a different permutation. Andso we have to work together to really
clear the dark and stormy cloud ofignorance and ushering a new horror rising of
(18:00):
prosperity in our country and beyond,and really raise awareness and cognizance around the
need for us to expand what diversitiescould mean in our society and in our
communities. You know, Chris,when you talk about what you just talked
(18:23):
about in terms of being excluded froma particular industry is an interesting concept to
me. And you may be awareof an organization in Cambridge called Innovators for
Purpose. They work with young peoplein the Cambridge school districts, typically kids
of color, who have been historicallyexcluded from the tech industry in Cambridge.
(18:44):
It's an astounding thing. But becauseyou have Amazon, Google, Microsoft,
you name it, it's a who'swho of tech giants in Cambridge that really
these young people, with some exceptions, have had been excluded from And Innovators
has a program called the two BlocksInitiative. But for two blocks, we
could be in the in this industry, two blocks away in the in the
(19:07):
Port district. And I think it'sa lot of what you talked about,
but also why has it been sodifficult to change that? And I know
there's efforts in a lot of differentways. And I think there is momentum
now to change that, more momentumthan there has been. But why has
it been so difficult? I thinkthat you know, I'll be one hundred
percent of the opinion of the realitythat is in our society, which is,
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you know, racism is endemic andit's also has a has a really
heavy place in our systems, ourinstitutions, including public education, private education,
most of our institutions in this inthis country. And so when we
look at the divestment of where moneyis leaving and going away from in terms
of you know, black and browncommunities, and when we look at education,
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why aren't schools and pete black andbrown communities heavily invested in tech and
heavily supported and financially supported the waythat they are in places like Duxbury or
Arlington. Right, you look atother spaces, right, when we think
about representation in our media, inour society, how come we aren't seeing
(20:18):
more black and brown folks that areheavily invested in stem in technology. Because
representation is critical. One of thethings that I see often with our program
is that most of the folks thatcome in come in because they want to
be aspiring rappers or social media folks, and a lot of that is when
you talk to them, you findout it's not that they want to be
the next little oozy vert or whoever. The reality is that they see representation
(20:44):
of success and they want that forthemselves. So here they see someone that
looks like them, that comes froma similar background in community they come from,
and who's been able to create wealthfor themselves and has a greater level
of agency in their lives, andthey say, that's what I want.
But if I guarantee you, ifyou had if you project a whole bunch
of doctors and surgeons and it peoplethat look like them, that come from
(21:08):
similar backgrounds, guess what they're goingto say, I want to be a
surgeon. People like myself and otherswho are doing great work who are people
of color, aren't getting promoted enoughin our society. It's because they don't
fit a narrative. And let's belet's call it what it is and be
explicit about racism, because that's that'sthe reality of it is that you have
(21:29):
to call it. But it isthere. There, there is a system
at play, a social arrangement inthis country, implicit and explicit by which
folks are being excluded out of opportunity. I believe that everything I just shared
is a huge contributor to why itis the way it is and why it's
been so difficult to change the meteron this, to actually move the needle
(21:52):
forward on it, and hopefully thateducation and critical thinking and exposure and you
know a little bit more in likewill lead to that will we have to
want to change. And it's notjust and all these things are intersectional,
right, I know I mentioned itearlier, but racism is one, gender
rights is another. You know,when we talk about the Supreme Court and
(22:12):
ro versus Weighed and the challenges thatwe've just recently seen in the last couple
of months, and how devastating thathas been to so many women across the
country, to other areas. Right, this is all intersectional. You know,
when we talk about climate resiliency,that is also within this capitalistic,
unfortunate complex system that you know,unfortunately treats the earth as if it's separate
(22:37):
from humanity, when in reality,humanity is a small extension of the earth.
And if we don't change our willand change the way we're looking at
this, we run the risk ofdestroying the entire race, black and white.
So there's a lot at steak herewhen we talk about what's at stake.
That's why it's called what's at risk? At risk? Right, there's
risky business. But we're here,buddy, We're here all risk in this
(23:00):
moment in time on our planet.Just to change the topic a little bit,
who are some of your mentors androle models? Just a couple,
Oh right, I have so many. I definitely you know, mentioned my
mom and dad, James Renee Hope, Rest in peace to them. They
were fantastic, uh you know,and just really from early on instilled a
lot of principles and values that havestayed with me into adulthood. So I'm
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forever indebted to them and grateful,you know, sense of belonging community,
but also responsibility not only for myselfand my actions, but also responsibility for
my community and and and having accountabilitynot only for my community but in my
community, having accountability for me andholding my feet to the fire. So
that just requires a level of humilitythat I had to learn early on in
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life. Aside from my parents,I actually absolutely have to give a shout
out to h doctor Charles Ogletree restin Peace, who recently passed, you
know, professor Emeritus at Harvard LawSchool. You know, I graduated Harvard
Divinity School in twenty eleven and Iwas honored to be able to have a
class under his tutelage and instruction.And he was just a remarkable man,
(24:11):
remarkable teacher. You know, hewas someone who saw his mission and pushing
for justice and using the law todo that as not only a human endeavor,
but it was you know, hisresponsibility. Another person that was very
influential to me was doctor Jean Sharp, another living legend who had passed years
(24:36):
ago. Jean Sharp was at Harvardfrom Harvard University for decades and was a
pre eminent scholar and non violent directaction and resistance. You know, I
was very much a student of doctorMartin Luther King Junior in the movement of
non violence in the fifties and sixties, and doctor Jean Sharp was the preeminent
scholar on strategy and thinking around nonviolentdirect action. So just having one like
(25:00):
that and access to someone like thatin East Boston, I would go and
talk with him and be able toreally connect on a level of the work
that I was hoping to achieve indifferent ways that I can incorporate strategy into
my mission, my purpose. Ohthank you, Chris so Well said,
what's next for you? All right? I again. We just opened up
a new loop lab in downtown Crossing, which we're very very excited about.
(25:22):
You know, we have a locationnow at forty five Temple Place. I
am talking to you now, butin a studio powered by our location at
three zero one Binnie Street, whichis in Kendall Square, Cambridge, in
the heart of Kendall Square, InnovationSquare, where we have our colleagues and
friends. Audible. Google are ourneighbors here, partnering of the work that
we're doing as well. On theother side, I'm also teaching my class
(25:45):
media Entrepreneurship at Boston University at CollegeCommunications, and I'm happy to announce that
I will be stepping in as thesocial Entrepreneur in residence at the Innovate at
BU depart And so that's the BuildLab BU Lab, which is really an
accelerator program for be you affiliated startups, and so through that initiative, I
(26:08):
will be helping them manage close toa half a million dollar fund accelerator for
a lot of great businesses that hopefullywill be coming through our trajectory with the
emphasis on supporting women by POC ownedstartups. Well, we've been talking to
Christopher Hope who's involved in a lotof things bost noted the Loop Lab.
(26:29):
Chris, thank you so much foryour time. I really appreciate it.
Thank you so much, Mike forthis opportunity to talk with you. If
you want to learn a little bitmore about me, go to www dot
discover Chrishope dot com and there you'llfind all the things that are happening,
including the Loop Lab, Equity Intelligence, and Boston University and other things that
I'm working on. Thank you somuch. Stop, let's go what's on
(26:57):
your mind us your thoughts, commentsand questions to what's at risk at gmail
dot com. That's one word,what's at risk at gmail dot com.
Thank you, but big thank youto our producer, Ken Carbury of Chart Productions.
Welcome back to What's at Risk.I'm Mike Christian. Christopher Hope is the
founder and executive director of the LoopLab. Pope graduated from Tufts University and
then received his masters at Harvard DivinitySchool. He now serves on the Board
of Advisors for Mass Higher and isa Creative Community Fellow for the National Arts
(00:26):
Strategies. He's also a lecturer atBoston University College of Communications and runs his
own D and I and staffing company, Equity Intelligence Consulting. The Loop Lab's
mission is to empower content creators ofcolor to have careers and media arts through
job training and paid internships. TheLoop Lab believes that having access to affordable
(00:50):
higher education is a significant career pathwayfor the youth they serve. Through their
partnership with Leslie College of Art andDesign, they have a program the Counts
as thirty college credits toward a digitalfilmmaking degree. Students are also able to
take advantage of free dual enrollment atLeslie College of Art and Design. We
(01:21):
are here with Christopher Hope, founderand executive director at Loop Lab and Equity
Intelligence Consulting, along with being alecturer at Boston University Chris, you're dedicated
to workforce development and diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in underestimated communities.
What inspired you to follow that pathin life? Now? First of
(01:42):
all, I want to say thankyou, Mike, and also what's at
risk for really allowing me to havethis platform and to be able to talk
to all the listeners there, Sothank you. Yes, my journey was
really marked by my parents, Jamesor in a hope. They were very
informative of the values of diversity,the values of humanity, that there is
always the threads and strains of beatbelonging, that it should exist in our
(02:07):
society. And with that kind ofupbringing, it really, you know,
already oriented me to kind of acommunity focused perspective. And you know,
when I was eleven twelve, I'llnever forget this, my mother decided to
go to a pursue in our associate'sdegree and she originally really wanted to do
(02:27):
media. You know, she wasalways passionate about film, passionate about television
and wanted to be a camera woman. And I will never forget going to
her when you know she would havelike an internship and she was working at
a local NBC station in Atlanta,Georgia, and she just had a great
time. It was amazing to keyher in her element because she would take
me along every now and again,and I always thought that was really cool,
(02:51):
just to be there with the youknow, seeing the news, the
news people do what they're doing theirthing. And but one of the things
that I realized then, and Idefinitely brings home a realness to the challenges
that we face today, is that, you know, she faced a lot
of sexism and a lot of racism, you know, being one of the
(03:12):
only black women behind you know,below below the line in terms of production
at at that station and at ministations in the early nineties, and she
ultimately gave up on her dream andyou fast forward in her life and she,
you know, obviously she found employmentin other areas, but she never
really was fulfilled, at least frommy perspective, the way that I felt
(03:36):
like she would have had she pursuedwhat her dream was, her aspiration,
her love was, which was media. And you know, that does something
to the human spirit. You know, it breaks a man, it breaks
a woman in a way that afew things can when you have a dream
deferred. And you know, shedied at the age of fifty seven years
old from a heroin overdose, andyou wonder about how much of that reality
(03:59):
contributed to her downfall, and howmuch, you know, similar instances contribute
to the downfall of so many Americansin our in our wonderful country. And
so when we think about the importanceof equity, diversity, belonging, and
creating spaces where people can feel likethey belong, they're not just tolerated,
but they can actually contribute their talents, their time, their treasure to the
(04:24):
American economy and to the workforce,it becomes the human rights issue. There's
a lot of gate keeping happening,and that gate keeping, unfortunately has led
to misrepresentation of different races, ethnicities, people of sexual orientation in media.
There's been a lot of challenges inmedia, not only behind the camera,
behind the audio production console, butalso in front that we really need to
(04:46):
come to terms with. And that'swhat the Loop Lab is about. The
Loop Lab is about empowering people ofcolor, women, underestimated populations, not
underrepresented, not right. Thank youfor sharing that personal story. That's a
difficult story, and I know thatthe death of your mom and her career
and everything, and that really inspiredyou to start the Loop Lab. And
I think it's hard to share it, I'm sure, but I think it's
(05:10):
motivating and inspiring for other people tohear you say that. Tell us a
little bit about the loop Lab's missionand how you thought about bringing that up
to reality, because you're the founderof the loop Lab and I know it's
starting to thrive now, so maybejust tell us a little bit about that.
Absolutely, absolutely well. Roughly almosteight years ago, I was working
(05:30):
as a director of a workforce developmentorganization in the city of Boston, and
at my time there, I noticedthere was a lot of challenges, not
only institutional challenges and systemic challenges withthat particular organization. There was a lot,
at least from my perspective, inthe perspective of meeting of my colleagues,
there was some racial issues happening behindthe scenes with upper management. And
(05:53):
in addition to that, we alsosaw a lot of the young adults that
would go through the programming at thisparticular organization mostly were black and brown,
but upper management was almost completely whitemen. Within the nonprofit world that that
is not a foreign thing to see, but in terms of people potentially profiting
(06:14):
off of black and brown pain andpoverty. I think there's something very deeply
exploitative about that. And so withthat being said, uh, you know
a lot of the young adults alsothat we're going through this program did not
necessarily fit a particular workforce development moldthat I think that the you know,
certain organizations say that you have tofit in order to get from point A
to point B. You know,some some people aren't fit for it.
(06:39):
Some people aren't fit for a financeTalking about a different generation and this and
a lot of this, the folksfrom this generation want options, they want
agency, They want greater agency withtheir lives and to be able to do
multiple kinds of things, not maybejust one particular outcome, multiple outcomes.
So I brought a lot of thatto at least at that time, to
my supervisor and really try having tocreate some transformation. And I was essentially
(07:02):
handed my hat, but not inthe explicit way. You know, what
we see oftentimes in corporate spaces isthat you get pushed out right, you
stop getting invited to certain major meetings, and you stop getting called on,
called upon by certain figures, andyou start to feel the alienation Eventually I
was laid off and I was givena severance package. And with that severance
(07:28):
package, you know, I thoughtto myself, you know, I could
for the next several days, weeks, months, be sit here depressed,
upset, or I can really gointo these communities with the time and an
opportunity that I have for the nextcouple of months and really find out for
myself what it is that this demographicwants. What does this your demographic want
(07:48):
to learn if they had a blankcheck, Mike, what kind of skills
would they want to gain? Andso I went throughout Greater Boston, Cambridge,
Massachusetts, Roxbury, Dorchester, outof Pen. I would go to
where young adults from the ages ofeighteen to thirty year olds were hanging out
in the basketball courts, hanging onthe park benches wherever I could find them,
(08:09):
and just say, hey, Iwould just like to talk to you
about some things. You know.I really engaged the communities and from there,
thankfully, I had so many participants, over two hundred and fifty folks
were willing to talk to me,and they ultimately helped inform me about what
this was because what I did notwant to do is help to create something
(08:30):
that I made presuppositions of. Iwanted to work with this demographic. I
wanted to work with and not necessarilydo something for this demographic. And so
in doing that, I learned somuch, probably more from them than they
learned from me. And those conversationsI learned from them that the you know,
there was a heavy interest in businessacumen, in business management. You
(08:52):
know, a lot of questions aroundhow do they wanted to know, how
do I start a business, howdo I get my business certified through the
state and the irs, how doI work with clients? You know,
there we got questions around financial education, which was huge, you know,
where we're certain financial products. Howdo I negotiate my salary, how do
I have difficult conversations with a clientor with a co worker in challenging situations,
(09:18):
you know, how to navigate thosemurky waters, or how do I
even deal as a black or orLatino in a space that's predominantly white,
a PWI organization. You know,those were some really interesting input that I
received from a lot of these youngpeople who are brilliant, and the Loop
Lab you know, ultimately became thiskind of Swiss army knife for young adults
(09:41):
to use to direct their path.And so the way that it looks essentially
is that we have a media Artsapprenticeship program that's certified through the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts, and through that one yearprogram, eighteen to twenty six year olds
from Greater Boston are paid to reallyparticipate in hands on training and develop being
up their audio production, video production, and digital storytelling skills. So for
(10:05):
the first six months they're working ona variety of projects. Now, mind
you, we pay them to dothe program, and they are actually given
all the equipment in software they needfor the program. After the first six
months, they then go on tothese paid fellowships. And so in the
past we've worked with WBR which isyou know, a partner WGBH, other
(10:26):
local television radio organizations as well asmusic studios such as Q Division, other
organizations and companies like Black Black MathTV, which is an animation studio in
Chinatown, Boston. So really avariety of employers and partners that see the
vision and so our interns end upworking there for another five to six months
(10:48):
and then once they graduate, there'stypically my three different outcomes that can come
of it. Some decide to goright into the workforce, and for those
folks, we try to get themplaced into jobs, whether at the employer
that they're currently interning with or ata different employer. The second pieces that
some of them decide to start theirown business, and so in that case
we actually teach a lot around entrepreneurship, what it is to be an entrepreneur,
(11:11):
what is it like to be acontractor. Many of the media artists,
photographers, videographers are W nine contractors. They're also creating access or having
access to start up funding, andso because of some of the partnerships we've
leveraged, our students have access toroughly around five thousand dollars worth of startup
funding if they decide to start theirown business. And so we've had several
(11:35):
young adults that have graduated the programthat are now photographers videographers. They'll do
weddings by mitzpahs, you name it, which is fantastic and for us it's
a win. The third outcome,in addition to employment entrepreneurship is also education
higher ed specifically, and so forthose that decide to take that route,
(11:56):
many of them recognize that although theytook this year with the lab to grow
and develop their skills. There's somuch more that they want to learn,
and oftentimes what becomes a prohibitive aspector barrier for them is the cost of
higher education in of itself. We'retalking about in some cases at some school
seventy five thousand a year, seventythousand a year, and so for folks
(12:18):
that we're targeting and really reaching outto and working with, most of them
cannot afford that. And so thankfullywe are partnered with Leslie College of Art
and Design, which is in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and through that partnership,
we have a Leslie University Scholarship,and so if one of our apprentices graduates
and decides to go that route,they have access to thirty college courses with
(12:41):
the college credit, which is afull year. In addition to that,
as long as they maintain a twopoint five GPA average at Leslie, they
are tuition free and so really kindof a transformative, life changing opportunity that
otherwise may not have happened for thatperson. You know, this year,
we just graduated our first apprentice andnow is just graduated from Leslie College of
(13:03):
Art Design with a bachelor's degree indigital filmmaking and now he's going on to
a master's degree and he's living alife. But to go from someone who
is chronically unemployed and under employed togoing through our program and now he's speaking
around the country at events, Ithink it's remarkable to look at that human
(13:24):
development aspect, and so really theLoop Labs role is essentially beyond just workforce
development human development. How can wetransform the narrative of these young adults who
have historically come from the margins andto bring them in the forefront of empowerment
so that they can begin to createwealth for themselves, create wealth for their
(13:48):
families and their communities, and notjust financial wealth, but we're talking about
social wealth, right, We're talkingabout bringing goodness into their communities, communities
that have historically been marginalized, rightand uprooted in so many ways. Yeah,
that's well said, Chris, andthe work that you do it,
Luke lad is pretty amazing. Letme let me turn it around and look
(14:11):
at the other side of the coinhere. When historically you mentioned it,
people of color have not been ableto really make careers in general in the
arts industry and audio in an entertainmentin film industry. I would think that
a lot of that has to dowith unconscious bias, with some of the
just the way, and frankly Isuffer from it being a white man in
(14:35):
business. I know that you alsotalk about that and you talk about education
and critical thinking when it comes tothat side of the equation, because this
is coming from someone who has experiencedthat, and frankly, unconscious bias is
a very difficult thing to address becauseit's unconscious for one thing, really a
hard thing to address, and Ithink your thoughts about education and critical thinking
(14:58):
are in that area. Maybe youcan just talk about absolutely absolutely. You
know, we do a lot oftrainings or I do a lot of trainings
through my consultancy, Equity Intelligence forthose who want to know about it www.
Dot Promoting Equity dot com. Butthrough Equity Intelligence, essentially, what
we do is we look at thingsbeyond just race, because race is definitely
a critical important part and there's intersectionalitywith other spaces. Right We're talking about
(15:24):
sexuality and sexual orientation, gender discrimination, so many kinds of ways that people
can be othered, you know,people that are physically disabled, cognitive disabilities,
all of those things. Really Ithink run the spectrum of social justice.
And so for us, when wethink about and when I think about
(15:45):
the work and advancing equity and advancingjustice and the lives of our society,
we first have to identify what's happeningand what's that play. And so the
only way to combat racist ideas isyou really with anti racist ideas. You
know, my colleague doctor Ibramex Kindy, who really has written so much and
there's so much research on this topic, I think really speaks truth to power
(16:10):
when he talks about the importance ofmaking sure that we are actively combating racist
ideas with anti racist ideas, becauseunfortunately, when we have silence, when
we have these arguments that we don'tsee race, that unfortunately it is complicit
in racism and of itself, becauseyou're recognizing or choosing not to recognize the
(16:33):
differences that make us unique, thatmake us who we are, and recognizing
the other recognizing our backgrounds, whichare diverse backgrounds. Right, my ancestry
comes from a very different part ofthe world than yours. But with that
being said, different should not meandeficient. In some cases, it could
be a good thing, but ina lot of cases it's not because there
are so much, so many differentkinds of contributions that you can have in
(16:56):
our society by incorporating there are kindsof ideas that normally would not come from
the hermetically sealed environment. And wesee this again and again in our society
where we've had people from other kindsof ideological ideological spaces as well as racial
and ethnic and cultural spaces add value. You look at the music industry,
(17:18):
where would we be without the blues? Where would be we be without rock
and roll? Where would we bewithout R and B? All of these
are musical traditions from African Americans andAfrican American experience. What if there was
this movement to say, you knowwhat, we don't want to hear any
of that because these people, thesepeople are black, and they're producing it,
and they're putting it on our culture, and which is what people had
(17:40):
said historically, to be honest,right, rock and roll is the Devil's
music, and blues was. Youknow, we've heard those arguments, and
what I'm saying is that that wayof thinking hasn't gone anywhere. It's just
changed into a different permutation. Andso we have to work together to really
clear the dark and stormy cloud ofignorance and ushering a new horror rising of
(18:00):
prosperity in our country and beyond,and really raise awareness and cognizance around the
need for us to expand what diversitiescould mean in our society and in our
communities. You know, Chris,when you talk about what you just talked
(18:23):
about in terms of being excluded froma particular industry is an interesting concept to
me. And you may be awareof an organization in Cambridge called Innovators for
Purpose. They work with young peoplein the Cambridge school districts, typically kids
of color, who have been historicallyexcluded from the tech industry in Cambridge.
(18:44):
It's an astounding thing. But becauseyou have Amazon, Google, Microsoft,
you name it, it's a who'swho of tech giants in Cambridge that really
these young people, with some exceptions, have had been excluded from And Innovators
has a program called the two BlocksInitiative. But for two blocks, we
could be in the in this industry, two blocks away in the in the
(19:07):
Port district. And I think it'sa lot of what you talked about,
but also why has it been sodifficult to change that? And I know
there's efforts in a lot of differentways. And I think there is momentum
now to change that, more momentumthan there has been. But why has
it been so difficult? I thinkthat you know, I'll be one hundred
percent of the opinion of the realitythat is in our society, which is,
(19:33):
you know, racism is endemic andit's also has a has a really
heavy place in our systems, ourinstitutions, including public education, private education,
most of our institutions in this inthis country. And so when we
look at the divestment of where moneyis leaving and going away from in terms
of you know, black and browncommunities, and when we look at education,
(19:57):
why aren't schools and pete black andbrown communities heavily invested in tech and
heavily supported and financially supported the waythat they are in places like Duxbury or
Arlington. Right, you look atother spaces, right, when we think
about representation in our media, inour society, how come we aren't seeing
(20:18):
more black and brown folks that areheavily invested in stem in technology. Because
representation is critical. One of thethings that I see often with our program
is that most of the folks thatcome in come in because they want to
be aspiring rappers or social media folks, and a lot of that is when
you talk to them, you findout it's not that they want to be
the next little oozy vert or whoever. The reality is that they see representation
(20:44):
of success and they want that forthemselves. So here they see someone that
looks like them, that comes froma similar background in community they come from,
and who's been able to create wealthfor themselves and has a greater level
of agency in their lives, andthey say, that's what I want.
But if I guarantee you, ifyou had if you project a whole bunch
of doctors and surgeons and it peoplethat look like them, that come from
(21:08):
similar backgrounds, guess what they're goingto say, I want to be a
surgeon. People like myself and otherswho are doing great work who are people
of color, aren't getting promoted enoughin our society. It's because they don't
fit a narrative. And let's belet's call it what it is and be
explicit about racism, because that's that'sthe reality of it is that you have
(21:29):
to call it. But it isthere. There, there is a system
at play, a social arrangement inthis country, implicit and explicit by which
folks are being excluded out of opportunity. I believe that everything I just shared
is a huge contributor to why itis the way it is and why it's
been so difficult to change the meteron this, to actually move the needle
(21:52):
forward on it, and hopefully thateducation and critical thinking and exposure and you
know a little bit more in likewill lead to that will we have to
want to change. And it's notjust and all these things are intersectional,
right, I know I mentioned itearlier, but racism is one, gender
rights is another. You know,when we talk about the Supreme Court and
(22:12):
ro versus Weighed and the challenges thatwe've just recently seen in the last couple
of months, and how devastating thathas been to so many women across the
country, to other areas. Right, this is all intersectional. You know,
when we talk about climate resiliency,that is also within this capitalistic,
unfortunate complex system that you know,unfortunately treats the earth as if it's separate
(22:37):
from humanity, when in reality,humanity is a small extension of the earth.
And if we don't change our willand change the way we're looking at
this, we run the risk ofdestroying the entire race, black and white.
So there's a lot at steak herewhen we talk about what's at stake.
That's why it's called what's at risk? At risk? Right, there's
risky business. But we're here,buddy, We're here all risk in this
(23:00):
moment in time on our planet.Just to change the topic a little bit,
who are some of your mentors androle models? Just a couple,
Oh right, I have so many. I definitely you know, mentioned my
mom and dad, James Renee Hope, Rest in peace to them. They
were fantastic, uh you know,and just really from early on instilled a
lot of principles and values that havestayed with me into adulthood. So I'm
(23:25):
forever indebted to them and grateful,you know, sense of belonging community,
but also responsibility not only for myselfand my actions, but also responsibility for
my community and and and having accountabilitynot only for my community but in my
community, having accountability for me andholding my feet to the fire. So
that just requires a level of humilitythat I had to learn early on in
(23:48):
life. Aside from my parents,I actually absolutely have to give a shout
out to h doctor Charles Ogletree restin Peace, who recently passed, you
know, professor Emeritus at Harvard LawSchool. You know, I graduated Harvard
Divinity School in twenty eleven and Iwas honored to be able to have a
class under his tutelage and instruction.And he was just a remarkable man,
(24:11):
remarkable teacher. You know, hewas someone who saw his mission and pushing
for justice and using the law todo that as not only a human endeavor,
but it was you know, hisresponsibility. Another person that was very
influential to me was doctor Jean Sharp, another living legend who had passed years
(24:36):
ago. Jean Sharp was at Harvardfrom Harvard University for decades and was a
pre eminent scholar and non violent directaction and resistance. You know, I
was very much a student of doctorMartin Luther King Junior in the movement of
non violence in the fifties and sixties, and doctor Jean Sharp was the preeminent
scholar on strategy and thinking around nonviolentdirect action. So just having one like
(25:00):
that and access to someone like thatin East Boston, I would go and
talk with him and be able toreally connect on a level of the work
that I was hoping to achieve indifferent ways that I can incorporate strategy into
my mission, my purpose. Ohthank you, Chris so Well said,
what's next for you? All right? I again. We just opened up
a new loop lab in downtown Crossing, which we're very very excited about.
(25:22):
You know, we have a locationnow at forty five Temple Place. I
am talking to you now, butin a studio powered by our location at
three zero one Binnie Street, whichis in Kendall Square, Cambridge, in
the heart of Kendall Square, InnovationSquare, where we have our colleagues and
friends. Audible. Google are ourneighbors here, partnering of the work that
we're doing as well. On theother side, I'm also teaching my class
(25:45):
media Entrepreneurship at Boston University at CollegeCommunications, and I'm happy to announce that
I will be stepping in as thesocial Entrepreneur in residence at the Innovate at
BU depart And so that's the BuildLab BU Lab, which is really an
accelerator program for be you affiliated startups, and so through that initiative, I
(26:08):
will be helping them manage close toa half a million dollar fund accelerator for
a lot of great businesses that hopefullywill be coming through our trajectory with the
emphasis on supporting women by POC ownedstartups. Well, we've been talking to
Christopher Hope who's involved in a lotof things bost noted the Loop Lab.
(26:29):
Chris, thank you so much foryour time. I really appreciate it.
Thank you so much, Mike forthis opportunity to talk with you. If
you want to learn a little bitmore about me, go to www dot
discover Chrishope dot com and there you'llfind all the things that are happening,
including the Loop Lab, Equity Intelligence, and Boston University and other things that
I'm working on. Thank you somuch. Stop, let's go what's on
(26:57):
your mind us your thoughts, commentsand questions to what's at risk at gmail
dot com. That's one word,what's at risk at gmail dot com.
Thank you, but big thank youto our producer, Ken Carbury of Chart Productions.
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