Difficult Friends
Difficult Friends is a volunteer-run community arts organization! We're local to Austin and we host donation-based writing workshops, creative events, and intellectual conversations in the city. Get looped into our events through our: Website ⟡ Substack ⟡ Instagram
Our gatherings and discussions challenge regular people to think hard, be creative, and connect across their deep human differences. Our philosophy: Meaning is difficult. Embrace the difficult!
Our Values & Mission
There are things that can only happen between people who are genuinely present to each other.
Not performing, not managing, not carefully calibrating what they show.
Wholehearted creative collaboration is one of them. Real intellectual encounter is another. The kind of friendship that actually sustains people through difficulty is a third.
Difficult Friends organizes two volunteer-run grassroots projects in Austin: Creative Friendship Lab and Dissent School.
Our mission is to develop in members:
(1) creative confidence,
(2) intellectual independence, and
(3) the subtle skills needed to form close friendships.
We think it’s good to be a Difficult Friend.
Friendship itself is difficult to the degree that it is both genuine and built across difference.
You will find our events creatively and intellectually challenging. They will put you in touch with people in ways that are energizing but unfamiliar.
But Difficult Friends are friends worth having.