About us
Hi there! We're Difficult Friends, a community-run arts & humanities club: Website ⟡ Instagram ⟡ Venmo
We empower Austinites to tackle Difficult ideas and projects.
Our core values are:
- creative growth,
- intellectual challenge,
- human connection, and
- civic imagination.
Our events are designed as intellectual workouts! And creative experiments! We host workshops and discussions that push Austin residents to think harder thoughts, make cooler stuff, and connect more deeply across their human differences.
This is not an organization for the faint of heart. As our name suggests, we take pride in being Difficult Friends and in confronting Difficult challenges.
Meaning is Difficult! Embrace the Difficult!
Difficult Friends just launched in April 2026! So we're very excited to see all of y'all here. Welcome to this new group!
Our Philosophy of Friendship
There are things that can only happen between people really being themselves with 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.
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.
And please consider donating to us through Venmo or our Meetup page. It really makes a difference.
Statement of Welcome & Inclusivity
We believe everybody can be Difficult. ;-)
Difficult Friends is an inclusive community space, and we particularly seek to protect and welcome our LGBTQIA+, queer, transgender, and nonbinary members. Event attendees may be asked to share their preferred pronouns and will be asked to respect the preferred pronouns shared by other participants. Women, immigrants, people of color, religious minorities, people with disabilities, and neurodivergent folks seeking a diverse community are also especially encouraged to attend!
That said, no particular identity performance is needed, desired, or expected from our Difficult Friends. Come as you are and know you have a seat at our table, no matter how life has brought you into our community.
Our Unique Session-Based Structure
Difficult Friends is a group designed to incubate close creative & intellectual friendships. We run themed short-term and long-term sessions featuring outings, workshops, and discussions connected by a core concept.
It’s like a semester-long class, but shorter (or in some cases, much longer)!
However, each our events is also able to stand on its own! So you should feel free to come by whenever, regardless of your attendance at prior events. We welcome first-timers always. Members are also free to drop in and out of Difficult Friends. We encourage everyone to feel a sense of freedom and lightness while doing as much or as little with the group as they please.
In the interest of being Difficult, we also reserve the right to host occasional random one-off events just for funsies!
Upcoming events
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GHOSTS: Cemetery Tour & Writing Workshop ⟡ Beginner-Friendly
Oakwood Cemetery, 701 W 51st St, Austin, TX, USEnjoy a historical tour of Oakwood Cemetery followed by a writing workshop on the cemetery grounds! All levels of writers are welcome to join us for some respectful (and ever-so-slightly spooky) fun, as we remember those buried at Oakwood and learn more about Austin's rich history.
Our Theme for June/July: The City
Every 1-3 months, our group chooses a special theme to explore in our events. This writing workshop is part of our June-July session on "The City." What does it mean to "Keep Austin Weird"? What does our city owe us and what do we owe it back? How do art and literature expand or limit our sense of civic possibilities? What new kinds of cities and city life can we imagine? And how will we know when this city has become ours?
Those are some of the questions we hope to investigate this month, while offering Austinites a creative home in our own arts & humanities community.
This Week's Workshop: On Ghosts
We'll meet in front of Oakwood Cemetery Chapel at 9:30 AM and have some casual chitchat before we leave for our cemetery tour at 10:00 AM sharp. If you arrive after 10:00 AM, there is a chance you may miss our tour, so please arrive in a timely fashion!
Our tour will likely take around 30 minutes and will involve hiking around the cemetery, so be sure to wear closed-toe shoes and comfortable clothing + bring water (it's June)!
After our tour, we'll have a discussion of three short poems followed by free writing time on the cemetery grounds, which are beautiful and peaceful this time of year.
Please find our reading packet linked here.
Given that the reading is only two pages long, participants are asked to read it in advance, so everyone has plenty of time to ruminate and digest before our discussion :-)
Whether you're an old hand or this is your first time trying out creative writing, we'll be really happy to see you! We look forward to meeting all of you soon.
***
About Us
This group is a project by Difficult Friends, a community-run arts & humanities club: Website ⟡ Instagram
We empower Austinites to tackle Difficult ideas and projects.
Our core values are:- creative growth,
- intellectual challenge,
- human connection, and
- civic imagination.
Our events are designed as intellectual workouts and creative experiments. We host workshops and discussions that push Austin residents to think harder thoughts, make cooler stuff, and connect more deeply across their human differences.
This is not an organization for the faint of heart. As our name suggests, we take pride in being Difficult Friends and in confronting Difficult challenges.
Meaning is Difficult! Embrace the Difficult!
About Your Cemetery Tour Guide
My name is Ryan Dees, I am the conservator for the City of Austin Cemeteries Division. I have been with the city for 3 years now, and in this role I have restored hundreds of monuments, established cleaning classes with our friends organization, revived our tourism and development program, and implemented several other programs across our division. Prior to preservation I worked as an archaeologist where I traveled across the country working in over 30 states. I was born and raised in Baton Rouge, Louisiana where I attended college at Louisiana State University. In my free time I love spending time with my dog Forks, hiking, and drawing.
— Ryan
About Your Workshop Host
I'm a writer and photographer living in Austin with my dog, Cookie. You can find out more about me and my work here: https://rachelsummercheong.com
I've been busy working on my first novel, but I hope to get around to doing more with Substack this summer as well. https://substack.com/@rachelsummercheong
— Rachel
Statement of Welcome & Inclusivity
Here at Difficult Friends, we believe everybody can be Difficult. ;-)
Difficult Friends is an inclusive community space, and we particularly seek to protect and welcome our LGBTQIA+, queer, transgender, and nonbinary members. Event attendees may be asked to share their preferred pronouns and will be asked to respect the preferred pronouns shared by other participants. Women, immigrants, people of color, religious minorities, people with disabilities, and neurodivergent folks seeking a diverse community are also especially encouraged to attend!
That said, no particular identity performance is needed, desired, or expected from our Difficult Friends. Come as you are and know you have a seat at our table, no matter how life has brought you into our community.
Photography Policy
The event organizers of this meetup may take photos or videos of our events. By attending this event, you consent to being filmed and photographed. (If it’s Rachel, don’t worry - she will airbrush any blemishes & imperfections xoxo)!16 attendees
Past events
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