“I think part of the heartbreak is that we actually think friendships are going to last forever . . . You just think: why wouldn’t we be in each other’s lives forever?” — Hima Batavia

Hima Batavia is a writer, artist, and cultural designer based in T’karonto. Her practice focuses on rewriting and weaving narratives for our collective liberation, and exploring aesthetics of care and well-being, across conceptions of time / space through collaborative processes and performance-based works.

Inspired by an edition of Hima’s weekly newsletter called “the friendship renaissance is here (Which gives me all the hope),” Valery and Hima mic’d up for this double episode unpacking the role of friendship in our lives, and in our concepts of community. Why double? Our convo was just too good to stop sooner!

 In this episode:

* Friendship in the age of COVID-19 

* Yes, healthy conflict in friendship is possible (and conflict avoidance is not it)

* The profound pain of friendship breakups (and what a healthy one might look like)

* Are your friends your community? Can you have a community without friendship?

* Normalizing not having friends (meeting your needs for connection and intimacy > having a long list of ‘friends’)

* How to friend with the neurodivergent

* How might we build better friendship infrastructure?

* Friendship and relationship hierarchies

* Friendship futures. 

Find Hima: 

Instagram (@hima_batavia)

himabatavia.com 

afternoon dreams Newsletter (himabatavia.substack.com)

the friendship renaissance 

Find Other Episode References:

Big Friendship 

Call Your Girlfriend 

Friendship in the Age of Loneliness  

Join Valery’s email list and get bonus content at lifewithoutuspod.com and hang out with her on Instagram @lifewithoutuspod

Thank you for listening, rating, reviewing, and sharing!