Audra Williams
Writing | Engagement | Community
I can talk to someone for five minutes and figure out what they know that could change the world, how to turn it into a compelling story, and who is the person who most needs to hear it.
PROJECTS
FLARE
Beyond #GetHelp: How to Support a Friend in Crisis—from Someone Who Has Been There
Last week saw two celebrity suicides in quick succession. Like clockwork, the hashtag #gethelp immediately began trending on Twitter. I know this imploring comes from a desire for our friends to be okay. But if you have struggled with mental illness, you know that the dominant narrative that “help is just a phone call away” is so untrue that it feels almost cruel.
slackhq.com
A quieter kind of leadership
Introverts can be inspiring, effective leaders — if they can convince themselves they won’t hate it
In what is nowhere near the most unrealistic scene on Grey’s Anatomy, a group of interns is given a difficult case to solve together without an attending physician to guide them. The goal is to determine who among them is the natural leader. On the TV show, the winner of this challenge is referred to as “The Gunther”.
slackhq.com
How feeling left out at work can affect your job
Ostracism by coworkers can be at least as damaging as harassment. Here are some ways to navigate and help prevent it.
Five years ago, I quit what was in many ways my dream job. It was a permanent position with benefits, a combination I’d never had before. I quit for a really embarrassing reason: No one really talked to me. Integrating into a new workplace is usually awkward, but it just never got better. There was no hostility, but my efforts to build rapport seemed to die on the vine.
atlasobscura.com
A prison without walls is like a cell with a key
Most people don't have a point of reference for a prison without walls. Most people don't have a point of reference for a prison as a tourist destination, either. But Iwahig Prison and Penal Farm is both of those things: a place where incarcerated men move fairly freely over 64,000 acres and members of the public can come meet them, dance with them, and buy their handicrafts.
VICE
Listen to the kids: How Watcher in the Woods and Stranger Things get it right
After my weird and perilous childhood, "anxious and hopeful" is sort of where I landed. I'm thankful that Watcher in the Woods and Stranger Things tell a story that shows those feelings can still be at the center of a happy ending. You just need people around you who will always believe you about your experiences, no matter how unlikely they sound.
The Walrus
Lean Out
Supporting women in politics is no longer a controversial move. What few folks have been brave enough to point out, however, is that there is a finite amount of seats to go around. So if we are saying we need more women in politics, we are also saying that there should be fewer men in politics. I don’t make the rules. That’s just math.
National Post
Everybody in dresses: Why does gender neutral clothing always mean 'boy' clothes for girls?
Where is Adam Lambert’s line for Gap Kids, promoted with an upbeat commercial of young boys playing with dolls and doing ballet while wearing shiny sparkly glam clothes and lipgloss while Diamond Rings serenades us all?
Now Magazine
10 fantasy summer cottage rentals within a four-hour drive of Toronto
The formula for a successful road trip is simple. Access to car + amazing snack selection + pre-loaded Google Maps + destination = great times. If you need help on the destination front, here are 10 very surprising rentals within a four-hour drive of Toronto.
broadly.vice.com
Hurts So Good: The Internet's Secretive Sprained Ankle Fetishists
He then became curious about my own leg situation, asking if I wore heels and stockings, and if I had ever worn a cast. I let him know that I was more of a flat shoes and black tights kind gal, and that I had a knee brace I had to wear sometimes. He got super enthusiastic, sending me four messages in rapid succession: "Wow I want to see it on you. Can you show me? Hello? Done talking to me?"
She Does The City
Adult Learning: Knowing When To Stand Up and When To Sit Down ...
Dudes (and white people) think that as long as they express the right ideas in public, and don’t actually insist any women make them actual sandwiches, they can keep on enjoying being at the top of the food chain and never have to do anything they don’t want to do, or ever not get to do anything that they do want to do. They feel their awareness can change the world, or that their guilt mitigates the impact of their privilege.
FLARE
Therapists who help you process trauma through your body
When we are bombarded with body-shaming and narrow definitions of fitness every day, it can feel like an act of rebellion to just check out of exercise completely. But if you are someone who has felt chills of recognition when reading about of the ways that trauma can live on in our bodies, you might long for an entry point into building physical strength that doesn’t feel like opting into the gym industrial complex.
slackhq.com
Why a best friend at work can help you do your job better
When I hear Pellerin and Gaal’s story, I admit to being kind of jealous at their ability to find so many tandem jobs. My own career has taken me to different cities and workplaces every few years, so I had to eventually say goodbye to Michelle in Annapolis Royal. And later Karen in Ottawa. And then Marcie in Toronto.
She Knows
7 Things Your Child-Free Friends Want You to Know
Even for a kid-free person who has been around babies a lot, it’s hard to know what our new parent friends need. Should we try to make plans to hang out with you or is it stressful to get those kinds of invites when you are adjusting to your new life? Should we comment on your posts about adjusting to having a baby or are you only looking to hear from fellow parents? Please feel free to let us know if you are not getting what you need from us.
She Does The City
Adult Learning: How to break the pattern of dating Man-babies ...
I see so many women slogging away at day jobs they don’t love that leave little space for their own creative work, while making excuses for their male partners’ stagnation and lack of productivity. It hurts my heart for all of us. Can we please stop propping up these dud(e)s who aren’t propping us up back? Can we please expect our partners to be partners? Think of all the great art we could make!!! Or at least naps we could take.
The Daily Dot
When we laugh at rape jokes about black girls, we're part of the ...
The consumption of black bodies by white people hasn’t stopped. It happens when we appropriate black hairstyles and fashions, when we use black women as props, and when we turn the sexual assault (or the threat of assault) of black people into fodder for a punchline.