Noella Williams is a Brooklyn-based freelance culture writer whose writing has appeared in Marie Claire, Teen Vogue, the Washington Post, Vox and elsewhere. Noella’s reporting ranges from Black culture to queer identity to intersectional veganism, internet culture, and more. She describes herself as a "journalist, vegan foodie, pokemon trainer, dj, and abolitionist." One of her most recent pieces, for Vox, was "I'm a Black vegan. Why don't you see more of us?"
In Sentientist Conversations we talk about the most important questions...
Noella Williams is a Brooklyn-based freelance culture writer whose writing has appeared in Marie Claire, Teen Vogue, the Washington Post, Vox and elsewhere. Noella’s reporting ranges from Black culture to queer identity to intersectional veganism, internet culture, and more. She describes herself as a "journalist, vegan foodie, pokemon trainer, dj, and abolitionist." One of her most recent pieces, for Vox, was "I'm a Black vegan. Why don't you see more of us?"
In Sentientist Conversations we talk about the most important questions: “what’s real?”, “who matters?” and "how can we make a better world?"
Sentientism answers those questions with "evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings." The video of our conversation is here on YouTube.
00:00 Clips!
00:57 Welcome
- Noella’s Vox article
- Marina Bolotnikova episode
- Sentientism merch & mug :)
03:40 Noella's Intro
- Florida to New York
- 5 year vegan "a big part of my life... a huge
lifestyle change... how veganism has changed me... also been reflected in my writing"
- Writing on Black / Queer culture, music, politics, food,
home & lifestyle, video games, veganism "whatever interests me"
- Birdwatching and catching Pokemon :)
06:10 What's Real?
- Growing up in the Florida Bible Belt
- Black Baptist Church on Sundays and Wednesdays
- Christian school from kindergarten to 8th grade
- "Huge involvement in church... school... choir... everything had it's basis in Christianity"
- Both parents religious "they're both Caribbeans"
- "I am not religious any more"
- Agnostic since a year after graduating high school
"that also coincided with me going vegan and realising I was queer"
- Christianity: "It was what I knew and breathed and
slept with... that was everything I knew as a kid"
- "I started questioning things more at high school...
perhaps middle school"
- Being asked to sign a very strict pledge at school:
"No secular music... drugs... alcohol... this is kind of wild"
- "The misogyny in biblical texts was on my mind a
lot... religious figures like a pastor... use the bible as a text to justify... a wife submitting to a husband"
- "The homophobia eventually came along... a lot of
biblical stuff is very 'man and woman'"
- "Things were written by different prophets and... I
can't generalise the Bible as a whole but... there's a little bit of irony here... how different these things being said are..."
- "Maybe this isn't something I should use to guide my
life let alone my moral compass"
- "My father has a rule that... as long as I was in his
house I have to go to church Wednesdays/Sundays"
24:00 What Matters?
31:40 Who Matters?
50:49 A Better Future?
01:18:05 Follow Noella
- NoellaWilliams.com
- Noella’s Vox Article
- Noella’s Links on Campsite
- @yonoella
- Noella on Insta
And more... full show notes at Sentientism.info.
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