Hey Garden(ers),
We have a Give and an Ask.
First the Give: We have 3 copies of Nicole M Brewer’s new book The Antiracist Theatre to to give away to community members. If you are a Trans or Nonbinary Garden(er) and Theater Creative that would like one, email us at info@meetatgarden.com!
Now the Ask: Some of you may have seen Outright International's report which named that 90% of LGBTQ organizations globally have lost funding since last year. Half have lost 50% of their funding or more. The Black Trans Prayer Book (the organization of which Garden is a project), is no different. In this time of fascism, funding for multiply-marginalized communities has dwindled. Over the last few years, Garden's admin team, along with volunteers have been able to provide hundreds of programs for participants for free- and we are committed to continuing to do so. However, Garden is not free to run: it costs money for the platform as well as all the tools we use to communicate/host events along with hundreds of hours a month to hold space/coordinate. Funding from foundations has slowed exponentially and in an effort to keep Garden a resource for community, we are asking for some support.
We understand that not everyone is in a space to give financially. If you are someone who is struggling to keep afloat, is food insecure, or simply is unsure where your next paycheck is coming from- please save your resources for your needs. If you are someone who has some funds, of any amount, and you have found Garden to be useful for yourself or someone you care about, please consider donating and sharing this fundraiser. If you are part of an organization, that would like to help sponsor Garden, or the work of The Black Trans Prayer Book as a whole, please also feel free to connect us. The technology we use for Garden, along with all of our subscriptions at minimum is approximately $15k for the year, this of course is before paying for any admin time, interpreters, and support for community members. Currently, admin receive an honorarium that equates to less than a dollar per hour for their time and labor and we would like to change this model as it is not sustainable.
To all of our volunteers and donors, even if you gave $1 once, please know we appreciate everything you have done to make this space possible!
⏰ Our events are generally listed in PST/PDT. Need help converting to your time zone? We recommend using World Time Buddy!
💼💖9 to 5 on 9/25: Dolly Parton Tribute & Watch Party 🎬 In honor of the late, great Dolly Parton we’re gathering on 9/25 to watch the iconic workplace comedy "9 to 5"...get it? 💖🎬 Meet us at the Game Spot (GenDoc’s bar) to learn a little more about Dolly’s life and legacy before watching her film debut alongside Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin. The movie follows three working women who plot revenge against their crummy, sexist boss. 💼💅🏾 RSVP!
🐣 New Member Orientation & Welcome: New to Garden, or simply still have some tech and/or culture questions about the space? Follow J Mase to the Knowledge Nursery on Friday October 9th at 4pm PDT for an Orientation on Garden and the Gather.Town 1.0 platform! RSVP!
👾 Games of Deception on Sunday Oct 11th! Come test your skills of deception! We'll start by playing Among us at 4:00pm PT and end on Jackbox Games at 6:00pm PT! Follow J Mase to get there! RSVP!
🎃 Autumn Equinox is right around the corner, which means Halloween is almost here! Did you want to pitch an event for Halloween Weekend? Submit via the Event Proposal Form! Please note that we may reach out to adjust times to make sure we fit in everyone that would like to share something for Halloween Weekend!
🫁 Want to increase your lung capacity? Come to Breathing in the Knowledge Nursery! Every weekday at 9am PT. RSVP here!
🍿 Mondays at 5pm PT, B will be hosting Black Movie Night, a now weekly movie (and show) night to highlight movies (and shows) made by, for, and about Black people. The media will generally be entertainment focused, but will also include nights where the intention is education. (Black Folks only.) RSVP Next Movie: The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster
💃🏾 Co-Twerking is on Tuesdays at 3pm PT with Caroline! RSVP to get notified!
📔 Quiet-ish Reading Club / Connect (QRC) 💜💛📚 meets Tuesdays at 6pm PT! QRC - Garden Edition is where we chill together in mostly quiet company of 45 min reading blocks. Bring your own: book, audiobook, article, magazine, comic book, training manuals, graphic novel, paperwork/forms, poetry, etc. anything you’d like to or need to read. Most of the time will be us practicing sustained silent reading (SSR) in cozy, quiet company together. We will take occasional breaks to chat and socialize - mics optional. Like to be kept up-to-date on QRC meet-ups in Garden? Fill out this interest form. RSVP here
🎥 Name That Movie (Night!) is Wednesday at 5:30pm PT! This week's movie is a 1991 film with queer themes about three generations of Gullah women as they prepare to migrate from the rural South to the North. Think you know what it is? Come thru and find out! RSVP via the visit page. (Please note that for the next few weeks, ⭐Nana (Kwaku) will be leading movie night, so follow them to get there!)
🧰 Join misha weekly for tending to our nervous (eco)system - practice sessions, a recurring group space for ongoing support in cultivating skills for navigating stress with the resilience toolkit. Thursdays at 10am PT. RSVP here
🪷 Stretch it out as Caroline leads us in a weekly afternoon Yoga sesh Fridays at 3pm PT by streaming a yoga video from YouTube and following along. Videos will be between 25-45 minutes long between easy to moderate pace. Drop ins are always welcome! RSVP via the calendar on the visit page.
🫂 The next session of Chronic Illness and Long Covid Support Group will be Thursday September 24th from 5:30pm-7:30pm PT with Chanelle! Navigating everything that comes with chronic illness can be difficult - from managing symptoms to experiencing grief over missing your pre-illness life. This is a peer support space where we can share our feelings about living with any chronic/long-term illness, including long COVID, during an ongoing pandemic. RSVP here!
✍🏽 Are you an aspiring writer? Come join The Storytellers' Anthology which is every other Saturday at 1pm PT (next session is September 26th), hosted by Louis! This group is created for writers who want feedback and constructive criticism on their unpublished literary works, especially for those looking to publish their piece, but just need an extra pair of eyes and encouragement. All genres are welcomed and encouraged. RSVP to attend here.
🎭 Places, theater nerds! At Do You Hear the Garden Sing? we watch musical theatre movies, pro-shots (and some slime tutorials) every other week. This is a space to nerd-out about musical theater, enjoy some tunes and even share some hateful takes ;) Our next watch will be The Prince of Egypt (1998) a musical animated movie about the life of Moses and his ultimate destiny of leading the Hebrews out of Egypt. Come join the curtain call on Saturday September 26th at 5pm PT! RSVP!
❤️🩹 Our Pain We Carry Study Group meets in the Kinship Room on the 3rd Sundays of each month (with occasional adjustments around holidays). Upcoming date: September 20th. Group begins at 2:30pm PT/ 5:30pm ET for reading and discussion. If you prefer to join after reading, we’ll begin practicing the experiential exercises together around 3pm PT/6pm ET. See Deeda for more information & materials. RSVP.
🏳️⚧️ Trans Meetup is every fourth Sunday in Garden, at 2pm PT! Come witness a day that Trans folks have made! The next meetup will be September 27th! Join us by RSVP'ing here. September's session will be facilitated by Ang! Topic: How connection/compassion helps us with reducing dysphoria, increasing confidence, and overall mental health.
☕ Sunday October 4th at 1pm PT, Garden will be hosting its next Social Hour series. Want a place to share your random idea, your new poetic works, to present something special, get feedback or even host at a Garden Social Hour? The format is flexible as needed, and can be a space to practice facilitation skills for those wanting a friendly place to try something new. Want to share your topic at the next, or a future Social Hour? Send us your proposals here! RSVP to attend here.
😷 Hang out, chill and play games with Black folks who take COVID precautions at Bonfire in Garden! The next Bonfire will be Saturday October 17th at 5pm PT RSVP here. Topic: Black Poetry Day!
📝 Saturday October 24th at 12pm PT join Boba for Rooted, a fun and relaxed monthly space to explore a variety of poetic forms and styles. Think of this more like an informal poetry club / co-learning space. While there will be some prepared materials and prompts, this will be a much more collaborative space: we’ll learn from and celebrate each another’s experiences, perspectives, knowledge, questions, and creative instincts. Each "session" will have a short reflective groundings/meditation, followed by exploring some texts, time to write, and a no-pressure opportunity to share our writing. (Would love to have an optional ability to create a mini Garden anthology that could live on an internal padlet as example.) RSVP here
💻 Do you work from home and sometimes feel a little too isolated from others? Come Co-Work with us in Garden! We are a 24/7 drop in space for folks to join to co-work silently, listen to music, play a game or chat amongst each other in the chat box.
📞 The National Academy of Education seeks a (remote) Communications Specialist to work with NAEd leadership in developing and implementing communications strategies that advance the Academy’s mission, increase the visibility and accessibility of its work, and strengthen engagement with key audiences. The Communications Specialist will play a central role in translating education research and ideas into clear, compelling, and accessible communications for researchers, policymakers, practitioners, partners, and the broader public. Compensation: $75-$85k. Apply ASAP.
⚖️ Founded in 1979, the National Immigration Law Center (NILC) is a leading non-profit organization (501(c)(3)) in the U.S. exclusively dedicated to defending and advancing the rights and opportunities of low-income immigrants and their loved ones. The (remote) Senior Strategist, Digital Communications (Sr. Strategist) supports the development and execution of digital strategies for NILC and NILC’s sister 501(c)4 organization. The Sr. Strategist is responsible for planning, executing, and optimizing digital content across NILC’s platforms with an emphasis on graphic design and video content production. Compensation: $89,300 - $111,600. Apply ASAP.
✒️🌍 Our World in Data is seeking a Writer (remote from anywhere in the world). What we’re looking for is quite a unique combination. We want someone who writes excellent narrative articles for a general audience, finding memorable framings to make hard ideas easier to understand, while being genuinely obsessed with the technical details: the scientific nuance, the caveats, the honest communication of what the evidence actually shows. Our work is focused on helping people understand the world’s largest problems and how we make progress against them. The world is awash with data and information, so the right person for us needs to know which questions are important and what readers need to know to understand the answers. Compensation: £80k-£120k /year. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis.
🎥 The Lynn Shelton “Of a Certain Age” Grant offers $25,000 to support a US based woman, non-binary, or transgender filmmaker age 39+ preparing to direct their first narrative feature. Applications are due by September 27th!
🫂 Asian Americans are the least likely racial group in the US to seek services for mental health support. In response to this need, the Asian Mental Health Collective's Therapy Fund is once again open for applications and, for those accepted, provides up to 16 free sessions of virtual or in-person therapy over 6 months. Learn More here. Apply here.
🦎 Cosmic Healing and Octavia's Chariot are hosting the second annual Interlocking Systems of Liberation (ISOL) during the the first 2 weekends of October (3, 4, 10, & 11) on zoom. Find more information at the link or sign up directly here.
💾 We put out a call for laptop/desktop donations for fellow Garden members and we already were able to pair someone with a donated device! THANK YOU all for your kindness and care! We are still on the hunt for 2 more laptops/desktops for Garden(ers) that need devices for their work and/or to connect with the community here in Garden. If you/your organization have a device or two to spare, simply reply to this email. 🙏🏽
🥐 If for whatever reason, you are in the US and find yourself, or someone you care about, to be food insecure, here are three sites to find food banks where you/they are: Food Finder, FindHelp and Feeding America. If these are not resources you personally need, please share with your folks.
🍉 Centering Palestine has a zoom every Tuesday at 5pm PT, along with other resources to show up for Palestine available here.
😷 World Health Network has a weekly call to organize community members against mask bans every Friday at 12pm PT.
📢 As a follow-up to the Anti-Blackness sessions GenDoc facilitated with us a few months ago, she has graciously provided this Notes on Anti-Blackness write-up which shares some key takeaways about how Anti-Blackness shows up in BIPOC spaces and what non-Black folks can be doing to support dismantling that.
🌻 We are continuing to open Garden up to more community orgs who would like to share space with us here. If you are part of an org that may benefit from office/event space here, please email info@meetatgarden.com
🎉Want to host your birthday, or the birthday of a friend in Garden? Check out our Birthday Guide and email us!
💌 Don't forget, we can design and host non-Garden virtual events too.
Until next our avatars meet,
🪄Al , 🪻J Mase & 🪴Nana Kwaku
PS: Have a one-time-event or a recurring event and need a place to host? Email us at info@meetatgarden.com!
Garden is a free 24/7 space, but it does cost money for us to maintain it on Gather.Town. If you'd like to donate to this work, consider throwing some money in the pot here. To send donations directly through our 501c3 fiscal sponsor, email us!