Hey Garden(ers),
This week brings us into Lunar New Year (Year of the Horse), Ramadan and an eclipse! However you are honoring this week, we hope this year brings you all the care and community you deserve!
Special Shoutout to this year's Haiku Slam Champion Chanelle who penned some beautiful syllables for Cupid Ain't @#$%!'s Haiku Slam during our Anti-V Day festivities!
And a belated Special Shoutout to Dan & Boba, who back at New Year's rode circles around their competitors at the NYE/NYD Party go-kart races!
Are you new here? We will be having a gathering to celebrate our newest people here in Garden, including our latest admin, Kwaku on Friday Feb 27th at 6pm PST! Come say hi to our new folks, connect with our new admin, or be welcomed into Garden community! Think: games, short films, random applause and YOU! RSVP to attend here!
⏰ Our events are generally listed in PST/PDT. Need help converting to your time zone? We recommend using World Time Buddy!
🍉 Are you ready for MO MO MO??? Join Double-E every other Friday (next session Feb 20th at 6pm PST), to watch “MO”, the award-winning comedy series about a Palestinian asylum seeker hustling to make ends meet in Houston, Texas. RSVP to attend
✊🏾 Black History Month Community Gathering: Honoring Assata Shakur. In place of our earlier planned Assata: An Autobiography book discussion, Deeda will host an afternoon of selected readings, storytelling, reflection, and conversation honoring Assata’s life, voice, and legacy. Together we’ll center remembrance, liberation, and community. No pre-reading needed. This event is open to all Gardeners. Sunday, February 22, 5:30pm PST RSVP
❄️ Snowballs & Chill: Heated Rivalry Marathon! We’re watching Heated Rivalry together! 🏒 Come through to the Snowballs In Space room for snowball fights ❄️ and to see what all the hype is about in this steamy hockey romance ❤️🔥 Hosted by Chanelle and Deeda on Sunday, March 8 (Episodes 1-3) and Sunday, March 15 (Episodes 4-6) from 4:30–7:30pm PST. For content warnings, visit here. RSVP!
❤️🩹 Our Pain We Carry Study Group meets in the Kinship Room on the 2nd and 3rd Sundays of each month (with occasional adjustments around holidays). Upcoming dates for the next few months: March 8, 15; Apri: 12, 19; May 17; June 14 Group begins at 2:30pm PST/ 5:30pm EST for reading and discussion. If you prefer to join after reading, we’ll begin practicing the experiential exercises together around 3pm PST/6pm EST. See Deeda for more information & materials. RSVP.
🫁 Want to increase your lung capacity? Come to Breathing in the Knowledge Nursery! Every weekday at 9am PT. RSVP here!
💃🏾 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 2022 drama about a young woman navigating the challenge of introducing her girlfriend to her family during Lunar New Year. Think you know what it is? Come thru and find out! Next week is a 2026 horror that started almost 30 years ago and centers around a temple of bones. RSVP via the visit page.
🪷 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.
🍿 Monday, February 23rd 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: Dead Presidents
🫂 The next session of Chronic Illness and Long Covid Support Group will be Thursday February 26th 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!
🎭 Places, theater nerds! At Do You Hear the Garden Sing? (Musical Theater Night) we watch musical theatre movies, pro-shots (and some slime tutorials) every other week. This is a bi-weekly space to nerd-out about musical theater, enjoy some tunes and even share some hateful takes ;) Our next watch will be The Color Purple, a movie musical based on the iconic novel by Alice Walker about the life of a Southern Black woman who survives incredible abuse and bigotry. Come join the curtain call on Saturday February 28th at 5pm PST! RSVP!
✍🏽 Are you an aspiring writer? Come join The Storytellers' Anthology which is every other Saturday! The next installment, Feb 28th at 1pm PT, hosted by Louis, will be a showcase! So, bring your short stories/poems/monologues/etc to share with a listening, intentional crew of people! 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.
😷 Hang out, chill and play games with Black folks who take COVID precautions at Bonfire in Garden! The next Bonfire will be Saturday February 21st at 5pm PT RSVP here. (Black folks only.)
🏳️⚧️ At our first Trans Meetup, the group was unanimous in deciding that Trans Meetup will be a monthly occurrence. Every fourth Sunday in Garden, at 2pm PT will be a day that Trans folks have made! The next meetup will be 2/22! Join us by RSVP'ing here.
☕ Sunday March 1st at 1pm PT, Garden will be hosting its next Social Hour series. Each Social Hour will typically feature a 15-30 min rant// talk// presentation// performance from a Garden member on a subject of their choosing as well as time for folks to meet other members in a casual hang out space with games and activities. 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. March's Social Hour will be hosted by Ry who will be sharing 'Mouthwater Cabaret' a showcase of disabled and Queer burlesque dancers, drag performers, lip-syncers and more. This is an hour and 40 minutes with a break in the middle. This screening is made possible by Calling Up Justice & Mouthwater.
💻 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.
💭 Lady Freethinker seeks a Communications Specialist to build and maintain campaign and brand awareness, devise innovative angles to create & disseminate public-facing content via the LFT website and newsletters, and develop & execute social media strategy for our nonprofit animal protection organization. This individual will review LFT campaigns & investigations as well as general animal protection news stories and develop unique angles and ideas for compelling messaging to engage and grow our audience. Ideal candidates will have experience developing successful content including web posts, graphics, reels, videos, and reports, a proven history of social media analysis and strategy development, and exemplary written and verbal communication skills. They will know how to create emotive content, communicate well with the public, pay close attention to detail, be social media savvy, organize their time and tasks well, work efficiently on a remote team, and demonstrate a commitment to animal welfare. Salary: $70k-$80k. Apply by: Feb 20th.
📚 The Bookish Box & Shop is looking for a (remote) Social Media Assistant to join our growing team! If you’re interested to learn more about the role, click this link and if you think you’d be a great fit, we’d love to have you! The job listing says that this role is Full Time, however, if you can’t work 40 hours per week, and can only work around 20 - 25 Hours, feel free to still apply!! Compensation: $21/hr + Benefits. Apply ASAP.
🖊️ There’s still time to submit work for consideration for the J. Michael Samuel Prize for Emerging Writers Over 50 via Lambda Literary! The deadline is February 20, 11:59pm ET. The prize will go to an unpublished LGBTQ writer over 50 working in any genre. The award includes a cash prize of $5,000. Learn more and apply here.
✊🏾 Intersex Experiences Across the African Diaspora: Virtual Panel Tuesday, February 24th, 2026, 12:00pm EST. During Black History Month, let us lift up Jimmy Scott, Carlett Brown and the many, nameless, soon-to-be discovered intersex pioneers who boldly challenged sex and gender norms to live freely and unapologetically. Join this amazing panel as we discuss how Blackness and intersex look and feel across the African Diaspora. This event is pay-what-you-can. We invite contributions toward toward panelist honorariums, captioning, and hosting. Free tickets are available for any who need them. Email us at hello@slimstrategy.org to claim a free community ticket. Presented by the Strategy Lab for Intersex Movements
🌍 Do you have a transformative idea for how to improve the lives of your community? The Growing Roots Grant from Roots, offers funding of up to $10,000 USD for new and emerging projects and ideas that seek to improve the lives of communities on the frontlines of climate change! The grants are accompanied by ongoing mentorship. Grants will be offered to between 8-10 grassroots youth-led initiatives from Global South regions, including the Middle East, North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, South East Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Pacific. We also welcome applications from diaspora and BIPOC communities who may be located in Global North countries. Last day to apply is February 28th, 2026.
💡Blackbird Foundation: Protostars is officially open. $1K grants for Australian young people with ideas that won’t leave them alone. No business plan needed. Just energy, vision, and a little bit of guts. 📅 Closes Sunday 1 March, 11:59 PM AEDT 📩 Questions? Our DMs are open.
🔊 MediaJustice builds power to challenge how corporations and governments use media and technology to shape our collective future. We are hiring a part-time Social Media Manager who can:
📱Bring fresh, values-aligned ideas to our external channels.
📢 Amplify rapid response requests from local community groups.
🎨Create dynamic visual content.
🪴Help us grow our audience. Salary: $36.9-$40k // Apply ASAP.
💐 The memorial space for Oddnon will be located via an entrance in the Altar Room starting Thursday Feb 19th. Until then, it is accessible via Garden Map.
📖 The Black Trans Prayer Book, is organizing a Trans Book Fair, where we will be connecting virtually with Trans folks, and our solidarity partners, from all over the US and beyond, while also distributing physical books by Trans Authors to Trans people! If you/your org would like to support this work (attend // fund // be featured // etc), there is a form for that here! We are looking for people and organizations who would like to help us make this happen!
🥐 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 & 🪴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!