Hey Garden(ers),
As we are heading out of 2025 into 2026, we are wanting to display artwork from more of our community members. If you have some art you'd like to share, that you are not already on the schedule for, let us know by replying to this email! Whether it is a series of paintings, a video premiere, a performance, we'd love to support what you have been creating through this time of resistance!
For those of you that came to Groovy's presentation for last Social Hour on how to Canva Like a Bad B, the slides can generously be found here!
⏰ Our events are generally listed in PST/PDT. Need help converting to your time zone? We recommend using World Time Buddy!
🔖 New Year Prep Weekend: Join Deeda for a 2-day event focused on looking back on 2025 and setting intentions for 2026 with free tools from Passion Planner. We’ll get together on Saturday 12/20 for 2025 Year-End Reflection (guided journaling) 📓 and on Sunday 12/21 for the 2026 Passion Roadmap (vision board + goal-setting). 🎨 Both sessions meet at 1pm PT/4pm ET for about 2 hours. Drop-ins are welcome for one or both days! No materials required, but feel free to bring your journal, planner, or any creative supplies that inspire you. ✨ RSVP here
🪩 We are about two weeks out from our annual 🪩New Year's Eve/Day Party🪩! A 24+hr shindig fit for the people, our festivities traditionally include dance time, performances, workshops, game tournaments, countdowns to the New Year across time zones and more. Day Passes will be available, so please feel free to invite BIPOC friends/colleagues who are not already Garden members. ASL Interpreters will be available and can be requested on the Day Passes form or by replying to this email. RSVP to attend here. A schedule will be shared by Friday of this week.
🫁 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 2025 horror about a couple whose escape for a romantic anniversary weekend at a secluded cabin puts them in touch with an unspeakable evil. Think you know what it is? Come thru and find out! RSVP via the visit page. TW: for mentions of harm to a child.
🪷 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.
🦾 Self Defense Discussion Series is every Sunday at 8am PT! We focus on ease of movement, light strengthening or flexibility exercises, and reading/discussion on self-defense and liberatory principles. Message Caroline with any questions. RSVP via the visit page!
🫂 The next session of Chronic Illness and Long Covid Support Group will be Thursday December 18th 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!
🗡️Join us Friday December 19th at 5pm PT for Garden's Among Us Game nights! Join for fun, strategy, and a little bit of betrayal 🗡️ Complete your tasks (yes, even after you are killed!), look around to see who is acting suspicious and see if you can spot the Impostor before it’s too late. Whether you're a seasoned crewmate or a sneaky saboteur, all skill levels are welcome to join! RSVP here!
😷 Hang out, chill and play games with Black folks who take COVID precautions at Bonfire in Garden! The next Bonfire will be Saturday December 20th at 5pm PT RSVP here. (Black folks only.)
🍿 Starting Monday, December 22nd at 5pm PT, BJ will be hosting Black Movie Night, a bi-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.) The movie on the 22nd will be a Cooley High. RSVP!
📺 Based on Issa Rae's acclaimed web series Awkward Black Girl, Insecure is a show about the awkward and messy experiences of a young Black woman. Join us Friday December 26th at 6pm PT to stream and chit-chat about Issa and her crew's hilarious moments, relationship drama, bad decisions, breakups and glow-ups. Issa watch party at The Dunes! RSVP via the visit page.
🏳️⚧️ At our most recent 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 Dec 28th! Join us by RSVP'ing here.
✍🏽 Are you an aspiring writer? Come join The Storytellers' Anthology every other Saturday. The group will be taking a break until January and will meet again January 3rd at 1pm PT, 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.
☕ Sunday January 4th at 1pm PT, Garden will be hosting its next Social Hour series. Each Social Hour will 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.
💻 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.
🌍 LesMigras has a global Open Call for stories related to Trans, inter and gender-dissident BIPOC SciFi, Fantasy & Speculative Futurism for their upcoming anthology of Sci-Fi, Fantasy & Speculative Futurisms. This can be in text or comic format.
✍🏽 Democracy Now! is seeking early career stage journalists to join them for a one year fellowship as a Digital Fellow. (Please note these fellowships are in person in NYC.) Applications due Jan 16th.
✊🏿 Liberation Medicine School is offering two Year-End Affirmation Sessions Saturday, 27th December and Sunday 28th December 2025 @ 9AM PST - 12PM EST - 4PM GMT via Garden. These sessions are a gentle closing to this year’s Decolonize Medicine Series. Through these sessions we are inviting Black trans and gender nonconforming people to pause, reflect, and affirm ourselves through practices of witnessing and care. The first session will focus on caring for our bodies as the homes of our selves. Through grounding practices, breath work, body awareness, and herbalism, we will explore accessible ways to care for our bodies and support everyday wellness. The second one is creative writing as a tool for witnessing. Through an understanding of what creative writing is, we will be guided through short writing prompts to reflect on the year, including moments of challenge, growth, joy, and support. There is no expectation to be a writer. Writing in this space is simply a way to name our experiences, be present with them and affirm ourselves through them. African/Black Trans/Gender Expansive People can register here.
🥐 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, 😻Gata & 🪻J Mase
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!