Hey Garden(ers),
Today is Giving Tuesday, and in these wild times of fascism, community orgs for targeted peoples are dealing with a lot less opportunities for sustainability than ever before. As a coordinated 24-hr livestream, Calling Up Justice has been hosting “Money Please” which will last through tomorrow to lean into abundance and highlight an array of organizations, collectives, community leaders and artists. The Black Trans Prayer Book, the organization through which Garden is a program, will be featured. Currently, we are raising funds, and other resources, for a Trans Book Fair that will be happening virtually, while also sending out physical books by Trans authors to Trans people to fight the intentional erasure of our communities. To learn more about what resources we need to make this project happen, check out our pitch deck here. If you or your organization, would like to be a collaborator, let us know!
If you are a Garden(er) with a mutual aid request, we have set up a Garden Giving Tree inside the main Enchanted Library room. Check it out, and add to the padlet. Or, if you have coins to spare, peruse what people have posted on that padlet inside the library. This Giving Tree will stay up indefinitely.
Thank you to everyone who came to the National Day of Mourning event and ceremony led by ze this past week! It was beautiful to share space and radical reflection with you all!
⏰ Our events are generally listed in PST/PDT. Need help converting to your time zone? We recommend using World Time Buddy!
🧌 Join Gata for a Shrek Movie Marathon starting at 12pm PT Saturday December 6th, where we’ll go through all the hilarious, corny, and action-packed films that made Shrek, Donkey, and Fiona unforgettable. We will watch Shrek 1, 2, 3 and forever after. We will take breaks, and altogether it will take about eight hours. Folks are welcome to jump in and out in between movies! Grab your snacks, settle in, and get ready to stay up late. See you at the swamp! (aka All Night Room) RSVP!
☕ Sunday December 7th 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. December's Social Hour will be: How to make presentations in Canva like a bad bitch w Groovy!
🍿 Starting Monday, December 8th 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.) December 8th, the movie will be a Goofy Movie. RSVP!
❤️🩹 The Pain We Carry Study Group: Intro Listening Meetup will be on Thursday, December 11th at 5:30 PM PT/ 8:30 PM ET and hosted by Deeda. We’ll meet & listen to the Foreword and Introduction of The Pain We Carry: Healing from Complex PTSD for People of Color. This is an optional session to help settle into the material before our January 11th Chapter 1 discussion. Message Deeda for more information or reading materials. RSVP to attend here
🔖 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 one month 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. If you'd like to perform, share a workshop, host a game/tournament, hold space, vend, DJ some sets, teach a dance, volunteer as a support person, present artwork, etc, please let us know by filling out this form no later than Dec 14th at 11:59pm PT. 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
🫁 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 sci-fi thriller about the abduction of a powerful woman that may or may not be an alien. Think you know what it is? Come thru and find out! RSVP via the visit page. TW: for mentions of harm to a child.
🫂 The next session of Chronic Illness and Long Covid Support Group will be Thursday December 4th 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!
🪷 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.
🗡️Join us this Friday December 5th 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!
🦾 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!
📺 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 12th 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.
✍🏽 Are you an aspiring writer? Come join The Storytellers' Anthology every other Saturday. The group will meet again Saturday December 13th 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.
😷 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.)
🏳️⚧️ 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.
💻 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.
⚧️ Transverse: Call for trans and non-binary writers, artists, and performers with a connection to Canada (you do not have to be based in Canada to submit.) We are soliciting works from trans and non-binary artists that explore themes of expansion, transgression, and traversing beyond binaries. Selected works will be featured in both print copy and during a special launch party in Toronto in February 2026. Original pieces of prose, poetry, flash fiction, artwork, and photography may be submitted for this call, as well as performance-based works such as spoken word, burlesque, or dance numbers. Works must have a tie-in for the print copy of the magazine. Deadline: December 31, 2025 // Submissions@qtmag.ca.
🌍 Global Labor Justice (GLJ) brings strategic capacity to cross-sectoral work on global value chains and labor migration corridors. GLJ holds global corporations accountable for labor rights violations in their supply chains, advances policies and laws that protect decent work and just migration, and strengthens freedom of association, new forms of bargaining, and worker organizations. GLJ is seeking a mostly remote Senior Hospitality Campaign Organizer. Can apply from anywhere in the world. The Senior Hospitality Campaign Organizer will be responsible for leading campaigns to defend global worker rights and build worker power in the hospitality sector. Salary Range: $80k-$90k USD. Position open until filled. Apply here.
📣 QueerAF is seeking writers for paid Trans History Week opportunities. Deadline is Dec 2nd!
😷 Thanks to a donation. we have been able to acquire a supply of some 😷 KN95 masks 😷 that we are able to distribute to Garden members. Priority is given to folks living in multi-person households, folks who are caretakers, folks who are low-income, folks who are disabled/immunocompromised. Please fill out this form by Dec 14th at 11:59pm PT. Masks will be mailed Dec 15th.
🥐 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!