Hey Garden(ers),
We are still recovering from the times that were had during our Halloween Weekend shindig! Thank you to our facilitators that held it down: Boba, Groovy, GenDoc, Deeda, Gata & Shark!! Thank you to all of you that dressed up, danced, sang your heart out, learned about the state of the world, got competitive at trivia, shared musical critiques and just kept each other in beautiful company this Halloween weekend! Special Shoutout to mian & Ry for placing 1st and 2nd respectively, at our Garden Halloween Costume Contest!! And if you haven't already checked out the brand new Sinners inspired room, Club Juke, courtesy of GenDoc, check it out via the Halloween Guide still present in the Lobby and on Garden Map! We're obsessed!
Additionally, many of you showed up (and showed out 🥳) last night to join Deeda & GenDoc at their totally unserious election party! Many of us engage in various forms of organizing, harm reduction and practices invested in creating a more liberated world. For those of you who waited with baited breadth for elections, it seems there were some seriously historic wins last night, even amidst some unfortunate measures that passed. We hope for those of you that are called to celebrate, that you enjoy some spaciousness for joy! WE ALL DESERVE AND NEED REST & JOY! And, we also love this video from yaffasutopia (IG) that asks, what are we doing with our joy or devastation? What are we building, what are we doing next to create the world where we all get to live freely? This is not an ending, but a point in the ongoing work. May we all get what we need to continue on!
What do I do if I don't understand the technology that Garden runs on?? Garden runs on Gather 1.0, a gamified meeting platform where we have spent thousands of hours of build time creating over 100 rooms for members and visitors to wander through. Using any new software can be a learning curve so we want to make sure you have time to feel comfortable!
If you are better at visual demonstrations, placed in our lobby, we have a tutorial video that covers how to navigate the space, how to use chats, and other helpful tips. Simply use your arrow keys, OR ASWD keys to navigate to the video and click "x" on your keyboard! Also placed in our n the lobby in the form of paper document icons, is our Accessibility Guide!
If you are better at reading instructions, and want to know some basic tips before logging on, including how to add closed captioning, check out our Accessibility Guide here!
If you do not have access to a laptop/desktop and want to know the options for navigating Garden on your mobile device (tablet or phone) before logging on, check out this presentation we made for mobile users here,
And lastly, if you do best with a live human being going through your unique questions and tech needs with you, we have open orientations for new members quarterly, BUT you can schedule a one-on-one orientation with an admin anytime by simply emailing us at info@MeetAtGarden.com.
⏰ Our events are generally listed in PST/PDT. Need help converting to your time zone? We recommend using World Time Buddy!
🏳️⚧️ Friday November 20th at 5pm PST, join J Mase for Trans Day of Remembrance: A Grief, Rage & Activation Space. Let us honor the people we have lost this year and cry/rage/activate ourselves towards creating a world where Trans and/or Non-Binary people are fully honored. RSVP.
📝 Saturday December 12th at 1pm 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
🪩 Want to propose something for New Years Eve/Day Weekend in Garden? We'll be hosting events from Thursday December 31st-Sunday January 3rd! Feel free to submit something you would like to host/see through our event proposal form no later than November 30th!
🫁 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: Beasts of the Southern Wild
💃🏾 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. RSVP here
🧰 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. Wednesdays at 10am PT. RSVP here
🎥 Name That Movie (Night!) is Wednesday at 5:30pm PT! This week's movie night is a DOUBLE FEATURE! Room 1: A 2026 live action reboot of a thriller/horror video game that deals with an unassuming medical courier who accepts a high-paying late-night delivery run to Raccoon City General Hospital. He quickly finds himself trapped in a desperate, chaotic race for survival as a viral outbreak unleashes grotesque mutated monsters across the city. Room 2: A family friendly 1993 movie about witches that may put a spell on you. Think you know what it is? Come thru and find out! RSVP via the visit page. Follow J Mase to get there!
🪷 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 November 5th 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 November 7th), 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 ;) For our next watch, we will be streaming Chicago (2002 movie), a musical movie about two murderers who find themselves in jail together awaiting trial in 1920s Chicago. Come join the curtain call on Saturday November 7th 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: November 15th. 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.
😷 Hang out, chill and play games with Black folks who take COVID precautions at Bonfire in Garden! The next Bonfire will be Saturday November 21st at 5pm PT RSVP here to learn more. Topic: Recipes
🏳️⚧️ 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 November 22nd! Join us by RSVP'ing here. November's Topic: Sex and Desire Through Transition w/ Asha
☕ Sunday December 6th 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.
💻 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.
🎨 Teiger Foundation supports group exhibitions, single-artist surveys, community-engaged art projects, digital exhibitions, performance in the context of the visual arts, and as-yet-unknown curatorial forms involving contemporary visual art and artists. We support curators' growth and development as they work in or in partnership with organizations of all sizes. We do not prioritize particular themes or project types. The next Hosting deadline is December 9, 2026; applications for the Single project, Three years of programming, and Research and development categories will be accepted from November 2, 2026 through January 26, 2027. Submit your application now through our Apply page. Awards range from $50k-$450k.
🫛 The application for the 2027 Sky High Farm Grants is now live! 🌟Sky High will award $350,000 in grants (total) to individuals working in agriculture, food justice, and/or land sovereignty. The average proposal funded in 2026 was $11,000 with grants ranging from $1500 up to $30,000. Grant proposals should match the scope and capacity of the amount requested. Applicants who requested funding 2026 and did not receive a grant may resubmit applications for consideration. WHO: Individuals or organizations working in agriculture, food justice, and/or land sovereignty. Applications will be prioritized among those who identify as: LGBTQIA+, BIPOC, & AAPI, and other intersectional identities, including people who have recently immigrated, coming from or working in historically marginalized communities, or more generally, communities historically exploited and harmed by the existing industrial agricultural and banking systems. You do not need to be a 501c3 to apply or receive funding.
Applications are open until December 20, 2026.
🌎 Founded in 1990, Outright International strives to help lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer (LGBTIQ) people live safer, healthier, and more empowered lives worldwide. Working from its offices in 12 countries and global headquarters in New York City, Outright documents human rights violations, helps resource LGBTIQ movements and allies, and advocates for the rights of LGBTIQ people. Outright currently seeks a (hybrid, global, with some travel) Senior Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning (MEL) Officer to develop and implement contextualized MEL approaches, provide support to staff and grantees, conduct learning and evaluation activities, and provide oversight on the overall Outright MEL system. . This will include supporting the development of programmatic strategies, progressively building and updating an organization-wide MEL framework, and contributing to grantee management and support, , with the goal of establishing efficient, movement-appropriate tracking of program quality and results to inform reflection processes, compliance with reporting requirements, and to a lesser degree, support identification of content for advocacy and fundraising activities. Salary dependent on location and experience. Apply ASAP!
🎭 UK based artists: Queering the Arts Outdoors is a 3 day residency programme for LGBTQIA+ identifying artists & makers interested in developing new work for the outdoors and public space. Throughout the residency artists will work day-to-day developing their project idea with a mix between solo development time, sharing ideas with the other artists and facilitated conversations. Each artist or company will receive: £800 per artist (inclusive of travel) // Accommodation and meals // Production, artistic & producing support. Apply by: Jan 11th!
🎱 Garden(er) Yaya is looking for 4 players interested in a short campaign of a TTRPG created by a disabled collective called Killer Crips 3000. "It's set in a fantasy world where disabled people fought and won a war against an ableist regime but in the process something ripped open the seams of reality bringing nightmare horrors into the world." The game and its playable characters are inspired by the lived experiences of disabled folks. DM Yaya in Garden directly if interested!
💾 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!