Hey Garden(ers),
Thursday, November 27th is the National Day of Mourning. At 8:15am PT/10:15am CT, ze (they/elle) will be leading us through a ceremonial gathering that will center Indigenous/Native American history as well as reflect and connect on how we divest from harmful history & traditions, decolonize our holiday practices, and relationship to grief and mourning. More details can be found below!
From ze: "Prior to NDOM gathering: Fellow Gardeners are welcome to come as they are, or prepare for our ceremonial gathering in a variety of ways. Feel free to reference this resource co-created by Seven Sisters Collective and USCPR."
NDOM Gathering Agenda
🌿 8:15am PT / 10:15am CT Space Opens // lighting ancestral candles while burning myths & misgivings - Gardeners can light a candle for ancestors being brought into this space and/or burn a harmful myth or misgiving in our ceremonial fire
🌿 8:25am PT / 10:25am CT Ceremony will begin promptly // Welcome & Introduction// Land Acknowledgment // The 4 directions // Ceremonial Overview // What is NDOM?// Add to and reference our NDOM - Garden Padlet
🌿 8:40am PT / 10:40am CT Reflection & Discussion Circle// Decolonizing our holiday practices //Divesting from harmful histories & traditions while reckoning with our truths // Our relationship to grief and mourning
🌿 9:00am PT / 11:00am CT Closing: honoring the land + Transition to UAINE's NDOM livestream -
🌿 short break (~10-15 mins)
🌿9:15/30am PT / 11:15/11:30am CT start watching UAINE NDOM livestream
⏰ Our events are generally listed in PT. Need help converting to your time zone? We recommend using World Time Buddy!
🍂 Led by ze (they/elle), our Garden Community will again gather in real-time on the morning of “Thanksgiving” to recognize National Day of Mourning (NDOM) on Thursday, November 27th, at 8:15am PT with a 10 min arrival grace period. RSVP!
🧌 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!
🏳️⚧️ This past Sunday, at 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.
🫁 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 fantasy film about training your uhhh, large lizard like creature...Think you know what it is? Come thru and find out! RSVP via the visit page.
🫂 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 next 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 November 28th 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 November 29th 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.)
💻 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.
🖤 kay, darling | Cosmic Healing will lead masking as fugitive praxis, November 28th at 2pm PT! let’s discuss how in this age of mass surveillance, (biometric) data collection, incarcerations, deportations, air pollution, decline in public health and reversal of already meager protections for disabled folks (😮💨) masking is a necessary intervention with widespread personal and collective benefits. join kay (and others!) to also explore an understanding of masking as fugitive praxis for collective liberation from oppression and domination as well as the propaganda campaign against the practice. this event is one within a larger Black Fugitivity series of discussions, mbongis, and panels! Location: Garden! Entrance will be via a portal in the Lobby.
📝 Since its inception, NewLit has awarded thirty-eight Jack Hazard Fellowships to writers who teach high school from fifteen different states across the US. Jack Hazard Fellows are fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and memoir writers who teach full time in an accredited high school in the United States. We provide a $5,000 award that enables these creative writers who teach to focus on their writing for a summer. Applications due Jan 9th.
🎙️ Dēmos: Dēmos is a non-profit public policy organization working to build a just, inclusive multiracial democracy and economy. We build power with and for Black and Brown communities through our strategic partnerships with state-based and grassroots organizations. Currently, we are seeking a mostly remote Associate Director of Media Engagement to develop, design, and lead our media strategy. Salary Range: $126-$136K. Position open until filled. Apply ASAP.
⚖️ Transgender Law Center seeks a Director of Case Management for the Border Butterflies Project. The Director of Case Management will lead and expand the Border Butterflies Project’s case management program, ensuring that LGBTQ+ asylum seekers across the United States and at the southern border receive effective, coordinated, and compassionate support. This role requires both strategic program development and hands-on case management. This position can be remote or work out of TLC’s offices in Oakland or Brooklyn. Preference to people living in Southern California, southwest, or southern regions of the United States. Salary: $120,590- $127,340 (approximate based on location.) Apply here.
📣 QueerAF is seeking writers for paid Trans History Week opportunities. Deadline is Dec 2nd!
🥐 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!