Hey Garden(ers),
👻 Save the date and join us for our second annual 🎃Garden Halloween Party🎃 Saturday November 1st-Sunday November 2nd! Day Passes will be available! Costume contests, speed friending, and Halloween themed movies of all kinds and scare levels abound! RSVP here!
Last week, ze (they/elle) hosted a Fall Equinox Gathering inspired by their Indigenous Mesoamerican heritage and ancestral practices of Wey Mikailwitl ("Feast of the Dead") and Ochpanztli ("Sweeping of the Paths"). ze shared the parallels and differences between Wey Mikailwitl and what is known as the Day of the Dead (often sometime in the first week of November). They also explained different types of cleaning, which is not just what we conventionally think of (like a mop and broom), but with specific herbs, burning of specific spiritual items, and rituals passed down from generation to generation. In small groups, Garden members came together to reflect on a variety of questions, including what they are ready to harvest this season, or what they have been harvesting.
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⏰ Our events are generally listed in PT. Need help converting to your time zone? We recommend using World Time Buddy!
📺 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 next Friday October 3rd 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 this Saturday October 4th 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 This group is created for writers who want feedback and constructive criticism on their unpublished literary works, especially for those looking to publish their piece, but just need an extra pair of eyes and encouragement.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.
🛋️ Join Deeda as she hosts Fall Forward: A Cozy Vision Board Party this Saturday October 4th at 3pm PT. As the season shifts, come settle in for a gentle Saturday evening of reflection, intention-setting, and creative visioning. Folks will gather in the Enchanted Library to dream together about the months ahead. Feel free to bring your favorite cozy drink, comfy socks/blanket, and a few images or words that speak to your heart. ✨ No pressure--just presence and imagination!✨RSVP here.
☕ This Sunday October 5th 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. October's Topics: 15 common words & phrases that undermine solidarity with Palestinian Liberation and what to say instead w/ kayvon. Things You Didn't Know About SpongeBob w/ Gata.
👻 Starting Scary Season off with a lil fun, Dan and Deeda are hosting the first of four in a series called Sunday Scaries. Beginning with Comedy Musical Edition 🎬 October 5th will be a marathon of comedy musical horror classics which include 🌱 Little Shop of Horrors - 4pm PT / 👄 The Rocky Horror Picture Show - 5:45pm PT / ✂️ Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street - 7:45pm PT Bring your best sing-along voice! Make sure to RSVP!
📖Join Deeda November 10th at 6pm PT as she hosts an interest meeting to explore forming a study group around ❤️🩹 The Pain We Carry: Healing from Complex PTSD for People of Color by Natalie Y. Gutiérrez, LMFT (and the companion workbook). The group will offer community support for addressing systemic, intergenerational, and attachment trauma through therapeutic practices. This meeting will be a space to learn more and decide together on the group’s structure (meeting frequency, dates, and focus). No commitment required. Just bring your curiosity and ideas!
🫁 Want to increase your lung capacity? Come to Breathing in the Knowledge Nursery! Every weekday at 9am PT. RSVP here!
💃🏾 Co-Twerking is Tuesdays with Caroline at 3pm PST! 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 (tonight) Wednesday at 5:30pm PT! This week's movie is a 2022 drama capturing the story of the Agojie, the all-female unit of warriors who protected the African Kingdom of Dahomey in the 1800s. 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 next Thursday October 9th 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 another 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 October 10th at 5pm 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 October 18th at 5pm PT RSVP here. (Black folks only.)
🦾 Self Defense Discussion Series will be on Sundays 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!
🎨 Let’s unlock our creative spirit together! Garden's Way a 12-week meetup where we’ll discuss chapters, share progress, and encourage each other as we move through The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. Open to anyone (writers, painters, musicians, dreamers, etc.) looking for a supportive space to grow and express themselves. 🌱 every Sunday at 11am PT through Oct 5th, hosted by Deeda & Mo & Dan. Meeting weekly at Garden and yapping asynchronously in our Signal group. DM a host to be added to the Signal group, or join us at their weekly meeting! RSVP 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.
🎥 DEADLINE EXTENDED for the 2026 Breaking Through the Lens Program 🎬 awarding two $10k Action Grants supporting women and LGBTQ+ directors in late-stage development on a feature or documentary. Late Deadline: October 7th.
🌍 The Adina Talve-Goodman Fellowship by One Story is a yearlong fellowship for fiction writers, open to writers globally, that includes an honorarium of $2,000, access to One Story online classes, and admission to One Story’s weeklong summer writers’ conference. The winner also receives a full manuscript review of up to 150 pages or 35,000 words of a story collection or novel-in-progress and a consultation with One Story executive editor Hannah Tinti. Writers who have not been enrolled in an advanced degree-granting program in creative writing and have not yet published a book are eligible. Submissions due by October 8.
🍉 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 weeks 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!