Hey Garden(ers),
October is Hoodoo Heritage Month! From Hoodoo Society, "Hoodoo is a tradition, a generational heirloom that is simultaneously medicine, magic, and religion. Born on North American soil to African parents, Hoodoo is a system of survival, adaptation, resistance and reclamation." In this newsletter, there are a couple ways for you to engage in learning more about Hoodoo via Social Hour w/ Louis and an upcoming workshop for Black TGNC folks via Liberation Medicine School.
⏰ Our events are generally listed in PST/PDT. Need help converting to your time zone? We recommend using World Time Buddy!
☕ Sunday October 4th 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. [October's Topic] Porch Lie Lessons: A Brief History of the Boo Hag w/Louis in honor of Hoodoo History Month
🐣 New Member Orientation & Welcome: New to Garden, or simply still have some tech and/or culture questions about the space? Follow J Mase to the Knowledge Nursery on Friday October 9th at 4pm PDT for an Orientation on Garden and the Gather.Town 1.0 platform! RSVP!
👾 Games of Deception on Friday Oct 9th at 5:30pm PT (please note the date/time change)! Come test your skills of deception! We'll start by playing Among us at 5:30pm PT and end on Jackbox Games at 7:30pm PT! Follow J Mase to get there! RSVP!
🎃 Autumn Equinox is right around the corner, which means Halloween is almost here! Did you want to pitch a workshop/game/event for Halloween Weekend? Submit via the Event Proposal Form by October 7th! Please note that we may reach out to adjust times to make sure we fit in everyone that would like to share something for Halloween Weekend!
🫁 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: Eve's Bayou // Content Warnings 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 2026 animated film about a Coyote that can't be kept down! Think you know what it is? Come thru and find out! RSVP via the visit page. This week, follow Ry to get there!
🧰 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. Thursdays at 10am PT. 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.
🫂 The next session of Chronic Illness and Long Covid Support Group will be Thursday October 8th 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 October 10th), 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 ;) Our next watch will be Jingle Jangle (2020 movie), a musical movie about an eccentric toymaker, his adventurous granddaughter, and a magical invention that has the power to change their lives forever. Come join the curtain call on Saturday October 10th 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: October 18th. 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.
🏳️⚧️ 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 October 25th! Join us by RSVP'ing 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 17th at 5pm PT RSVP here. Topic: Black Poetry Day!
📝 Saturday October 24th at 12pm 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
💻 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.
🫚 Hosted by Liberation Medicine School, We Got Magick at Home is a workshop and practice space for Black trans/gnc folks throughout the diaspora to explore ancestral veneration, mundane and magickal herbalism, and what it means to live into our spiritual freedom. Through a Hoodoo lens, we’ll explore what becomes possible when we prioritize relationship over consumerism. We’ll consider how our ancestors cultivated spiritual practices from what was available to them and what it might mean for us to do the same. Feel free to come with your ancestral altar lit and fed, if you have one. Bring an herb from your yard or kitchen that you want to explore. Above all else, bring your questions, your stories, and your inherited wisdom. [Sunday, October 4th at 9AM-12PM PDT// 12:00–3:00 PM EDT // 4PM-7PM GMT] Register here.
🌍💰 International Trans Fund will be opening its next grant cycle on October 6th for trans-led groups, globally, whose annual budget is under $100k. Applications are due by December 1st.
💾 The Center for Countering Digital Hate is looking for an experienced Director of Digital and Movement Building to grow the world’s leading digital movement for technology accountability. US Remote (ET preferred) As CCDH enters their next phase of growth, you’ll build the digital infrastructure, communities, campaigns, creator networks, and supporter experiences that help people understand their work and act alongside them. Your work will help transform public awareness into the collective power to create a safer internet and hold some of the world’s most powerful companies accountable. Salary: $130-150k. Apply ASAP.
🥣 SPOON is the only global organization dedicated to transforming nutrition and feeding for children with disabilities and children without consistent family care. They are currently seeking a remote Program Officer. SPOON’s Program Officer plays a key role in advancing SPOON's mission by supporting the design, implementation, and quality of nutrition and feeding programs across their project countries. Reporting to the Senior Director of Programs & Partnerships, this role manages day-to-day project activities, financial and grant compliance, and partner communications to ensure programs run smoothly and deliver lasting impact. The Program Officer also contributes to monitoring and evaluation, donor reporting, and cross-team coordination, helping translate SPOON's on-the-ground work into strong, sustainable outcomes for children and caregivers. This position is initially funded for one year through a grant, with strong organizational intent to extend it into a permanent role as funding allows. Salary: $65k- $75k USD // Apply by October 23rd.
🫂 Asian Americans are the least likely racial group in the US to seek services for mental health support. In response to this need, the Asian Mental Health Collective's Therapy Fund is once again open for applications and, for those accepted, provides up to 16 free sessions of virtual or in-person therapy over 6 months. Learn More here. Apply here.
🎱 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!
🦎 Cosmic Healing and Octavia's Chariot are hosting the second annual Interlocking Systems of Liberation (ISOL) during the the first 2 weekends of October (3, 4, 10, & 11) on zoom. Find more information at the link or sign up directly here.
💾 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!