Hey Garden(ers),
Did you know that you can suggest events at any time? Check out our event proposal form. Below, find out what's happening where we are, as well as opportunities from elsewhere.
Are you new here and wanting someone to go over how to use Gather/Garden with your tech needs in mind? Schedule a time with an admin by replying to this email!
⏰ Our events are generally listed in PST/PDT. Need help converting to your time zone? We recommend using World Time Buddy!
💔 Saturday February 14th at 7pm PST (Please note the time change) We will be bringing the internationally acclaimed tour Cupid Ain't @#$%!: An Anti-Valentine's Day Poetry Movement to Garden! Part heartbreak, political rants, bitter love poems and YOU, this poetry event will feature T.S. Banks and Venus Kii Thomas and an open mic portion. Come ready for the haiku slam if you'd like to be dubbed the Anti-Valentine's Day Slam Champion! Day Passes for Non-Garden Members are available. RSVP
⚧ At 2-pm PST Monday February 16th, The Black Trans Prayer Book, (J Mase & Lady Dane) is hosting Healing Past Fascism (A Space for Trans People to Be Free). Designed for us to reset our nervous systems during these trying times while connecting with other Trans folks, this session is open to people across the Trans, Non-Binary & Gender Expansive spectrum and will incorporate meditation exercises, discussion and reflections on Transcentric political praxis. RSVP here!
🍉 Are you ready for MO MO MO??? Join Double-E every other Friday (next session Feb 20th at 6pm PST), to watch “MO”, the award-winning comedy series about a Palestinian asylum seeker hustling to make ends meet in Houston, Texas. RSVP to attend
🫁 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 installment of a sci-fi thriller franchise taking place on lands described as not great. Think you know what it is? Come thru and find out! RSVP via the visit page.
🪷 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.
🍿 Monday, February 16th at 5pm PT, BJ 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!
🫂 The next session of Chronic Illness and Long Covid Support Group will be Thursday February 12th 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!
🎭 🎭 Places, theater nerds! At Do You Hear the Garden Sing? (Musical Theater Night) we watch musical theatre movies, pro-shots (and some slime tutorials) every other week. This is a bi-weekly space to nerd-out about musical theater, enjoy some tunes and even share some hateful takes ;) For our anti-Valentines day musical, we are watching The Last Five Years, a musical about a struggling actress and a successful writer’s failed marriage told from two perspectives. Come join the curtain call on Saturday February 14 at 5pm PST! RSVP!
✍🏽 Are you an aspiring writer? Come join The Storytellers' Anthology returns to every other Saturday, Feb 14th 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 February 21st at 5pm PT RSVP here. (Black folks only.)
🏳️⚧️ At our first 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 2/22! Join us by RSVP'ing here.
☕ Sunday March 1st 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.
💻 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.
🖊️ Poetry Northwest’s James Welch Prize is awarded for two outstanding poems, each written by an Indigenous U.S. poet. Each winner will also receive a $1000 honorarium. Apply by Feb 15th.
🏳️🌈 The Charles S. Longcope Jr. Writers and Artists Grant: Up to three grants of up to $5,000 each and publication of an article in the Gay & Lesbian Review will be given annually for projects with a primary focus on “LGBTQ+ identity, experiences, or history” by emerging poets and prose writers. Submit a 100-word project summary, a project description, a description of the proposed article, a résumé, a budget and budget narrative, an anticipated timeline, and a list of other funding sources for the project via e-mail by February 15. There is no entry fee. Visit the website for complete guidelines.
💐 A Memorial inside of Garden will take place on Thursday, February 12th at 5pm PST to honor Oddnon. All Garden members are welcome to attend. If you need a reminder, please add it to your calendar.
🥐 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 & 🪴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!