Hey Garden(ers),
It is officially 🪩New Year's Eve 🪩! We cannot wait to see you at our New Year's Eve/Day Party! From a Go-Kart Tournament, to movies, an Open Mic (featuring YOU) and much much more our 24+hr gathering is ready to start! If you have BIPOC friends who were a bit late to RSVP, we'll accept Day Pass requests until 2pm PST today! Special Thanks to Heartsong Interpreting for providing our ASL interpreters for this event! And of course, the schedule is here! Any updates or additions to the schedule will be found there!
⏰ Our events are generally listed in PST/PDT. Need help converting to your time zone? We recommend using World Time Buddy!
🪩Today is the day!🪩New Year's Eve/Day Party🪩! A 24+hr shindig fit for the people, our festivities traditionally include dance time, performances, workshops, game tournaments, countdowns to the New Year across time zones and more. Day Passes will be available, so please feel free to invite BIPOC friends/colleagues who are not already Garden members. ASL Interpreters will be available and can be requested on the Day Passes form or by replying to this email. RSVP to attend here. Check out the schedule here!
❄️ Starting Friday January 2nd at 6pm PT: Are you dreaming of a colder climate? Do you love indigenous stories? Need more laughter in your life? If you said yes to any of those questions or just need something to do on a Friday night then join Double-E in the Up All Night room for a mini marathon watch of the Canadian comedy series “North of North.” The show follows a young Inuk mother who tries to reinvent herself after a spontaneous and extremely public exit from her marriage with the town's golden boy in a tiny, tight-knit Arctic town. There’s only one season, so the watch party will be split across 2 sessions with four episodes each. RSVP to attend Let’s Go North of North!
☕ Sunday January 4th 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. January's presenter will be Learn Your ACABs - an alternative alphabet song choir practice w/texta.
🫁 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 night is postponed in lieu of the New Year's Eve/Day Party. Next week we'll be watching the second part of a musical about witches. Some of which are green. Think you know what it is? Come thru and find out! RSVP via the visit page. TW: for mentions of harm to a child.
🪷 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 January 1st 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. For the first session of the new year, we will feature a special Show and Tea Party. Did you learn new tips in managing chronic illness in 2025? Found a new support tool, mobility aid, friend, or plushie? How did your relationship with yourself and others develop? Spill the tea about your experiences and growth this past year! Bring your stories, items, photos to show on camera and/or in chat, and of course, your favorite tea/beverage to sip. This is a space where any type of creativity counts! RSVP here!
🗡️Join us Friday January 2nd 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!
✍🏽 Are you an aspiring writer? Come join The Storytellers' Anthology returns to every other Saturday January 3rd 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.
🍿 Monday, January 5th at 5pm PT, BJ will be hosting Black Movie Night, a bi-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!
😷 Hang out, chill and play games with Black folks who take COVID precautions at Bonfire in Garden! The next Bonfire will be Saturday January 17th at 5pm PT RSVP here. (Black folks only.)
🏳️⚧️ At our most recent 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 Jan 25th! Join us by RSVP'ing 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.
🐣 🌎 Chicken & Egg Films has announced the Research & Development Grant is now open and supports filmmakers from around the world who have directed at least one feature-length documentary and are in the research & development stage of their next feature-length film. A recording of the R&D 2026 Informational Webinar and Q&A session is available here. Grant awards are between $10k-$20k; applications are due February 4th.
💡 The Awesome Foundation has chapters all over the world that provide grants in the amount of $1k each for awesome projects. Regional and Global chapters have applications open every month with submissions being accepted the 1st-10th of the month.
🥐 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!