Hey Garden(ers),
Last call for Halloween Weekend Day Passes for any non-Garden members to attend! Email us at info@MeetAtGarden.com if you'd like a temporary Garden link for BIPOC friends or colleagues. Check out the updated schedule!
What's up with all the chats in Garden and what are they for? On Gather 1.0, there are various four major chat categories: Private area chats, Member Chats and Direct Messages. When you go to the chat tab on your screen,
Private Area chats are indicated by an orange circle with a location pin. These chats exist only in private areas, and disappear once you have left the private area. These chats are good for discussions with a group of people that are organically hanging our, or attending an event at the same time.
Garden Members chat is simply labeled "Garden" and is indicated by a royal blue color with a building inside of it. This chat only appears to "Desk Build Members" of Garden and can only be seen by people who have a desk. This chat is permanent, but is not visible to all members in Garden.
Direct Message chats are like that of our "Everyone Chat" which currently includes every Garden Member that has been in Garden over the last three months. This is the chat that's best to post when/where an event is, ask a question to the community, or get help when lost. Direct Messages also include DM's to individuals and smaller groups that members can create themselves. Direct Messages threads are permanent and individual messages last for at least 6 months, unless the initial poster deletes the message themselves.
⏰ Our events are generally listed in PST/PDT. Need help converting to your time zone? We recommend using World Time Buddy!
🎮 Halloween Game Streams: For the month of October, Fronds will be having weekly horror themed gaming streams on Friday's from 5pm to 7pm PDT. At the beginning of each stream, they will let members know if it is eerie, thrilling or scary category of game. have fun~ RSVP
🎃 Our Halloween Weekend schedule has landed! Show off your costume, sing along to musicals, dance like your camera is on and play games in the Juke Joint! If you'd like to invite BIPOC friends to Garden for Halloween Weekend, that are not already part of the community, email us via info@meetatgarden.com for Day Passes! RSVP for the individual events!
📝 Saturday October 31st at 1pm 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
☕ Sunday November 1st 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. November Topic: Navigating Venezuela on the ground w/ Cacique
🪫 A Totally Unserious Election Watch Party ☑️ 🫠November 3rd at 6:15pm PT – You’re invited to A Totally Unserious Election Watch Party, an election-night comedy double feature for the civically engaged and politically exhausted. After you cast your vote, spend the evening with friends watching Election and Idiocracy while we check in on key midterm races throughout the night. We intend to keep things light, but we hope everyone will participate! Deeda and GenDoc put together an Election Night Prep Guide with voting information, races to watch, and public-health issues to follow. Together we’ll laugh our way through whatever unfolds and continue to hope (against all available evidence) for the end of empire. ✨ Check the schedule! RSVP!
🫁 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
💃🏾 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. RSVP here
🧰 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. Wednesdays at 10am PT. RSVP here
🎥 Name That Movie (Night!) is Wednesday at 5:30pm PT! This week's movie is a 2026 animated film about best friends who stumble upon a mysterious portal that transports them to the fantastical island of Nakali. Think you know what it is? Come thru and find out! RSVP via the visit page. This week, follow Groovy to get there!
🪷 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 November 5th 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 November 7th), 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 ;) Come join the curtain call on Saturday November 7th 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: November 15th. 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.
😷 Hang out, chill and play games with Black folks who take COVID precautions at Bonfire in Garden! The next Bonfire will be Saturday November 21st at 5pm PT RSVP here. Topic: Recipes
🏳️⚧️ 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 November 22nd! 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.
📰 News Creator Corps invests in the people audiences already trust. The Trusted Creator Fellowship is an intensive training program for information-focused creators who care deeply about the communities they serve. Our fellows already have audiences who trust them. The fellowship gives them the skills to make sure the information they share is accurate, well-sourced, and in the context that connects it to their community. Our fellows cover everything from politics to sports, including restaurant openings, public health, parenting, local government, and national politics. We value every topic and niche. $5,000 stipend for completing the program. Apply for the 2027 Winter Class by Nov 13th.
✍🏽 The Walter Dean Myers Grant program was established to provide grants of $2,000 to promising diverse writers and illustrators who are currently unpublished. (This includes both traditional publishing and self publishing.) Applicant must be a U.S. resident or a refugee living in the States. Grant awards are $2.000. Apply by October 32st!
🌎 The Basis Fellowship is offering $50,000 to operators, engineers, scientists, anyone, globally working on innovative solutions. Applications are rolling and you can nominate someone you think they should support.
📝🌎 Evaristo Prize for African Poetry: A prize of $1,500 is given annually for a group of poems by an African poet who has not published a full-length collection. Writers who were born in Africa, who are nationals or residents of an African country, or whose parents are African are eligible. Using only the online submission system, submit 10 published or unpublished poems of up to 40 lines each by November 1. There is no entry fee. Visit the website for complete guidelines.
🌎💰 Since 2011, GiveDirectly has encouraged moving funds directly to people and families that need it most worldwide. They are searching globally for their remote Director of Talent Management. Salary is based on location. (US: $134k, Kenya: $106K, UK: £94,605, etc.) Apply ASAP.
🐣 All Our Kin, a US based nonprofit that trains and supports family child care providers, is hiring a remote senior manager to run strategic and annual planning, a portfolio of cross-functional projects, and the committees, working groups and task forces behind its Strategic Plan, including designing and facilitating the planning sessions and coaching other project managers. Salary: $90k-$100K. Apply ASAP.
🧪 Spark is a science-driven, philanthropically funded non-profit that accelerates progress on unsolvable climate challenges. Our goal is to enable a safer climate by filling target gaps in current climate actions. We are seeking a remote, part-time Operations Coordinator to help keep day-to-day scheduling and administrative tasks organized and moving forward. This individual will be responsible for managing the Executive Director’s and organizational calendar, and provide additional support for meeting coordination, expense documentation, internal team gatherings, and event logistics. This role is a good fit for someone who enjoys keeping track of details and following through using established processes. Compensation: $28–$38 per hour, for up to 20 hours per week. Apply ASAP.
🎱 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!
💾 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!