Hey Garden(ers),
We are committed to providing some of the community and support spaces we believe are needed to help foster the strong interpersonal bonds required for social movements! As this year is drawing to a close very soon, we are reflecting on what we have gotten to do together over the years and are beaming with so much love for each and every single one of you! In the coming weeks, we'll be sharing our New Year's Eve/Day plans and hope you can join us in ringing in 2027 wherever you are in the world! So far, we have plans for a stoplight party for folks looking to meet new potential dates/flirts/romantic partners, an arts exhibit with some brilliant creatives that will be building out some installations for us to all wander through and a return of Garden's Roast Wanted! If there is anything you'd like to host, please feel free to submit a proposal through our event form here!
Did you know you can toggle between seeing the background in Garden and enlarging the screens of the people you are talking to/engaging with? If you are communicating with people directly, or attending an event and want to better observe the speaker, you can hit 'Meeting View' in the top right corner of your screen. This will enlarge the video screens of the people you are engaging with and/or watching. You can even click on individual screens to make them larger than others. Want to switch back to seeing the background? Simply hit 'Map View.'
⏰ Our events are generally listed in PST/PDT. Need help converting to your time zone? We recommend using World Time Buddy!
🏳️⚧️ Friday November 20th at 5pm PST, join J Mase for Trans Day of Remembrance: A Grief, Rage & Activation Space. Let us honor the people we have lost this year and cry/rage/activate ourselves towards creating a world where Trans and/or Non-Binary people are fully honored. RSVP.
📝 Saturday December 12th 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
🪩 Want to propose something for New Years Eve/Day Weekend in Garden? We'll be hosting events from Thursday December 31st-Sunday January 3rd! Feel free to submit something you would like to host/see through our event proposal form no later than November 30th!
🫁 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: Soul Food
💃🏾 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 night is a 2026 action-fantasy film where Lupita Nyong'o portrays the woman whose face launched a thousand ships. Think you know what it is? Come thru and find out! RSVP via the visit page. Follow J Mase to get there! Next week's movie will be a 2026 horror about a replacement mommy.
🪷 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 19th 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 21st), 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 21st 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 to learn more. 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. November's Topic: Sex and Desire Through Transition w/ Asha
☕ Sunday December 6th 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.
💻 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.
💐 New Economy Coalition is currently hiring for three full time remote positions that will start in the Spring of 2027 as they continue growing their work and strengthening organizational capacity. Current openings: Finance Director // Communications Director // Resource Mobilization Director. Compensation Range (for all three roles): $78k-$150k. Apply by Dec 16th.
🧘🏾♀️ Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6:30am PST/9:30am EST, Queens Public Library is hosting free public pilates classes via Zoom! This program is suitable for #OlderAdults, pre/postpartum participants, and those seeking a pain-aware approach. Passcode: pilates
🌏 The Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) is a global, feminist, membership, movement-support organization. We currently have 30+ staff members based in 20+ different countries. Our mission is to support feminist, women’s rights and gender justice movements to thrive, to be a driving force in challenging systems of oppression, and to co-create feminist realities. AWID is looking globally to hire a Communications Manager who will oversee all Communication activities, provide leadership to and manage the work of the Communications team, and work with teams across the organization to develop, implement, and assess strategic plans that advance programmatic and organizational goals. This is a full-time, fixed term role that sits within AWID’s Membership and Communications Team, works closely with Communications Leads and a Coordinator, and is under the direct supervision of the Director of Membership and Communications. Compensation: USD $85,340 // Apply ASAP
💾 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!