Hey Garden(ers),
Last week was World AIDS Day. We want to acknowledge the community organizers, the chosen families, the compassionate medical professionals that taught us what a undeniable response to pandemic can look like. The organizing that happens on behalf of those of us seeking an end to COVID-19 in 2025 and beyond, would not be possible without the changemakers that came before us and those that continue to fight for a world where community health is a global project. We send our blessings to those we lost too soon to HIV/AIDS, and our gratefulness to those who have cared for so many of our neighbors/loved ones/community members. The HIV/AIDS pandemic continues to leave an impact on how so many of us began to understand collective movements.
We are about three weeks out from our annual 24hr 🪩New Year's Eve/Day Party🪩, which means last call for folks that want to share their skills/gifts during the festivities! If you'd like to perform, share a workshop, host a game/tournament, hold space, vend your small business, DJ some sets, teach a dance, volunteer as a support person, present artwork, etc, please let us know by filling out this form no later than Dec 14th at 11:59pm PT. 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!
⏰ Our events are generally listed in PST/PDT. Need help converting to your time zone? We recommend using World Time Buddy!
🧌 Join Gata for a Shrek Movie Marathon starting at 12pm PT Saturday December 6th, where we’ll go through all the hilarious, corny, and action-packed films that made Shrek, Donkey, and Fiona unforgettable. We will watch Shrek 1, 2, 3 and forever after. We will take breaks, and altogether it will take about eight hours. Folks are welcome to jump in and out in between movies! Grab your snacks, settle in, and get ready to stay up late. See you at the swamp! (aka All Night Room) RSVP!
☕ Sunday December 7th 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. December's Social Hour will be: How to make presentations in Canva like a bad bitch w Groovy!
❤️🩹 The Pain We Carry Study Group: Intro Listening Meetup will be on Thursday, December 11th at 5:30 PM PT/ 8:30 PM ET and hosted by Deeda. We’ll meet & listen to the Foreword and Introduction of The Pain We Carry: Healing from Complex PTSD for People of Color. This is an optional session to help settle into the material before our January 11th Chapter 1 discussion. Message Deeda for more information or reading materials. RSVP to attend here
🔖 New Year Prep Weekend: Join Deeda for a 2-day event focused on looking back on 2025 and setting intentions for 2026 with free tools from Passion Planner. We’ll get together on Saturday 12/20 for 2025 Year-End Reflection (guided journaling) 📓 and on Sunday 12/21 for the 2026 Passion Roadmap (vision board + goal-setting). 🎨 Both sessions meet at 1pm PT/4pm ET for about 2 hours. Drop-ins are welcome for one or both days! No materials required, but feel free to bring your journal, planner, or any creative supplies that inspire you. ✨ RSVP here
🪩 We are about three weeks out from our annual 🪩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. If you'd like to perform, share a workshop, host a game/tournament, hold space, vend, DJ some sets, teach a dance, volunteer as a support person, present artwork, etc, please let us know by filling out this form no later than Dec 14th at 11:59pm PT. 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
🫁 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 an animated film about a panda with some serious fighting skills. 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.
🦾 Self Defense Discussion Series is every Sunday at 8am PT! We focus on ease of movement, light strengthening or flexibility exercises, and reading/discussion on self-defense and liberatory principles. Message Caroline with any questions. RSVP via the visit page!
📺 Based on Issa Rae's acclaimed web series Awkward Black Girl, Insecure is a show about the awkward and messy experiences of a young Black woman. Join us Friday December 12th at 6pm PT to stream and chit-chat about Issa and her crew's hilarious moments, relationship drama, bad decisions, breakups and glow-ups. Issa watch party at The Dunes! RSVP via the visit page.
✍🏽 Are you an aspiring writer? Come join The Storytellers' Anthology every other Saturday. The group will meet again Saturday December 13th 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.
🫂 The next session of Chronic Illness and Long Covid Support Group will be Thursday December 18th 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!
🗡️Join us Friday December 19th 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!
😷 Hang out, chill and play games with Black folks who take COVID precautions at Bonfire in Garden! The next Bonfire will be Saturday December 20th at 5pm PT RSVP here. (Black folks only.)
🍿 Starting Monday, December 22nd 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.) The movie on the 22nd will be a Cooley High. RSVP!
🏳️⚧️ 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 Dec 28th! 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.
🌍 For those invested in connecting with other organizers in the movement for a Free Congo, Congo Accountability Network is hosting a launch webinar on December 12th at 10am PST/ 7pm CET. Register here.
⚧️ Trans Empowerment Project is opening up its next round of emergency microgrants for Trans adults in the US (up to $150), on Monday December, 15th. Apply here on Monday the 15th. To donate to these efforts: text MICROGRANT to 44321.
🎭 The Relentless Award, is the largest annual cash prize in American theater awarded to a playwright in recognition of a new play. If selected, a playwright will receive $50k for their new play. Applications are open until January 1st.
📚 Call for submissions to two zines! "The Asian Urge to Hang a Good Luck Charm in Your Car" zine and "Show Me Your Bag Trinkets" - submit a photo or art, whatever words you want to share about it, and your name/@'s (optional/if you want to be credited) to one or both of these collaborative zines! (Bag Trinkets is open for any and all to submit.) Accepted contributors will receive a physical copy, and any/all profits of both will go to Red Canary Song. Deadline: December 31, 2025 // emkaisart@proton.me
😷 Thanks to a donation. we have been able to acquire a supply of some 😷 KN95 masks 😷 that we are able to distribute to Garden members. Priority is given to folks living in multi-person households, folks who are caretakers, folks who are low-income, folks who are disabled/immunocompromised. Please fill out this form by Dec 14th at 11:59pm PT. Masks will be mailed Dec 15th.
🦆 Want to try a duckbill mask AND support a Palestinian family's survival? Ongoing offer: 2 Kleenguard N95 Pouch Respirators (very breathable, relatively low price) shipped USPS untracked, for a minimum* $5 USD donation. Contact: emkaisart@proton.me. WHO? the Al-Saloul family ; Waad & her family ; Haythem & his family . Please give directly to any or all of the three families then email emkaisart@proton.me a screenshot of your receipt and your mailing address. *waived if you cannot afford it; if you can, please give more generously than a onetime $5 to help Palestinians survive ongoing genocide
🥐 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!