Hey Garden(ers),
We believe in long term community-led movements. Part of that work is having space for ourselves to socialize and connect so that we can build together. Thank you for joining us on this journey as Garden is approaching a new year of existence! If we were going to celebrate our anniversary, what would you like to see? Let us know by responding to this email!
⏰ Our events are generally listed in PST/PDT. Need help converting to your time zone? We recommend using World Time Buddy!
🪞 Begin your week from a place of rest. Join Deeda in The Conservatory for an hour of Yoga Nidra (yogic sleep) and reflection. No yoga experience needed. Bring a blanket, pillow, or anything that helps you get cozy. Sunday August 2nd at 5pm PT! RSVP to attend here.
☕ Sunday August 2nd at 1pm PT, Garden will be hosting its next Social Hour series. August's Presentation: Black Trans Women at the Center (Cohort 6) Listening Party & Talk Back w/ Lady Dane. Description: Join us for the 6th annual Black Trans Women At The Center: A New Play Festival, showcasing five new short radio plays by Black trans women. Led by Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi, the festival offers powerful glimpses into the lived experiences of the Black trans community. We celebrate creative works that challenge oppression, honor trans lives, illuminate histories, and envision transformative futures. // Schedule: [1pm PT-1:30pm PT] welcome. [1:30pm PT-2:30pm PT] listening party. [2:30pm PT-3pm PT] talk back. // 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.
🫁 Want to increase your lung capacity? Come to Breathing in the Knowledge Nursery! Every weekday at 9am PT. RSVP here!
🍿 Mondays, 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: Bebe's Kids
💃🏾 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 will be a 2025 Fantasy/Action movie where ten-year-old Aurora asks her hitman neighbor to kill the monster under her bed that she claims ate her family. Think you know what it is? Come thru and find out! RSVP via the visit page.
🧰 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. Thursdays at 10am PT. RSVP here
🪷 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.
🎬 Watch Interior Chinatown w/Anne on Saturdays at 2pm PT! IC follows the story of Willis Wu, a background character trapped in a police procedural trying to find his way into the larger story--and along the way discovering secrets about the strange world he inhabits and his family's buried history. RSVP
📺 Join keivān bi-weekly on Fridays at 6pm PT for Hunter x Hunter (2011), an anime adaptation of Yoshihiro Togashi's world-renowned manga of the same name. The story follows Gon as he learns that the dad who abandoned him is a Hunter: a licensed professional with superhuman-like abilities. Gon goes to take the Hunter Exam in hopes of one day meeting his dad. Along the way, he makes friends: Kurapika, the last survivor of the Kurta clan, who seeks vengeance for his people; Leorio, an aspiring doctor, who seeks a Hunter's financial benefits; & Killua, who's from the infamous Zoldyck family of assassins. Will Gon and friends pass the exam? Will Gon ever meet his father? Come find out! See content warnings. RSVP. Check it out July 31st!
🫂 The next session of Chronic Illness and Long Covid Support Group will be Thursday July 30th 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 this upcoming meeting, we will be celebrating our 2 year Chronic Illness Group anniversary by bringing our favorite beverages, engaging in a group ritual, and taking part in a Creativity Show and Tell! Have you made something with your favorite art medium? Do you enjoy making specific recipes? Have you had to problem solve through hard conversations? Or find solutions to your care needs? "Creativity" isn't exclusive to certain people and skills. There are infinite ways to create with finite resources. Come share and celebrate together our most joyful, satisfying, and proud creations! Bring your stories, items, and photos to show on camera and/or in chat. RSVP here!
✍🏽 Are you an aspiring writer? Come join The Storytellers' Anthology which is every other Saturday at 1pm PT (next session is August 1st), 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 ;) Our next watch will be a *double feature* First we’ll watch Frankelda’s Book of Spooks, a Mexican stop motion musical dark fantasy web series about a Mexican ghostwriter and her enchanted book. Next, we’ll watch the first episode of Smash, a TV show about the production of a new musical about Marilyn Monroe. Come join the curtain call on Saturday August 1st at 5pm PT! RSVP!
🐱 Hello Kitty Island Adventure Meet Up w/ Gata! Calling all Hello Kitty Island Adventurers and sanrio fans! We are hosting a game night (now every first Friday) to play Hello Kitty Island Adventure. Whether you're on a switch, on steam, or another playing platform, come through and hang out. We will be swapping gamming tips, visiting each others islands and more! See you there Friday August 7th at 5pm PT! (We will also be showing Aggretsuko (2018) while playing games or for folks who maybe don’t wanna play games but just wanna watch the show with us!)
😷 Hang out, chill and play games with Black folks who take COVID precautions at Bonfire in Garden! The next Bonfire will be Saturday August 15th at 5pm PT RSVP here. August's Topic: Black August x Plants
❤️🩹 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: August 16th. Group begins at 2:30pm PST/ 5:30pm EST for reading and discussion. If you prefer to join after reading, we’ll begin practicing the experiential exercises together around 3pm PST/6pm EST. See Deeda for more information & materials. RSVP.
🏳️⚧️ 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 August 23rd! Join us by RSVP'ing here.
📝 Saturday August 29nd at 12pm 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
💻 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.
📢 The Very Asian Foundation's (VAF) mission is to shine a light on Asian experiences through advocacy and celebration. VAF is a non-profit created from a viral, global moment of unity and is compelled to lift the human experience. This award provides a mini-grant to creatives (e.g.: actors, artists, authors, bakers, chefs, content creators, podcasters, small business owners, etc.) to help amplify their voices and reach. The Very Asian Foundation Creators Grant is an exciting micro-grant opportunity for individuals who wish to pursue their creative passions through an Asian American (AA), Native Hawaiian (NH), or Pacific Islander (PI) lens. We welcome submissions from people of all backgrounds.
This year, we will be awarding five $1500 grants. To be eligible, the applicant should present a creative project they would like to complete in 2026 and would do so with the help of this grant. Submissions due August 10th.
🌍 The Internet Freedom Fund is the primary opportunity through which Open Technology Fund supports innovative global internet freedom projects. These projects are focused on technology development and implementation, but can also include applied research, convenings, and digital security projects. Applications to the Fund go through a two-stage application process and are accepted on a rolling basis.
💾 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 & 🪴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!