Hey Garden(ers),
How do you take care of yourself when you are feeling dysregulated? One of our favorite tools, which is shared in a few places within Garden, is called You Feel Like Shit -a self care game-. We particularly love the way this tool takes you through a few different ways to take care of yourself and get back into your body when you are feeling stressed. If you haven't already, check it out!
⏰ Our events are generally listed in PST/PDT. Need help converting to your time zone? We recommend using World Time Buddy!
✍🏽 A Grants 101 session for Garden members who'd like some support in figuring out how to write, search for and secure grants is being held by J Mase on May 28th at 5:30pm PT, you can RSVP here, or simply show up the day of!
☀️ Our 24 hour long Summer Solstice event to welcome the sun and party down, will be happening June 20th-21st! Day Passes are available. Garden(ers) can RSVP here! BIPOC friends of Garden(ers) can RSVP here. A tentative schedule will be shared here later today!
🦈For Shark Week (July 9th-12th, 4:30pm-8:30pm PT) we’ll be watching two shark-themed movies each day in the Up All Night room. Join us for classic, comedic, and animated sea flicks. Lineup: July 9th - 🦈 Jaws + 🌪️ Sharknado; July 10th - 🧪 Deep Blue Sea + 🐠 Shark Tale; July 11th - 🦖 The Meg + 🌊 The Meg 2; July 12th - 🚤 Open Water + 🏄🏾♀️ The Shallows. RSVP for Shark Week Film Fest.
❤️🔥 Get your haterade flavored marshmallows ready; the Garden Roast is back! 👺 You wanna roast colonizers? Your terrible boss? The concept of time? COVID deniers? Join Groovy on Sunday July 26th at 1pm PT for the toastiest Garden event of the summer.
Hating knows no limits… but there's a couple of guidelines (ethical hating, hello! 🤓):
☮️ No roasting Garden members.
🤐 If you’re roasting someone who is NOT a public figure, please don’t use personal indicators.
🙅♀️ No racism, ableism, fatphobia, or any kind of discrimination. Be creative!
🥊 Punch up, not down.
⏰ Roasts should be less than 15 minutes.
Ready to roast? Submit a topic here and check out our Roasting 101 guide for more information!
🫁 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: House Party
🏋🏾♂️ Movement Mondays: Need to stretch more? Commit to your physical therapy? Do some resistance training? Whatever your movement needs are, this is a weekly time to do your independent movement work, while also being around others who need to move with intention! Weekly on Mondays at 7:30pm PT w/ J Mase & Chanelle. 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 a 2026 sci-fi adventure about a science teacher who wakes up on a spaceship not remembering why he's there or what his mission is. Think you know what it is? Come thru and find out! RSVP via the visit page.
🪷 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 June 4th 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 June 6th), 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 June 6th at 5pm PT! RSVP!
⚰️ It’s a Bloody Watch Party! Get ready for a big Bloody Season 2 Finale! In preparation for the Season 3 premiere, we are finishing up Season 2 of Interview with The Vampire, a gothic horror TV show about the vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac set in early 20th-century New Orleans. It’s got queers, it’s got Black and Brown vampires, and it’s got a ton of messy vampy drama! Let the story seduce you and join Groovy on Friday May 29 at 5pm PT/8pm ET *Content warnings here.* RSVP
🏳️⚧️ At our first 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 June 28th! Join us by RSVP'ing here.
😷 Hang out, chill and play games with Black folks who take COVID precautions at Bonfire in Garden! The next Bonfire will be Saturday June 20th at 5pm PT RSVP here.
❤️🩹 Our Pain We Carry Study Group meets in the Kinship Room on the 2nd and 3rd Sundays of each month (with occasional adjustments around holidays). Upcoming date: June 14 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.
☕ Sunday June 7th at 1pm PT, Garden will be hosting its next Social Hour series. Each Social Hour will typically 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.
💻 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 Asian American Arts Alliance (A4) is proud to announce the second and final cycle of the A4 Arts Fund, a national grantmaking initiative supported by The Wallace Foundation and in partnership with the National Arts Regranting Partners.
This program addresses the critical funding gaps that disproportionately affect Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) arts and culture organizations. A 2025 report by the Asian American Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy revealed that for every $100 awarded by US funders, only 34 cents goes to Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities. In response, these grants will support AAPI arts and culture organizations whose creative work uplifts and serves their communities, while expanding our collective understanding of the AAPI arts and culture landscape nationwide. This fund provides unrestricted general operating support to AAPI arts and cultural organizations with annual operating budgets under $500,000. Apply by July 13th.
🪫 The Mobilize Power Fund is a US based rapid response fund that resources gender justice organizations to adapt or pivot their work when met with unanticipated, time-sensitive opportunities or threats to their movement building work and organizing conditions. Apply by written application, video, or phone! The Mobilize Power Fund prioritizes organizations that are responding to specific incidents or changes of circumstances that have occurred in the last six months. This can include rapid response mobilizations, healing justice work, conflict resolution/conflict transformation, community accountability, mutual aid, direct actions, emergency safety, security, and defense needs, and more. This fund prioritizes groups and organizations who are experiencing an unanticipated incident. Because of this, organizations applying on behalf of a budget shortfall or preplanned events or ongoing programming will not be prioritized. Apply here.
🌍 The Internet Freedom Fund is a global fund, and 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. See below for more details about each category. OTF prioritizes projects coming from individuals or organizations who are applying for the first time, identify as under-represented within the field, and address areas that are underfunded. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis. Awards are between $10,000 and $900,000 for up to 24 months. Ideal applicants seek funding between $50,000 and $200,000 for efforts between 6 and 12 months.
📖 The Black Trans Prayer Book, is organizing a Trans Book Fair, where we will be connecting virtually with Trans folks, and our solidarity partners, from all over the US and beyond, while also distributing physical books by Trans Authors to Trans people! If you/your org would like to support this work (attend // fund // be featured // etc), there is a form for that here! We are looking for people and organizations who would like to help us make this happen!
🥐 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!