Hey Garden(ers),
How have you maintained your curiosity and desire to be part of community growth during these wild times? These upcoming weeks, community members have a full slate of events that we hope spark connection, intellectual expansion and a space for joy in each of us. We are so appreciative of each and every one of you that spends even an ounce of your time, caring for each other, being part of a larger community and building towards a world where empathy, compassion and dignity are honored. A major part of building strong movements is being connected on purpose and with intention. Thank you for all that you do, to make a world we all want to live in truly possible. 💖🪴🌿
⏰ Our events are generally listed in PT. Need help converting to your time zone? We recommend using World Time Buddy!
🛌🏾 November 16th at 6pm PT, check out Sunday Self-Care: Yoga Nidra. Settle into the evening with Yoga Nidra, a guided meditation also called “yogic sleep.” 🌙 No yoga experience needed. Just bring whatever might help you get cozy and reset for the week. 🕯️Led by Deeda & Groovy in the Up All Night Room (except only for an hour)! RSVP here
🏳️⚧️ Sunday, November 23rd at 2pm PT, J Mase will be hosting Trans Meetup- A space to get together as Trans, Non-Binary and Gender Expansive people! RSVP here
📖 Join Deeda November 24th at 5pm PT as she hosts an interest meeting to explore forming a study group around ❤️🩹 The Pain We Carry: Healing from Complex PTSD for People of Color by Natalie Y. Gutiérrez, LMFT (and the companion workbook). The group will offer community support for addressing systemic, intergenerational, and attachment trauma through therapeutic practices. This meeting will be a space to learn more and decide together on the group’s structure (meeting frequency, dates, and focus). No commitment required. Just bring your curiosity and ideas! RSVP to attend here.
🧌 Join Gata for a Shrek Movie Marathon starting at 12pm PT Saturday December 13th, 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!
🫁 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 a 2025 drama about 94 year old Eleanor, who moves to NYC after the passing of her best friend. Think you know what it is? Come thru and find out! RSVP via 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!
🪷 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.
🗡️Join us next Friday November 21st 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!
🦾 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 November 14th 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 November 15th 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.
😷 Hang out, chill and play games with Black folks who take COVID precautions at Bonfire in Garden! The next Bonfire will be Saturday November 15th at 5pm PT RSVP here. (Black folks only.) November's Bonfire will be a community meal.
☕ 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!
💻 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.
🖤 kay, darling | Cosmic Healing will lead masking as fugitive praxis, November 28th at 2pm PT! let’s discuss how in this age of mass surveillance, (biometric) data collection, incarcerations, deportations, air pollution, decline in public health and reversal of already meager protections for disabled folks (😮💨) masking is a necessary intervention with widespread personal and collective benefits. join kay (and others!) to also explore an understanding of masking as fugitive praxis for collective liberation from oppression and domination as well as the propaganda campaign against the practice. this event is one within a larger Black Fugitivity series of discussions, mbongis, and panels! Location: Garden!
🖲️ Paradigm Park is a creative studio exploring how design can help us live and imagine differently. We are seeking a Senior Digital Experience Designer who shares our belief that digital environments should serve humanity, not capture attention. This role is ideal for a designer fluent across web, brand, and digital product design, and who is curious about how digital experiences might extend into physical environments, from spatial storytelling to interactive installations. This position will begin as a three-month contract-to-hire, structured as a period of mutual exploration and alignment. Salary: $90k- $130k. Applications are accepted until position is filled.
📕 Pushcart Press' Editor's Book Award is a prize of $1,000 is given occasionally for a fiction or nonfiction manuscript that has been rejected by a commercial publisher. The award recognizes “worthy manuscripts that have been overlooked by today’s high-pressure, bottom-line publishing conglomerates.” Manuscripts must be submitted with a formal letter of nomination from an editor at a U.S. or Canadian publishing company by November 15.
🥐 As the US government shutdown continues, we wanted to remind folks of some necessary resources. 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!