Hey Garden(ers),
It's still running hot where many of us are, and in the spirit of cooling off, next week we'll be having a Snowball Off where the Garden member with the most snowballs thrown (as evidenced by the score board in the Space Snowball Room), will win a prize of $25. The current scoreboard will be cleared this upcoming Monday August 31st at 10am PDT, with scores being counted until the following Monday September 7th at 10am PDT. Where do you get a Snowball? You can get a snowball from either the snowball machine in the Lobby or in the Space Snowball Room on Garden Map! Use the spacebar to retrieve and throw snowballs!
Have you been watching Diarra of Detroit? For the next 3 Thursdays at 4pm PT/7pm ET, some Gardeners will be gathering to watch the final new episodes of the season, starting tomorrow where we'll be checking out Season 2 Episode 6!
⏰ Our events are generally listed in PST/PDT. Need help converting to your time zone? We recommend using World Time Buddy!
📽️🌈 We're Here, We're Queer Movie Marathon Sunday August 30th starting at 12pm PT. From horror to comedy and rom coms, we'll cover some of our favorites and a few niche options! To get the movie list sent to your inbox RSVP here, [Full watch list] Room 1: My Name is Pauli Murray 12pm PT // But I'm a Cheerleader 2pm PT // The Handmaiden 3:45pm PT // Everything Everywhere All at Once 6:15pm PT. Room 2: Lesbian Space Princess 2pm PT // She's the He 3:45pm PT // I Saw the TV Glow 5:45pm PT // (WILD CARD Queer Horror) 7:45pm PT
☕ Sunday September 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. September's Topic: Spicy Books 101: A Tour of the Romance Genre w/ Deeda
🫁 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: Bad Boys For Life.
💃🏾 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 is a double feature! Room 1: is a 2023 Drama/Thriller, about what happens when a drag queen's life is derailed by a homophobic attack and they have an opportunity for revenge. Do they take it? Room 2: A 2011 drama about a Black lesbian from the Bronx balancing her identity between her friends and her traditional parents. Think you know what they are? 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
🫂 The next session of Chronic Illness and Long Covid Support Group will be Thursday August 27th 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 August 29th), 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 Dreamgirls (2006 movie), a story about a trio of Black female soul singers in the early 1960s, facing their own personal struggles along the way. Come join the curtain call on Saturday August 29th at 5pm PT! RSVP!
📝 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
🐱 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 September 4th 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!)
📺 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 September 4th!
😷 Hang out, chill and play games with Black folks who take COVID precautions at Bonfire in Garden! The next Bonfire will be Saturday September 19th at 5pm PT RSVP here.
❤️🩹 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: September 20th. 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.
🏳️⚧️ 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 September 27th! Join us by RSVP'ing here. September's session will be facilitated by Ang!
💻 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.
📢 Abortion On Our Own Terms, a project of the New Venture Fund, is a national campaign that uses culture change and advocacy to make safe, effective self-managed abortion accessible to all people without stigma or legal risk. They are seeking a part-time remote Digital & Social Media Associate that will support the execution of the Campaign's digital communications strategy by assisting with content creation, publishing, partner engagement, and campaign implementation. This position reports to and works closely with the Digital
Manager to help ensure timely, high-quality digital content while identifying opportunities to expand the Campaign's reach and strengthen relationships across the reproductive justice movement. Compensation: $45k/annually. Apply by: September 16th at midnight PDT.
💰 Emergent Fund is a rolling, monthly rapid response and emergent organizing grant for movement and frontline communities responding to urgent and specific unanticipated crises or opportunities to build power. GRANT DEADLINE: EVERY 3RD THURSDAY EACH MONTH AT 5:00 P.M. PST / 8:00 P.M. EST.
🌍 The Information Controls Research Program (ICRP), formerly known as the “Information Controls Fellowship Program,” supports applied research into how authoritarian governments in the most repressive information environments are restricting the free flow of information, cutting access to the open internet, and implementing censorship mechanisms; and the ways in which these threats to internet freedom may be countered.
ICRP Award Information:
- Three, six, nine or twelve-month stipend available;
- Usually offered to postdoctoral and doctoral students, and experienced researchers with demonstrated ability and expertise;
- Monthly stipend of $7,000 USD;
- Travel stipend up to $5,000 USD, depending on the project
- Equipment stipend up to $5,000 USD, depending on the project.
- Applications accepted globally and due by September 7th!
💾 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!