Hey Garden(ers),
This past Sunday was Garden's first ever Social Hour, which was a beautiful success! Lots of folks came by to socialize, play games (like Battle Tetris) and listen in on J Mase's topic: Is Trans a White Word?: Documenting Terms for Gender Expansiveness Beyond Colonization, where we learned to name the expansiveness of gender prior to colonization. If you have a topic, writing, art share or activity you'd like to present at a future Social Hour, consider submitting a topic here. We invite the random, the quirky, the profound and the fun!
Keep missing fun Garden events and getting FOMO? You can subscribe to our calendar and never miss another event. Check out this step by step guide blog on how to subscribe to our calendar and never miss another Garden event!
For our folks based in the US, there is a lot of confusing information about vaccine access going around as R*K Jr. and Tr*mp take actions to make it more and more difficult to try to get one. Check out the People's CDC latest substack for more information on how some states are building alliances to create public health independence and how one state has pushed to end all vaccine mandates.
⏰ Our events are generally listed in PT. Need help converting to your time zone? We recommend using World Time Buddy!
🗡️Join us every other Friday (starting this Friday September 12th 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!
🛋️ Join Deeda as she hosts Fall Forward: A Cozy Vision Board Party this Saturday September 13th at 3pm PT. As the season shifts, come settle in for a gentle Saturday evening of reflection, intention-setting, and creative visioning. Folks will gather in the Enchanted Library to dream together about the months ahead. Feel free to bring your favorite cozy drink, comfy socks/blanket, and a few images or words that speak to your heart. ✨ No pressure--just presence and imagination!✨RSVP here.
📺 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 next Friday September 19th 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.
👻 Starting Scary Season off with a lil fun, Dan and Deeda are hosting the first of four in a series called Sunday Scaries. Beginning with Comedy Musical Edition 🎬 October 5th will be a marathon of comedy musical horror classics which include 🌱 Little Shop of Horrors - 4pm PT / 👄 The Rocky Horror Picture Show - 5:45pm PT / ✂️ Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street - 7:45pm PT Bring your best sing-along voice! Make sure to RSVP!
🫁 Want to increase your lung capacity? Come to Breathing in the Knowledge Nursery! Every weekday at 9am PT. RSVP here!
💃🏾 Co-Twerking today, Tuesday with Caroline at 3pm PST!
📔 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 tomorrow, Wednesday at 5:30pm PT! This week's movie is a 2025 fantasy adventure film where a young girl’s sketchbook falls into a strange pond which brings her drawings to life. 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 this Thursday September 11th 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 another 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.
✍🏽Are you an aspiring writer? Come join The Storytellers' Anthology every other Saturday. The group will meet again next Saturday September 20th 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 next Saturday September 20th at 5pm PT RSVP here. (Black folks only.)
🦾 Self Defense Discussion Series will be on Sundays 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!
🎨 Let’s unlock our creative spirit together! Garden's Way a 12-week meetup where we’ll discuss chapters, share progress, and encourage each other as we move through The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. Open to anyone (writers, painters, musicians, dreamers, etc.) looking for a supportive space to grow and express themselves. 🌱 every Sunday at 11am PT through Oct 5th, hosted by Deeda & Mo & Dan. Meeting weekly at Garden and yapping asynchronously in our Signal group. DM a host to be added to the Signal group, or join us at their weekly meeting! RSVP here.
☕ October 5th 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.
💻 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.
🏳️⚧️ Psychoanalytic Center of the Carolinas presents: How Cis?: Examining Transphobic Countertransference in Therapeutic Work on Saturday, September 13th at 9am PT. In the wake of incessant anti-trans rhetoric, moral panic, a flood of global transphobic legislation, and continual threats to trans life-chances, many health practitioners are facing a crossroads regarding trans care. While some have chosen to integrate or maintain ethically engaged approaches, much of this work has overlooked a key therapeutic dynamic: that is, the various ways that transphobic countertransference (TCT) may find its way into the consulting room. This event is free of charge, but registration is required by September 10.
🌍 Liberation Medicine School's September installation of Decolonize Medicine Witnessing Circle will take place on Saturday September 13th at 10 am PT. This session in the series, centered on and for Black/African Trans Peoples, invites us into a space of self and collective skill and resource mapping. Building on Phali’s August session, Roots of Self-Affirmation, we will bring forward the Affirmation Map designed as a guide for our work together. Our hope with this circle is to engage one another in affirmation work that honors what we carry within ourselves and in community. Affirmation Maps will be built through these four branches: Inner Strengths // Support Systems // Skills & Contributions // Aspirations. Through these branches, we will build maps for ourselves and for our communities as Black/African Trans people, affirming both the power we hold individually and the collective abundance we create together. RSVP here.
🖤 The Fierce and Free Leadership Development Program exists to cultivate the next generation of Black trans organizers by providing a transformative learning experience rooted in political education, skill-building, and community connection. Grounded in the Trans Agenda for Liberation, this nine-month program equips participants with essential organizing tools, deepens their understanding of Black trans liberation movements, and fosters lasting relationships with peers and mentors. Through this framework, participants develop leadership capacity while centering resilience, collective care, and a vision for liberation that uplifts Black trans experiences. Apply by September 30th.
✊🏾 Black LGBTQIA+ Migrant Project (BLMP) seeks a candidate with a community centered approach and a fundamental understanding of the strategies, values and goals of community organizing for the fully remote position of Director of Resource Mobilization. Speaking boldly on behalf of the organization and applying an organizing lens to mobilize support through philanthropic partnerships and financial resources, they will also interrogate power dynamics at play. Salary: $114k. Applications accepted until the position is filled.
🍉 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 weeks 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
🌠 Have some good news you want us to share? 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!