Trans Day of Visibility

Hey Garden(ers),

Yesterday was 🏳️‍⚧️ Trans Day of Visibility 🏳️‍⚧️! To be Trans in this world right now, can be both beautiful and yet marred by antagonists that try to steal our joy for their own gain. For the Trans/Non-Binary/Gender-Expansive/Gender Creative/Gender Abolitionists/Gender Defiant among and with us, may everyday be one where you are able to find the power and jubilance your ancestors want for you! Visibility is not the goal, but a life where we are all afforded dignity is! You are needed every single day and we are so grateful you are here!

⏰ Our events are generally listed in PST/PDT. Need help converting to your time zone? We recommend using World Time Buddy!

🌏 Noruz ✦ نوروز : Thursday, April 2nd at 6pm PT, join our belated Noruz celebration! We won't let the zionist war on the Irāni people stop us from honoring this ancient festival. Come learn from a diasporic Irani Garden member all about Norooz, its history, and its centerpiece, the haftsin table spread. We'll also talk about chāhārshanbe suri, the fire-jumping ritual, as well as the final day of the festival, sizdah bedar, which is all about nature. We will learn about why calling Norouz Persian/Iranian new year is not technically wrong, but has harmful implications. It's so important that we actively fight the dehumanization of SWANA (South & West Asian and North African) people. Everyone is welcome! RSVP here!

🥬 Want to spend Friday night laughing and cringing? Join Sam every other Friday (next meeting date is Friday April 3rd at 6pm PT) to watch “Rutherford Falls”, a lighthearted comedy series about the relationships developed between a fictional small town in the NE USA and nearby Minishonka Nation (also fictional), along with the conflicts that arise. It tackles some heavier topics like cultural preservation and Native erasure with laughter, warmth, and shenanigans. RSVP to get a reminder!

☕ Sunday April 5th 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. April's Social Hour topic will be: 1 in 3: Community Care & Perinatal Mental Health w/ Anne!

🧛🏽‍♀️ Celebration & Remembrance of Pa: Blade Movie Night - Double Feature, April 5th 2:45pm PT. As motherf*ckas in this world "be trying to ice skate uphill," join us to celebrate life with an action-packed martial arts double-feature movie with hints of horror & fantasy. In remembrance and honor of ze's late father's birthday, there will be a Sunday-Funday watch party streaming the first two movies of the iconic Black vampire, Blade. Make sure to RSVP for a reminder!
2:45pm PT / 4:45pm CT | Watch Party space opens, get settled & share an offering to loved ones and nerd out on vampire lore
3:00pm PT / 5:00pm CT (sharp) | start 1st movie: Blade (1998)
5:00pm PT / 7:00pm CT | break after first movie (~30 min)
5:30pm PT / 7:30pm CT(sharp) | start 2nd movie: Blade 2 (2002)

👑 Let Us Eat King Cake: A Garden Gras Celebration! Mardi Gras is one of the grandest celebrations on the planet, and you're invited to join the Garden parade! So gear up with your masks and beads for a night of trivia where we’ll be crowning the next Mardi Gras monarch. Later we'll immerse into the New Orleans atmosphere as we stream the first few episodes 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. *Content warnings here.* // Join Groovy & GenDoc as we bring the vibrant spirit of Mardi Gras right to Garden on Tuesday April 7th starting at 4pm PT/7pm ET at the Game Spot. Join anytime, we plan to party all night! Check out recipes and music ideas here!

🎙️ Slam Poetry Feature: Invisible Poets Collective // Join us for an evening of spoken word poetry performances by the Invisible Poets Collective! After months of collaborating to write and memorize new poems, this team of queer, nonbinary, disabled slam poets is ready to take the stage. Showcasing poems about ADHD, top surgery, climate change, Interview with the Vampire, disability justice, and queer joy, the Invisible Poets Collective brings fiery energy to their live performances. Come ready to listen, witness, and cheer on the poets! Hosted by coach and national poetry slam champion Ariana Brown, this event is also a fundraiser for the team to travel to Minneapolis in late April to compete at Midwest Poetry Mash-up poetry slam competition. RSVP for April 12th at 5pm PT!

🫁 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: Purple Rain

🏋🏾‍♂️ 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 thriller about beautiful ballerinas that join forces to become a talented team of absolute killers. 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 April 9th 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 April 11th), 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 The Phantom of the Opera (2011 pro-shot), a story about a young soprano who becomes the obsession of the disfigured and murderous musical genius that lives beneath the Paris Opéra House. Come join the curtain call on Saturday April 11th at 5pm PST! RSVP!

😷 Hang out, chill and play games with Black folks who take COVID precautions at Bonfire in Garden! The next Bonfire will be Saturday April 18th at 5pm PT RSVP here.

🏳️‍⚧️ 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 April 26th! Join us by RSVP'ing 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 dates for the next few months: April: 12, 19; May 17; 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.

💻 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.

🚺 Positive Women's Network, a US based national reproductive justice organization led by and for cis and transgender women, gender diverse and transgender folks living with HIV, is seeking a remote Leadership Development and Training Manager at $66k annually plus benefits. Apply ASAP!

☂️ Third Wave Fund's Sex Worker Giving Circle is open for applications until April 2nd. This year, SWGC Fellows, all current or former sex workers most impacted by oppression across the United States including criminalization, racism, transphobia, and economic marginalization, will distribute at least $385,000 to organizations leading the movement to expand sex worker rights and liberation. Grants will be available to organizations based in the United States and U.S. territories with organization budgets under $500,000. Organizations approved for grants will receive $35,000 per year for two years.

👩🏽‍🦼 Abilities Dance Boston is livestreaming two upcoming shows where folks can register for a free ticket! Their Intersections v5 April 17th show at 5pm PT/8pm ET is celebrating Black and Disabled honorees blending advocacy and art. Their second show is Vel'Fyra - Firebird Part 2, a ballet, that will be June 19th at 5pm PT/8pm ET. These shows will only be available during the official livestreamed times, and will not be posted later.

🌍 Applications now open INTERNATIONALLY for The Perelman Performing Arts Center (PAC NYC) and Civis Foundation's Democracy Cycle 2026 Open Call. The deadline to submit your proposal is April 28, 2026 at 5:00 PM ET. Over a five-year period, The Democracy Cycle will commission and develop 25 new performing arts works across the fields of theater, dance, music, opera, and multi-disciplinary performance. The commissioned works, to be selected over the course of three annual Rounds of Open Calls (2024, 2025, and 2026) will explore themes relating to the nature, practice, and experience of democracy. The Cycle will provide $60,000 in support to each awarded project, consisting of a $30,000 commission as well as an additional $30,000 towards each commissioned project’s development process (research, readings, workshops etc.).

☀️ For those who would like to support this year's Summer Solstice festival in Garden, we are starting to plan early! Want to vend, volunteer, host a workshop, perform, share your art, DJ or offer any of your community gifts? Check out the volunteer sign up form here!

📖 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!