Hey Garden(ers),
We know many of you have been deeply impacted by the ongoing imperialist violence enacted by the US government. From Venezuela to Gaza, Nigeria to Minneapolis and beyond, we are always with the people in opposition to fascism. Many of you are taking this time to move resources, uplift knowledge from those on the ground, and be in the streets. If there are announcements or actions you want us to include, please let us know.
This is our first newsletter of the year, and with that we have some happy things to share and some transitions. We thank each and every one of you that came to, or shared about, our New Year's Eve/New Year's Day Party! To all of our facilitators, space holders, performers, game leaders, Go-Kart aficionados, interpreters, vendors: we could not have done this without you!! Thank you for making those two days so memorable! Please note that our vendors' tables will remain up until the end of next week on Garden Map. Also, as follow up to their offerings as a vendor & facilitator, Ang has been kind enough to share their writing prompt resource here. We'll do a roundup of some photos from the festivities next week.
Okay, so now for some news about a current shift. As we are in this season of New Year and transition, we did want to share a change within our admin team. Gata is transitioning from her position as an admin to a member. We are thankful for her time as an admin here and are grateful to honor the work she has done to support this community. Please share your notes, your love, your care for Gata with her directly here.
From Gata:
"As we come up on the year of the Fire Horse (February 2026), I am feeling very inspired to draw from the energy of action, bold changes, and creativity. This year I am committed to intentionally growing my income tax prep support & other bureaucratic support I offer, along with creating more safer in-person COVIDing activities (such as AirOrgyLA and other events). Unfortunately, these projects take up a lot of time (organizing, fundraising, etc) and as I move to be more mindful of my capacity and avoid burnout, this means I will be stepping down from my role as a scribe in the Garden Admin team. Although I will no longer be an admin, I will be in the space and look forward to more movie marathons, game nights, and events. "
As soon as we have onboarded our new admin member to the team, we will make sure to introduce them via the newsletter. Thank you all for your patience, and again, thank you to Gata for helping to maintain the success of this space for so long! We wish you many beautiful new beginnings!
⏰ Our events are generally listed in PST/PDT. Need help converting to your time zone? We recommend using World Time Buddy!
❄️ Friday January 9th at 6pm PT will be the second and final installment of Let’s Go North of North!: Are you dreaming of a colder climate? Do you love indigenous stories? Need more laughter in your life? If you said yes to any of those questions or just need something to do on a Friday night then join Double-E in the Up All Night room for a mini marathon watch of the Canadian comedy series “North of North.” The show follows a young Inuk mother who tries to reinvent herself after a spontaneous and extremely public exit from her marriage with the town's golden boy in a tiny, tight-knit Arctic town. There’s only one season, so the watch party will be split across 2 sessions with four episodes each. RSVP to attend
❤️🩹 The first meeting to discuss "The Pain We Carry: Healing from Complex PTSD for People of Color" by Natalie Y. Gutiérrez, LMFT will be January 11, 2026 from 4:30-6:00pm ET. We’ll go over Chapter 1 and practice a few of the exercises together. Message Deeda for the link to the reading materials or more info. Make sure to RSVP!
🖱️ January 18th at 1pm PST, Emma has been hard at work and would love to introduce the Enchanted Cybersecurity Garden — a permanent place within Garden she has been building that teaches cybersecurity basics through an affirming, queer-centered virtual world. The session will include a short talk on digital safety for LGBTQ+ communities followed by a guided exploration of the space together. RSVP to attend Enchanted Cybersecurity Garden walkthrough + talk on queer digital safety!
💄 Sunday January 25th at 3pm PST wind down your Sunday w/ a little nostalgia and a lot of movie magic in "Throwback Sunday", a Julia Roberts Double Feature 🎬✨ // In this back-to-back screening we will watch Julia Roberts star in "Pretty Woman" (1990) and "Erin Brockovich" (2000). Within the span of a decade, Roberts goes from a Hollywood sex worker who falls in love with a rich customer, to a single mom who takes on a lawsuit against a mammoth bay area based utility company contaminating water causing devastating illnesses among its residents. // Grab your popcorn, bring a friend, and settle in for an night of classic 90s vibes 🍿💄⚖️ RSVP to attend
🫁 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 night is the second part of a musical about witches. Some of which are green. Think you know what it is? Come thru and find out! RSVP via the visit page. TW: for mentions of harm to a child.
🪷 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 January 15th 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!
🗡️Join us Friday January 16th 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!
✍🏽 Are you an aspiring writer? Come join The Storytellers' Anthology returns to every other Saturday, Jan 17th 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.
🍿 Monday, January 19th at 5pm PT, BJ will be hosting Black Movie Night, a bi-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! Jan 19th's movie will be South Central
😷 Hang out, chill and play games with Black folks who take COVID precautions at Bonfire in Garden! The next Bonfire will be Saturday January 17th at 5pm PT RSVP here. (Black folks only.)
🏳️⚧️ 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 Jan 25th! Join us by RSVP'ing here.
☕ Sunday February 1st 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.
🏠 Yellow House Creative Consulting, a women-led boutique digital marketing and social media management agency, is seeking a fully remote Social Media Filmmaker & Editor. Salary: $75k-$100k. Apply ASAP.
😷 The Sick Times, a journalist-founded website chronicling the Long COVID crisis, is looking for a new part-time/remote podcast and social media producer to join our remote team part-time. The position will ideally start in February 2026. Pay is a stipend of $2,750 per month (as a W-2 employee), with an expectation of 20-25 hours of work per week. // To apply: Please send your resume and a brief email (3-4 paragraphs) detailing your applicable experience and work samples to editors@thesicktimes.org by 11:59 p.m. ET on Tuesday, January 20. Include “podcast producer application” in the subject line. **We will not review any applications that were drafted with AI.**
💡 The Awesome Foundation has chapters all over the world that provide grants in the amount of $1k each for awesome projects. Regional and Global chapters have applications open every month with submissions being accepted the 1st-10th of the month.
🥐 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!