Hey Garden(ers),
To everyone who came to the Dreaming is [Trans]cendent Festival...just THANK YOU. Thank you for your words, your witness and your reverence for the artistic magick these creatives forged for us. If you didn't get to see the installations yet, we won't spoil it for you with pictures of the installations themselves (cause you just have to see it), but below is the festival entrance, which is accessible via the lobby, as are all the installations for the next few weeks. Take some time to bask in the beauty and brilliance that has been shared.
🥰 Queer Gardeners, don't miss out on 😍. May 10th at 1pm PST, Garden is collaborating with the Freddie Social app for You Should Date Me, an interactive queer dating experience where selected participants will present on why folks should date them as the audience gets to ponder the most important of dating curiosities. Questions, mayhem, and passions ensue! RSVP! Want to pitch yourself or a friend from the digital stage? Apply here ASAP! ASL will be provided. If you have BIPOC friends that aren't Garden members but want to attend, they can RSVP here!
📸 Starting this weekend, our Glasshouse Gallery will be taken over by photographer and Garden member Ash's Just Be series. From the artist: "Just Be is meant to be a reminder of the power we wield just by being rooted in our authentic expression of self. we are still here. our voices, stories, and existence deserve to be witnessed, told, and passed on." Come check out their work starting this Saturday.
🌿 May 24th at 1pm PST, GenDoc will be leading a session on Dismantling Anti-Blackness for non-Black Garden members, with a closed session for Black folks the week before on May 17th at Bonfire. As a Black-led, BIPOC space, understanding how anti-Blackness can show up in our communities is an important tenet of our work. RSVP for this session here.
❤️🔥 Join Mo for Garden’s Roast Wanted: A Night of Roasting, June 8th at 1:30pm PST. Let's make space for the anger in our hearts 👺 Wanna roast your homophobic relative? The concept of time? Politicians who keep fucking up your life? A celebrity you have petty beef with? COVID deniers? Hating knows no limits… but there's guidelines for this roast (we do believe in ethical hating 🤓):
☮️ No roasting Garden members.
🤐 If you’re roasting someone who is NOT a public figure, please don't use real names/pictures.
🙅♀️ No racism, ableism, fatphobia, or any discrimination. Be creative!
🥊 Punch up, not down.
⏰ Each roast should be 15mins or less.
Propose a topic here! RSVP here!
☀️ Our 24 hour long Summer Solstice event to welcome the sun will be going down June 21st-22nd! Have a workshop idea, a performance, a game you'd like to facilitate, a meetup, or have capacity to be a late night hours volunteer? Check the volunteer form here (please fill out by June 1st) and RSVP here! Day Passes will be available.
🫁 Want to increase your lung capacity? Come to Breathing in the Knowledge Nursery! Every weekday at 9am PST. RSVP here!
🥣 Grab your favorite cereal for dinner and watch anime & cartoons with us at Monday Night Cereal! Join us every other Monday at 5pm PST. Today, Monday, April 21st, we're watching Yu-Gi-Oh- the second season. Your move!
💃🏾 Join Caroline for Co-Twerking on Tuesdays at 2:30pm PST! We will follow video(s) with a warm-up and cooldown sequence, with dancing in between. This is meant to be an aerobic exercise, so bring water and items that will provide you comfort while dancing your butt off! Video suggestions welcome. Duration: ~30 minutes. RSVP here
📔 Quiet-ish Reading Club / Connect (QRC) 💜💛📚 meets Tuesdays at 6pm PST! 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. Learn more about QRC - Garden Edition. 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 PST! This week's movie(s) is a comedy about an IRS auditor who starts hearing the voice of an author in his head that starts narrating his life- and predicting his untimely demise. 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 April 24th from 5:30pm-7:30pm PST 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 via the calendar on the visit page.
🪷 Stretch it out as Caroline leads us in another weekly afternoon Yoga sesh Fridays at 2:15pm PST 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.
🦾 Self Defense Discussion Series with Caroline will be Sundays at 8am PT. Each group includes reading, discussion and (potential) movement on self-defense principles! In these politically challenging times, it is especially important for our collective liberation and self-care to learn self-defense. RSVP via the visit page!
🪩 Honoring Uncle Clifford's Rule #.0025 — 'Wear Y'all Mu’Fuckin Mask,' we’re keeping it safe so everyone can party in Chucalissa without leaving home! Join Deeda and GenDoc for 'Nights at the Pynk,' a 'P-Valley' virtual watch party every other The next viewing will be this Friday April 25th at 6pm PT. Click here to RSVP!
🐣 Parents Meetup is back, first Sundays at 11am PST! The next meetup is May 4th. RSVP here, and come to have casual conversation with other Garden parents!
📺 Join us every 3rd Saturday of the month at 11am PT for Garden Ghibli, where we view a Ghibli movie and attempt to make our way to watch all the magical Ghibli movies! The next meetup is on Saturday May 17th. RSVP here!
😷 Hang out, chill and play games with Black folks who take COVID precautions at Bonfire in Garden every 3rd Saturday! The next Bonfire is Saturday May 17th at 5pm PST. We'll be talking about anti-Blackness as it manifests in our communities. RSVP 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.
📔 The Whiting Foundation gives up to 10 grants of $40,000 annually for creative nonfiction works-in-progress to enable writers to complete their books. Creative nonfiction writers under contract with a publisher in Canada, the United Kingdom, or the United States as of April 23 are eligible. Using only the online submission system, submit up to 25,000 words of a book-in-progress; the original proposal to publishers that led to the contract (if applicable); a signed contract; a statement of work yet to be completed; a plan for the use of funds; a list of grants, fellowships, or other funding received for the book-in-progress; a résumé; and a letter of support from the book’s editor or publisher by April 23.
🎭 The grant program of the Jonathan and Barbara Silver Foundation encourages and supports sculptors, whether emerging or established, and writers about sculpture. In 2025 the Foundation will award a $20,000 grant to a sculptor who demonstrates an exceptional commitment to sculpture and an imaginative engagement with its materials, histories and situation. Deadline: May 31st, 2025.
🍉 Centering Palestine has a zoom every Tuesday at 5pm PST, 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 PST.
🌻 We are looking 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
💌 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!