Hey Garden(ers),
Many of you have been hitting the streets, organizing online and creating pockets of the world we want to see! We are thankful to be in community with each and every single one of you that is making space for a Liberated World that includes all of us! As we start this week, we just want share our appreciation for all that you all continue to do for yourselves and each other.
A component of creating intentional community is developing skills, and sharing praxis. On May 24th at 2pm PST, there will be an open workshop 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.
📺 Season 7 of Black Mirror is coming out! Let's watch together on Sunday April 13th at 1pm PST! Can be an avid fan, or watching for the first time as episodes are self contained. RSVP here!
😴 Mark your calendars for the Dreaming is [Trans]cendent Festival which will be taking over Garden April 19th & 20th. 5 Black Trans Disabled Artists build an immersive world of visual art and performance. Come explore, feel and Transcend. RSVP here! Want to bring a BIPOC friend who is not already a Garden member? Day Passes are available for non-Garden members via this form.
😍 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.
❤️🔥 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 an offering? Check the volunteer form here 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 7th, we're watching people's grandpas and little brothers get stolen for the sake of a children's card game. Your move! Read more about the event here.
💃🏾 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) 💜💛📚 This week's QRC returns 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 2025 horror about the cult of celebrity. A young writer journeys to the remote community of a legendary pop star who mysteriously disappeared thirty years ago. Think you know what it is? Come thru and find out! RSVP via the visit page.
🫂 The April sessions of Chronic Illness and Long Covid Support Group will be Thursday April 10th & 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 11th 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!
🎨 Skyriver will be guiding us into Imagination & Creative Space, an open space and time to work on creative projects, and crafts every other Saturday. The next session is April 19th at 12pm PST. Finish an old project, start a new skill, follow the offered prompt or do your own thing. Joy is resistance. Imagination is the path to liberation. RSVP here!
📺 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! We are skipping April's showing, and resume the next showing on Saturday May 23rd. 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 April 19th at 5pm PST. We'll be talking and journeying through the Dreaming is [Trans]cendent Festival. 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.
🦄Black Unicorn and PQHP Summer School are excited to welcome proposals for the inaugural 2025 Public History Summer School by the Black Unicorn Library & Archives and Pittsburgh Queer History Project. This application is due May 1st, to be part of a funded research working group, prioritizing trans and non-binary artists, scholars, and cultural workers who are or would like to pursue research in trans and queer histories.
🌍 Taking place November 12-23 at Roxie Theater in San Francisco, CA, USA, as well as online via Eventive, the San Francisco Transgender Film Festival is officially open for submissions globally until June 4th, 2025.
💼 The Shannon Leadership Institute is searching for its next (mostly remote) Executive Director! For over 30 years, the Shannon Leadership Institute (SLI) has provided individuals the time, space, and tools to explore their purpose, align with their core values, and renew their commitment to transformational change in themselves, their organizations, and their communities. Salary range is between $75-85K per year (plus benefits).
🍉 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!