Hey Garden(ers)!
First some hopeful news: If you've been feeling down or uncertain as a result of the recent mask bans that have been popping up in the US, a disability rights group has just filed a lawsuit against Nassau County, New York in opposition to their mask ban. While we won't know the outcome of this case for a bit, it does signal that collective actions can disrupt these measures!
Last week we asked, and you all answered! The results are in and due to overwhelming interest we will be having a Halloween party on Saturday October 26th! Stay tuned for details about that in the coming weeks. 🎃
Our LAST Black August event of 2024 will be this Saturday August 31st and is open to all Garden(ers)! Check out this conversation between facilitators Lady Dane & J Mase called, Black Trans Folks Know Reparations and RSVP on Garden's visit page!
⏲️ Our events are typically listed in Pacific Standard Time (PT). Need help converting PT to your time zone? Check out this handy WorldTimeBuddy clock!
🥣 Grab your favorite cereal for dinner and watch anime & cartoons with us at Monday Night Cereal! Join us every other Monday starting TONIGHT, August 26 at 5pm PT. 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.
🎭 It's the return of Improv to Garden! Come play games, learn scene work and the fundamentals of Improv at Non-Competitive Improv For All Levels: A Day Long Workshop with StormMiguel from 12-4pm PT on Sunday September 1st! RSVP here!
🍃We've combined our monthly community Avian Flu discussion with a Disaster Prep follow up meeting. Our next meeting with be September 14th from 12-2pm PT. We will spend the first hour discussing the latest we've learned with the bird flu and how we are preparing for it. The second hour and a half will be a space for planning general disaster prep supplies, kits, etc. The second portion is a follow up to Ariana's Disaster Prep workshop (on 8/17) meant to help provide a space for people to begin planning out their disaster kits. RSVP here!
😷Now that mask bans, and resistance to them, are on the rise, let's take some time to share strategies we are witnessing, updates from our neck of the woods and help keep each other safe! RSVP for Mask Bans, Now What, happening September 22nd from 12-2pm PT.
☀️Our LAST Black August event of 2024 will be this Saturday August 31st and is open to all Garden(ers)! RSVP on Garden's visit page! Check out this conversation between facilitators Lady Dane & J Mase and learn more about what role we all play in the Reparations Movement, Reparations Models and come away understanding how Reparations for Black folks in the US is tied to other social justice movements at All That DEI & Still No Reparations?!?! It will cover:
- Defining Reparations
- A History of Reparations within the US
- Understanding Reparations Frameworks
- Current Reparations Models
- Identifying Roles People of all Racial Backgrounds Can Play in this Work
- Mapping Out Implementation
🫁 Want to increase your lung capacity? Come to Breathing in the Knowledge Nursery! Every weekday at 9am PT. RSVP here!
💃 Looking for a movement break in the middle of the day? Come to Stretch & Dance! Tuesdays at 2:30pm PT we will be stretching and picking songs to dance to. Folks are welcome to move within their comfort zone, or just handout to listen or watch.
🎥 Name That Movie (Night!) is Wednesday at 5:30pm PT! This week's movie is a 2015 dramedy starring Mya Taylor and is about the all night Christmas Eve journey of two sex workers. Think you know what it is? Come thru and find out! RSVP via the visit page.
🪷 Stretch it out as Caroline leads us in another weekly afternoon Yoga sesh this Friday at 2:15pm 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 is Thursday August 29th 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 via the calendar on the visit page.
🦾 Saturdays at 6pm PT, Caroline hosts a Self Defense Discussion Series which 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 and reach out to Caroline via the visit page!
😷 Hang out, chill and play games with Black folks who take COVID precautions at the Bonfire in Garden! Every 3rd Saturday of the month from 5-8pm PT. The next Bonfire is Saturday, September 21st! 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 Global Black Fellowship Program supports emerging leaders committed to justice and empowerment for people of African descent worldwide. Fellows will engage in nine months of dedicated work, with a stipend provided. The deadline to apply is September 1, 2024. Learn more and apply here.
🏺 Are you a Los Angeles based creative who likes to work with their hands? Come through to POTLA and their Pandemic Solidarity Planters class taking place in LA on Saturday September 7th from 12pm-2pm, and 3pm-5pm! Classes are capped at 15 people max, pre-test and trace testing required (rapid tests provided for free), and high filtration mask required at all times. Accessibility: Wheelchair accessible, and they will have three Corsi Rosenthal Boxes running prior to class (to ensure filtered air as attendees enter) and during the entire class. RSVP asap before they sell out!
🪩 Bring your dancing shoes, LA! Air Orgy: A COVID Safer Dance Party will take place in Los Angeles, CA on Friday September 27th at 4:30PM PT. Our very own Gata will be DJ-ing on the 1s and 2s, and facilitating a beginners merengue workshop! Accessibility: Outdoor location, wheelchair accessible, high filtration mask required at all times, pre-testing and trace testing required. For RSVP form link, please email airorgyla@gmail.com.
🦷Rauschenberg Emergency Grants, due October 1, 2024, offer up to $5,000 in support for direct treatment expenses that have been incurred, or are needed, for medical, dental or mental health treatment. Artists practicing in the visual arts, film, video, electronic, digital arts, and choreography are eligible.
🖥️ Are you looking for remote or hybrid work? We're hosting a job fair here in Garden in the fall! If you're interested in attending, please fill out this form.
🍉 Centering Palestine has a zoom every Tuesday at 5pm PT, along with other resources to show up for Palestine available here.
💳Have you frozen your credit yet? You might want to do that now while you're thinking about it. You can do it for free with the three credit bureaus Experian, Equifax and TransUnion.
🌻 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
🌱 This week, we are highlighting Cosmic Healing, a community-focused healing justice practice committed to facilitating holistic understanding and liberation through a therapeutic and revolutionary astrological lens. This work, started by two radical sistas, is borne out of dreams, and thus, it is borne of rest. Through this practice we encourage personal, collective, holistic, and existential exploration and understanding within our communities in preparation for an anti-colonial, anti-capitalist, and anti-racist future in which we live on lands that are loved + supported and love + support us in return. We envision homeostasis. We work as a means of community care and actively reject [internalized] extraction, exploitation, and greed.
Cosmic Healing offers revolutionary, therapeutic astrology in personal one-to-one sessions or 'chart readings', astrological counseling as an abolitionist & anti-colonial peer-support alternative to clinical therapy, weeks-long community group cohorts grounded in creative expression over the course of an astrological transit, and (always virtual) community events throughout. To book a session, or visit their website, check out their Linktree!
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!