Hey Garden(ers)!
We are a day late getting this newsletter to you, because as many of you know, we had our first Garden wedding!! Congrats to Gata & Pammy on bringing some queer ceremonial love to Garden! Below are a few photos from the day! (Please note all camera feeds and names of attendees have been redacted except for those hosting the ceremony.)
The wedding beach entrance, Pammy getting out of a pixelated limo, Gata & Pammy at sunset, and Pammy & Gata looking at each other while J Mase officiates.
⏲️ Our events are typically listed in Pacific Standard Time (PT). Need help converting PT to your time zone? Check out this handy WorldTimeBuddy clock!
🍃We've combined our monthly community Avian Flu discussion with a Disaster Prep follow up meeting. Our next meeting will be this Saturday, 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.
🎃Spooky Season is upon us and we will be revealing the details of our Halloween Party in the next couple weeks! RSVP in advance for the Oct 26th & 27th festivities here!
🫁 Want to increase your lung capacity? Come to Breathing in the Knowledge Nursery! Every weekday at 9am PT.
🥣 Grab your favorite cereal for dinner and watch anime & cartoons with us at Monday Night Cereal every other Monday! Our next meeting is September 23rd at 5pm PT where we'll be watching kids duel for one of their grandpa's souls. RSVP via the calendar on the visit page.
💃 Looking for a movement break in the middle of the day? Come co-tWERK with us on the beach 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 hangout to listen or watch.
🎥 Name That Movie (Night!) is Wednesday at 5:30pm PT! This week's movie is a 2021 animated film about an extraordinary family, the Madrigals, who live hidden in the mountains of Colombia. 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 September sessions of Chronic Illness and Long Covid Support Group will be Thursdays September 12th & 26th 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 and we'll be watching a film from many of our childhoods that will help us ease on down the road in the finest of shiny shoes! 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.
🩹BEAM is pleased to announce three $10,000 grants will be awarded to organizations or collectives who hold wellness and mental health groups, relationship building events or maintain wellness & healing projects, specifically for Black and marginalized communities with a focus on suicide prevention and awareness. Deadline is September 15th.
🪩 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. Deadline to RSVP is THIS Thursday 9/12 at 11:59pm PST! Click here to RSVP.
🖥️ 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.
✅The Gender and Family Project is launching a nationwide study on the well-being of gender-affirming medical and mental health providers. If you are a US based clinician and/or provider that has provided gender-affirming / transition-related care to at least one patient in the last 4 years, you are invited to participate in this research study
🐣Are you a Parent? A Garden member is considering hosting a Garden Parents' Group! Please fill out this survey to let us know if you are interested!
🍃Reminder that Garden will be closed Sunday September 15th.
🌻 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 doing something a little different and highlighting a vendor not from our Garden community, but that we think will be useful to many of y'all. You probably heard new iPhones are coming out soon, and we believe in a Free Congo here, so we wanted to share a resource to ensure our folks can get the things they need without playing into the planned obsolescence that fuels genocide there. For refurbished phones, tablets, laptops and other electronics, check out Back Market, a global marketplace for refurbished electronics. You can pay in installments, the items are shipped to you, and are under warranty for up to a year.
Until next our avatars meet!
😻Gata, 💐Al & 🪻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!