Come get your hands in the soil with our partners at Farm the District (FTD), every Saturday throughout the growing season. Whether you’re a first-timer or returning veteran, all are needed to help tend to our shared backyard. There’s plenty of projects to keep all hands busy, including weeding, watering, composting, harvesting, repairing, crafting, and ongoing side projects.

Each Saturday in May also features FTD’s annual Plant Giveaway Fundraiser, with extra crops for folks to grab such as basil, dill, pak choi, kale, collards, tomatoes, tomatillos, hemp, & more, with peppers, eggplants, cukes, melons, & squash to follow later in the month! There are also houseplants for you to take home including spider plants, wandering dude, & succulents. Additional giveaways include nursery planters/trays, larger pots/containers, pawpaw seedlings, and more goodies! The model is pay-what-you-can, $5/plant suggested donation, cash & venmo accepted. All proceeds will go towards Farm The District, the urban farming parter of Temperance Alley Garden.

As always, we’ll also be giving an orientation tour for newcomers. Welcome neighbors!

Join MISSED CONNECTIONS—a gathering series designed to embrace serendipity by getting people offline and into community— for a Barter Night at Temperance Alley Garden.

Come with 3 ideas for goods & services you want to trade — make a homemade dinner? getting rid of an old lamp? a tarot reading? stylist session? tennis lessons? tire change? give really good pep talks? — and make new friends while you barter away.

hosted by Kanika and Kendall

Join us for a free screening of the documentary “She Cried That Day.”
#MMIW #MMIWG2S

On Saturday, April 28, 2015, Christine, a young Arikara, Dakota & Diné woman, received a call that her older sister, Dione, was fighting for her life in the ICU after being found bloody and unconscious in a motel room in Gallup, NM. The police had been called to the room that Dione was sharing with her boyfriend, three times that night over complaints of people fighting. Ultimately, Dione would succumb to her horrific injuries leaving the family questioning the suspicious nature of her death. An arrest was never made.  

​​As Christine and her family navigate a broken system in search for justice, we are witness to the triumphs and the defeats. By examining her personal journey, the systemic racism, generational trauma, jurisdictional and structural nightmares become tangible. The personal IS political. The microcosm is the macrocosm.​

She Cried That Day shows us first-hand, how this crisis affects a family, a community, a state, and a nation while being inspired by the strength and power of these incredible women as they fight to bring their lost sisters home. MMIWG2S stands for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit people. It is a grassroots movement highlighting the disproportionate rates of violence, murder, and disappearance affecting Indigenous women and LGBTQ+ individuals.

»View the trailer here«

hosted by Hope and Stephen

Start your week with a mindful moment of reset and reconnection at the Garden, every Monday at 8am!

Join us Monday morning to sip something warm, connect with neighbors, and ease into the day. We will have space for socializing and space for quiet reflection and journaling.

Drop in anytime. Bring a beverage, your breakfast, a journal, or nothing at all.

hosted by Zoe & Friends

All levels flow in the garden for our community donation-suggested classes with the beautiful greenery and open blue sky. Perfect for grounding and centering. Bring yourself, water, and a mat (we’ll have a few extra on hand).

Our meditation community meets weekly to re-center, connect, and cultivate intentions. With a mix of guided, silent, and relational practice, we ground ourselves in presence and compassion. All levels of experience warmly welcomed.

Hosted by regulars and guests alike, bring a practice for the circle to share.

Come get your hands in the soil with our partners at Farm the District (FTD), every Saturday throughout the growing season. Whether you’re a first-timer or returning veteran, all are needed to help tend to our shared backyard. There’s plenty of projects to keep all hands busy, including weeding, watering, composting, harvesting, repairing, crafting, and ongoing side projects.

Each Saturday in May also features FTD’s annual Plant Giveaway Fundraiser, with extra crops for folks to grab such as basil, dill, pak choi, kale, collards, tomatoes, tomatillos, hemp, & more, with peppers, eggplants, cukes, melons, & squash to follow later in the month! There are also houseplants for you to take home including spider plants, wandering dude, & succulents. Additional giveaways include nursery planters/trays, larger pots/containers, pawpaw seedlings, and more goodies! The model is pay-what-you-can, $5/plant suggested donation, cash & venmo accepted. All proceeds will go towards Farm The District, the urban farming parter of Temperance Alley Garden.

As always, we’ll also be giving an orientation tour for newcomers. Welcome neighbors!

We’re all navigating a lot at the moment. The Way Point is a peer-led space for us to think about how we intentionally nourish ourselves and our community. Let’s help each other be more curious about the current role we’re playing in our community and for ourselves and, with support, take the next step on a new journey.

For this series, we’ll meet biweekly in May and June. The series will end in the Summer Solstice where we can reflect on our reflection on all of our growth and the light, community, and new experiences we've generated through this intentional practice.

During our first gathering, we’ll focus on nourishing our growth and curiosity. As Spring enters full swing, how can we take advantage of this season of growth to explore what new skills we'd like to gain and which new roles we'd like to play in our communities. How can we be curious instead of judgmental about the things we want to try? How can we be more open to new ways of doing things? What can our first step be? Over the next two months, we’ll each choose new things we’d like to explore – whether that be painting, volunteering with a new organization, joining a ward meeting, or writing that story in our head – and support each other through it. There are lots of ways for us to be here for ourselves and for each other. Let’s try some of them!

hosted by Leah

Honor your ancestors by building a community altar at our garden. We'll write letters, fold origami cranes and arrange the altar together. Bring items like photos, flowers and fruit -- or just your memories!

Everyone is welcome. We'll have time for discussion, but sharing is optional. You can take back home any items you bring.

hosted by Claire

Start your week with a mindful moment of reset and reconnection at the Garden, every Monday at 8am!

Join us Monday morning to sip something warm, connect with neighbors, and ease into the day. We will have space for socializing and space for quiet reflection and journaling.

Drop in anytime. Bring a beverage, your breakfast, a journal, or nothing at all.

hosted by Zoe & Friends

Our dedicated time for reflective listening to all that’s budding within the Garden ecosystem. The rearview mirror where stories from the previous month can be shared in community. Bring a TAG story to share or discover one based on the evening’s prompts.

StoryKeeping Circles are held on the middle Monday of each month. All are welcome to participate fully.

hosted by Josh & Aaron

All levels flow in the garden for our community donation-suggested classes with the beautiful greenery and open blue sky. Perfect for grounding and centering. Bring yourself, water, and a mat (we’ll have a few extra on hand).

Our meditation community meets weekly to re-center, connect, and cultivate intentions. With a mix of guided, silent, and relational practice, we ground ourselves in presence and compassion. All levels of experience warmly welcomed.

Hosted by regulars and guests alike, bring a practice for the circle to share.

Join us for a soft morning of sun printing and mindful birding!

We will start early with a quick workshop on sun printing with turmeric and will each make a print! While those bake in the sun, we will take our time listening to the birds around us and reflect on what we are hearing and seeing. After our sun prints have fully baked and we have spent ample time with the birds, there will be the option to intensify the effect on your sun print with a baking soda water bath!

Feel free to bring your own breakfast! We will have tea available.

hosted by Alexis

We will be ending early at 8pm to flow into TAG’s first ever Astronomy & Astrology Night!

Come gather for some productive artistic time together while the garden is blooming around us. Bring a project you're working on, your instrument of choice, or just come socialize with fellow creatives. Some basic art supplies will be provided.

Hosted by Cory & Creatives Club DC

Our thanks to the National Capital Astronomers for bringing Sidewalk Astronomy to the Garden! 

Join us the night of Thursday, May 21st with moon-, planet-, and star-gazing. We'll have several telescopes set up to look at the waxing crescent moon, planets like Venus and Jupiter, and other deep sky objects like the Orion Nebula and the M81 galaxy. Stick around for astrology activities like Tarot readings and space-themed music and refreshments. 

When we use telescopes to look at astronomical objects, we are viewing light that has taken days, years, or even longer to reach Earth. In a way, when we look at the stars, we are gazing back in time and seeing them how they were in the past. Through horoscopes, we use the cosmos to try and peek into the future and predict our fate...Make sure you carve out some time on May 21st to come to the garden and enjoy the present! Bring a friend -- Space is meant to be shared :)

hosted by Tyler and the National Capital Astronomers

Come LET LOOSE and PLAY while connecting with your emotions.

Improvisational theater is an unplanned, spontaneously and collaboratively created experience that exists only in the present moment. It fosters a sense of play which allows us to interact and get to know each other in a novel away..at least for adults!  
PLAY at the Garden will be a series of games inspired from improv, clown, etc., that help us align with being present in the moment. It will culminate in a 10-minute montage where we can take what we learn in the games to play with our neighbors and create an experience that will never exist again.

hosted by Kristina & Kunal

Come get your hands in the soil with our partners at Farm the District (FTD), every Saturday throughout the growing season. Whether you’re a first-timer or returning veteran, all are needed to help tend to our shared backyard. There’s plenty of projects to keep all hands busy, including weeding, watering, composting, harvesting, repairing, crafting, and ongoing side projects.

Each Saturday in May also features FTD’s annual Plant Giveaway Fundraiser, with extra crops for folks to grab such as basil, dill, pak choi, kale, collards, tomatoes, tomatillos, hemp, & more, with peppers, eggplants, cukes, melons, & squash to follow later in the month! There are also houseplants for you to take home including spider plants, wandering dude, & succulents. Additional giveaways include nursery planters/trays, larger pots/containers, pawpaw seedlings, and more goodies! The model is pay-what-you-can, $5/plant suggested donation, cash & venmo accepted. All proceeds will go towards Farm The District, the urban farming parter of Temperance Alley Garden.

As always, we’ll also be giving an orientation tour for newcomers. Welcome neighbors!

Help shape the re-wilding of a vacant urban lot called Temperance Alley Sanctuary from the ground up in this landscape design session! Using garden stakes and string, we’ll physically map out last month’s community visioning ideas on the land, such as winding paths, hammocks, and pollinator/bird patches that invite both people and wildlife to thrive. 

You’ll also learn how to properly transplant native plants and relocate them, collaborate with neighbors, and help select native plants that will transform it into a sanctuary that supports an ecologically resilient DC.

About the project: The Temperance Sanctuary is an extension of the Temperance Alley Garden – a place to quiet down, to observe, and to cultivate reciprocity between ourselves and the land. Come join us in the rewilding and stewardship of Temperance Sanctuary as a rewilded sanctuary to bring back native biodiversity, a time capsule of DC’s Indigenous history, and an ecological classroom to practice community land stewardship. We welcome you to join us in its design and rewilding!

hosted by Amy & Chandan

Sisi SoulShine gathers a few theater artists to learn playback theater, an improvisational form of theater where a person from the audience shares as a story and an ensemble plays back that story through acting/dance/song/music.

A few folks from the garden community will serve as the audience who will watch, listen, and when prompted by Sisi will be asked to tell a story so that the ensemble can practice/learn.

This is an informal rehearsal/space for learning in order to introduce playback to both theater and garden folks. This is not a performance. We will learn, explore, and be curious together!

hosted by Sisi SoulShine

Have a shirt that just doesn't fit quite right? Or, pants that have been collecting dust in the back of your closet? Maybe you just want something new for the summer. Join us in the garden for a fun, sustainable, and community-centered closet refresh.

We will set up a couple of changing booths with mirrors so people can try things on. Participants are free to take as much as they want or need, no direct trade required. At the end, participants can take back any special pieces that were not exchanged. Any clothes left over after the event will be sorted and either donated to a DC-based mutual aid group or recycled.

hosted by Jules

Have you been dreaming of owning TAG swag? Dream no longer!!

Bring a shirt, tote, or any other piece of fabric that is yearning to be TAGged. We’ll have TAG stamps that you can imprint your fabric with. There will also be materials and instruction on how to create fabric appliqué to TAG your clothing with the fabric of your choice (bring fabric scraps and old clothing in colors and patterns you want to preserve)!

Bring friends, family, and neighbors who’s wardrobe needs a TAG upgrade.

This event is also a fundraiser for the Garden—consider donating as a token of appreciation for your new merch!!! And/or become a Friend of the U Street Neighborhood Association to provide ongoing support.

hosted by Alaanah, Chelsea, & Amy

The TAG CloudKeeping group invites you to prune your algorithm’s roots, reflect on your data storage’s water needs, and create a memory harvest of the past month together! Bring your smartphone/computer and/or physical materials of all the memories you have stored in May.

hosted by Chloe

Let’s get ready to Host!

Partner with a Stump Fellow to program your submitted event ideas for the month of JUNE. Anyone can join as we discuss garden event planning, budgeting, and partnerships. Your ideas and energy are more than welcome! Come early to mingle and brainstorm your ideas before submitting.

*HouseKeeping Circles happen at the end of each month, they are the functional meetings where we calendar events for the next month of programming, approve any new spending, and can vote to change any Garden policies if needed. These meetings have official minutes that keep a record of our decisions and are shared with the rest of the U Street Neighborhood Association for transparency.

All levels flow in the garden for our community donation-suggested classes with the beautiful greenery and open blue sky. Perfect for grounding and centering. Bring yourself, water, and a mat (we’ll have a few extra on hand).

What is wonder? How does one feel wonder? Where do we feel it? Where does it manifest? Does it manifest in our minds, in our toes? Maybe both? 

If any of these questions inspired further questioning with a touch excitement and a sense of awe you may be experiencing that inexplainable feeling now. 

Hold on to that as we explore wonder in this event. We'll find wonder in ourselves and take it to the external world around us at Temperance Alley Garden. We will dare to embody what inspires our wonder as the sun-sets and ultimately dance with wonder as our choreographer.

hosted by Kunal and Alaanah

Our meditation community meets weekly to re-center, connect, and cultivate intentions. With a mix of guided, silent, and relational practice, we ground ourselves in presence and compassion. All levels of experience warmly welcomed.

Hosted by regulars and guests alike, bring a practice for the circle to share.

Join the Garden plants and critters for an evening of home-grown music –– somewhere between a house show and barnyard jam. While tipping the bands is encouraged the event is free and open to all. Bring a blanket to sit on and snacks to share :)

produced by Lucy

Come get your hands in the soil with our partners at Farm the District (FTD), every Saturday throughout the growing season. Whether you’re a first-timer or returning veteran, all are needed to help tend to our shared backyard. There’s plenty of projects to keep all hands busy, including weeding, watering, composting, harvesting, repairing, crafting, and ongoing side projects.

Each Saturday in May also features FTD’s annual Plant Giveaway Fundraiser, with extra crops for folks to grab such as basil, dill, pak choi, kale, collards, tomatoes, tomatillos, hemp, & more, with peppers, eggplants, cukes, melons, & squash to follow later in the month! There are also houseplants for you to take home including spider plants, wandering dude, & succulents. Additional giveaways include nursery planters/trays, larger pots/containers, pawpaw seedlings, and more goodies! The model is pay-what-you-can, $5/plant suggested donation, cash & venmo accepted. All proceeds will go towards Farm The District, the urban farming parter of Temperance Alley Garden.

As always, we’ll also be giving an orientation tour for newcomers. Welcome neighbors!

RESCHEDULED from APRIL :)

In this cyanotype (sun print) zine workshop, we will capture a single moment in the sun on paper. Use fallen natural items from the garden and/or bring your own items you'd like to make a print of! Then use your prints to make a zine.

This event is free and open to the public, but we ask that people » RSVP here « so we get an accurate count for materials.

hosted by Eve & DC Zinefest

Bring your journal and/or the deep thoughts you’ve been mulling over! Feel free to use the garden as a space to journal independently, or to bring topics related to philosophy, psychology, relationships, or spirituality to discuss with others!

hosted by Alaanah

All levels flow in the garden for our community donation-suggested classes with the beautiful greenery and open blue sky. Perfect for grounding and centering. Bring yourself, water, and a mat (we’ll have a few extra on hand).

Our meditation community meets weekly to re-center, connect, and cultivate intentions. With a mix of guided, silent, and relational practice, we ground ourselves in presence and compassion. All levels of experience warmly welcomed.

Hosted by regulars and guests alike, bring a practice for the circle to share.

THE ecological-improvisation band from Philadelphia is COMING BACK to the Garden!

Performing aviary and environmentally inspired improvised music within the tradition of creative music, BORBS utilizes a vast instrumentarium drawn from jazz, classical music, world music, and everyday life (french horns, bass clarinet, homemade wood flutes, electric guitar). —Oh and did I mention that they play adorned in homemade outfits featuring giant painted bird heads!

Come at 5pm for a bird mindfulness session to get in the mood, followed by an all-improvised live performance at 6pm. No registration required!

Led by Aaron Pond, BORBS has previously performed at The Discovery Center in Philadelphia, Rhizome DC, and Headlong Dance Theatre. You can listen to their music here.

Co-sponsored by the DC Bird Alliance <3

Accessibility: Events are always free to attend, with optional donation available to support the hosts. Temperance Alley is accessible by Metro from the U Street station and by the 90 and 96 bus lines. Parking in the alley is at your own risk. The garden is at street level, in an alley directly behind 13th Street. There are no stairs to enter but the ground is uneven and unpaved in most places. A variety of seating is available and can be moved to accommodate any needs. The space is outdoors, open air with limited shade structures. There is NO BATHROOM on site. The nearest public bathroom would be the Brew on U Café or 14th Street Trader Joe’s. If you have additional accessibility questions or concerns, please reach out <3