You’re invited to our garden gatherings, Harrison happenings, and more!
The U Street Neighborhood Association supports a wide range of programming in Temperance Alley — from ecology classes to local live music to writing workshops and more. All are welcome to host a public & non-commercial gathering in our shared backyard. We also co-host and promote various community events across the U Street Corridor, including at Harrison Recreation Center. Signing up for our newsletter is the easiest way to make sure you never miss out on an event.
Upcoming Events
Garden Volunteer Hours
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. The Farm Leads will help you learn all about the tasks of the day, and you’re welcome to come & go as you please!
As always, we’ll also be giving an orientation tour for newcomers. Welcome neighbors!
Do you wanna play with Earth?
Storytelling, Clay, Earthbending + more…
Play is universal. Every being benefits from play. I believe the very elements that make up life itself like to play. In this 4 part play series we will be exploring play through imagining how air, water, earth, and fire cultivate joy. Every play session we will play like the elements, give playful offerings to the elements, and play with the elements. My biggest hope is through being both serious and silly about play we will be able to see the endless ways we can incorporate more play into our lives. We need more playful, imaginative, vibrant and whole people in this world; so be prepared to get weird, be free, and have fun!
Please bring something for show and tell!
hosted by Mali
POTLUCK PROJECT: What Do You Wish You’d Known Sooner About Building Community?
Join us for a potluck dinner and conversation on community building, across backgrounds, faiths, generations, and cultures.
Three experienced community builders will open by sharing what they wish they’d known earlier: the lessons, missteps, and insights that only came with time. Then the floor opens to everyone. Whatever your role in community life, we want to hear what you’ve learned too.
This isn’t a panel to sit back and watch. It’s a shared table (literally) where insight moves in both directions. Bring a dish to share, and come ready to answer: what do you wish you’d known sooner about building and sustaining community?
Please RSVP if you plan on attending or bringing something!
Hosted by the Potluck Project in DC
Monday Morning Musings
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
TAG HouseKeeping Circle
Let’s get ready to Host!
Partner with a Stump Fellow to program your submitted event ideas for the month of OCTOBER. 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.
Yoga in the Garden
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).
African American Civil War Museum REOPENING
The day has finally come! After 6 years of renovation the African American Civil War Museum is reopening to the public on September 30th, at 10AM.
Join neighbors for this special event including a ribbon cutting, presentation of the colors, re-enactor drills, and remarks from the Mayor.
Come celebrate this pillar of our community and experience the exhibits as the museum begins its new chapter that will last for years to come!
Admission to the Museum is free, with a suggested $10 donation to support the museum’s mission-driven programs, exhibits, and educational outreach.
Breathe Easy: Group Meditation
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.
LocalGuessr
What is LocalGuessr?
LocalGuessr is a team game played at bars and restaurants, formatted similarly to bar trivia. It is based on the online game GeoGuessr, where players try to guess a location based on Google Street View images. While this sounds fun, it can be very frustrating because of how difficult it is to have a chance to figure out where these places are.
Enter LocalGuessr — GeoGuessr, but only locations in the city being played, and played in person on teams. This makes it much more approachable and fun for players, especially people who have lived in their city for a long time.
What does LocalGuessr look like?
Players come and sit together as teams. A host explains the rules and lets people know when each round starts. Once the game begins, players huddle up and use their phones to look at locations and guess where they are. When time is up, we show a map of all the guesses and the real locations, as well as calculate the scores (closer guesses score more points). At the end, we do a big reveal of the final scores and give out prizes to the best players. An event typically has one short practice round and three main rounds, which lasts about 2 hours all together.
hosted by Jay
Donation Harvest for Martha's Table
Our midweek harvest is donated to Martha’s Table through a long-running partnership with Farm the District. Join us every hump day at 7 to give back to the community. No experience necessary, we’ll teach you how to harvest.
hosted by Riley
Creatives Club & Community Jam
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
Canopy & Candlelight: An Analog Sukkot Shabbat
To celebrate Sukkot—the harvest holiday dedicated to dwelling in temporary shelters and embracing the natural world—we are hosting a special, completely phone-free Shabbat dinner. As twilight settles, we’ll light the candles, bless the bread and wine, and share a warm family-style meal under the open sky.
This is an Attention Sphere event hosted by Gabi & Kendall
Capital M presents Nature + Nurture
Join us for a garden gathering exploring what we nurture and what nurtures us.
Together, we'll slow down, spend time in the garden, engage with selected readings and reflect on the people, places and practices that sustain us. We’ll gather around a simple question: What are you nurturing right now, and what is nurturing you?
Consider the places throughout DC where you feel cared for, connected and restored as Capital M begins documenting the spaces that nurture mothers across the city.
A relaxed, facilitated garden gathering with time to read, reflect, connect with other DC mothers and share as much or as little as you choose. Children are welcome to attend and enjoy the garden alongside you.
This event is part of Capital M: Exploring Motherhood Across Wards and Generations in DC, a multimedia community storytelling and humanities project documenting and celebrating the lived experiences of DC mothers.
Using oral history, public storytelling, facilitated dialogue, and a culminating community exhibition, the project examines a singular question: “How does Washington, DC shape the experience of motherhood — and how do mothers shape the Nation’s Capital in return?”
Photography + Recording Notice: By attending this event, you acknowledge that photography, audio recording, and video recording may take place throughout the program.
hosted by Char
Garden Bathing: a micro-forest bathing practice!
Have you ever wanted to try forest bathing but couldn't get to a forest? You're in luck. Forest bathing - or shinrin yoku - is a practice you can take anywhere.
Slow down, open your senses, and immerse yourself in a place with Certified Forest Therapy Guide Sarah DeWitt. Join Sarah for an evening of forest bathing in Temperance Alley to experience your city in a completely new way!
Founder of Uptown Forest Bathing, Sarah has lived in DC for 24 years including five years at 14th and T in the early 2000s. She has witnessed many changes in the city over these years and now dedicates a portion of her business toward guiding urban nature immersion experiences and advocating for equitable access to green space.
Yoga in the Garden
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).
The U in U Street Community
We’re so excited to invite you to the final session of the Thriving Mindfully series hosted by our 2026 Artist-in-Residence, Ananda Leeke!
The fourth, and final event in this series, The U in U Street Community, will take place on Wednesday, October 7th from 6:30-7:30 pm at True Reformer Building, located at 1200 U St NW. Come share your love for U Street and have a final chance to contribute to a community art project (to be displayed during the event)!
A little more about this event, participants will...
💭 Engage in a land acknowledgement ritual
😌 Be introduced to Thriving Mindfully, a heart-centered approach to being present with breathing and intention setting exercises
🎶 Listen to music
🔍 Explore how they can serve as mindful community stewards of the U Street community in the present
💌 Reflect on and share their intention for the U Street community
All will be invited to discuss their vision in a sharing circle.
hosted by Ananda
Month Offline Exhibition 📴
Month Offline welcomes you to a gallery and graduation party with the members of our September cohort!
These brave doomscrollers switched to a dumbphone for the whole month and participated in weekly creative challenges related to the smartphone-shaped hole in their lives. They explored themes like Communication, Navigation, and Boredom as they time traveled to the 1990s. At this closing exhibition, the Month Offline cohort will share what their experience was like and showcase the projects they made with all their newfound freetime.
This is (of course) a phone-free event—you'll be asked to put your phone away at the gate. All are welcome!
hosted by Olivia, Aaron, and Josh
Music in the Garden for Baldwin House 🎶
Come listen to great music, support our local bands, and raise funds for Baldwin House in the garden! 🌙🍃🎶
Baldwin House is an affordable housing cooperative and mutual aid space for working-class Washingtonians in DC. We have a funding deadline this Fall and need to pay off a loan to remain in the neighborhood.
That’s why we need the support of the community! And what better way to support than through jamming out with our local artists?
Hosted by Rachel & Amy
Thru the Alleyways: What's the difference between designing and creating?
Circle up, it’s time to read & discuss!
A monthly discussion series held the last Thursday of the month, exploring how public spaces connect to our daily lives and inviting participants to think critically about how we build the world around us. Sessions feature introductory readings from psychology, urbanism, sociology, public health, and art. No prior knowledge needed; light readings provided day-of.
hosted by Zoe and Natalie
Donation Harvest for Martha's Table
Our midweek harvest is donated to Martha’s Table through a long-running partnership with Farm the District. Join us every hump day at 7 to give back to the community. No experience necessary, we’ll teach you how to harvest.
hosted by Riley
Breathe Easy: Group Meditation
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.
CANCELLED 🌧️ Equinox in the Garden: Raag & Gong
🌧️ Cancelled due to rain showers :( Happy Equinox to all!
Celebrate the Autumnal Equinox at the Garden during an evening of soothing music, celestial demonstrations, and as always—seasonal letter-writing!
Prabir Mehta will play a guitar based exploration of various ancient Indian raags. A collection of songs curated for a yoga and meditation practices. Prabir reaches deep into his family roots and offers a new approach to these sacred, treasured aspects of life on the subcontinent of India. Offering some sounds that lead the ear to calm.
Grrrls Gong Wild: The triple-gong supergroup Grrrls Gong Wild (Maya Glicksman, Estephanie Rose, and Naoco Wowsugi) facilitates immersive sound baths that offer deep rest, shared vibration, and collective healing—cultivating radical care and connection to nature, each other, and the self.
Naoco Wowsugi is an interdisciplinary, community-engaged artist. Wowsugi’s extensive fieldwork includes community gong baths that activate the gong as an instrument for deep, broad, and collective listening experiences, often offered on a moon-cycle basis.
Maya Glicksman draws from her background in earth science and personal connections with land to imagine an environmentally just and resilient future. Her work explores intersections of food, community wellness, and climate resilience in Washington DC. Sound and fermentation are core components of her experimental practice.
Estephanie Rose, founder of Sound and Movement, ignites ancestral memory by sharing healing sounds with diverse communities. As a meditative sound facilitator, a yoga practitioner, and a multi instrumentalist artist, she can set the vibe to calm the nerves. Estephanie Rose understands movement as medicine, whether it’s of the body, breath, emotions or sound waves.
hosted by Maya, Naoco, Estephanie, Prabir, and Josh!
CANCELLED: Yoga in the Garden
CANCELLED DUE TO RAIN SHOWERS
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).
Embracing Transitions: An Open Mic Night and Creative Collaboration
Come bring a piece of creative work centered on transitions. We’ll share our work with the group for the first half of the event, and spend the second half co-creating, mixing your work with others!
Hosted by Alaanah & Hannah
Monday Morning Musings
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
Hobbit Day
Join your fellow Shire folk for our seventh annual Hobbit Day party in honor of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins’ birthday! 🎂🎉
We’ll enjoy some middle earth delicacies, hobbit dancing, a Lord of the Rings trivia challenge, and other Tolkien-themed activities. Come dressed in your finest Shire attire! 🧙♂️🧝♀️🦶
If you feel so inclined, you’re welcome to bring a hobbit-y side, treat, or drink to share—no alcohol per venue rules. Bring a blanket to sit on if you like, and plz forward this to all the Tolkienites in your life! Hobbitlings welcome 👶😊
+RSVPing on Partiful will help us get a good head count.
Hosted by Joel and Anna
Acrylic Portrait Painting
In this workshop, local artist Ellie will provide a demo on a tried-and-true way to paint a moving portrait. This can be a self-portrait, or a portrait of another person.
No painting or drawing experience required.
Acrylic paint and primed, unstretched canvas or cardboard to paint on will be provided. If you were at a previous workshop, feel free to continue working on that piece or start a new one.
Please prepare with the following:
Take time to journal: has a particular person been on your mind lately? have you been experiencing anything lately that you’d like to capture in a self portrait? do you have pictures with particularly fun light or capture a feeling?
Bring reference photos. They can be of yourself, your person, your friends, animal, etc. It’s helpful if they are high quality and if you’re a beginner, mouth closed is easiest.
Bring any additional supplies you want, especially if you want to work in another type of artistic medium.
hosted by Ellie @elliepaintsforyou and Alexis
Garden Volunteer Hours
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. The Farm Leads will help you learn all about the tasks of the day, and you’re welcome to come & go as you please!
As always, we’ll also be giving an orientation tour for newcomers. Welcome neighbors!
Creatives Club & Community Jam
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
Flower Hammering Workshop 🌼🔨 @ Creatives Club
Ever loved a flower so much you wanted to capture its beauty forever? Does taking a picture not feel like enough? Come pound all that beauty out of your flowers and onto something permanent! A workout, a release, and a craft all in one! 🌼
Flowers and blank canvas (either paper or fabric- tbd) will be provided, but feel free to bring your own flowers and/or your own canvas if you'd like (i.e. if you have a tote you want to decorate with pretty flowers). The more the merrier!
Note: flat-faced, thin-petaled, vibrantly colored flowers are best for this (i.e. cosmos, coreopsis, garden phlox, marigold, pansies, nasturtiums, blanket flower) & natural fiber fabrics work best to transfer onto.
Hosted by Alexis
Donation Harvest for Martha's Table
Our midweek harvest is donated to Martha’s Table through a long-running partnership with Farm the District. Join us every hump day at 7 to give back to the community. No experience necessary, we’ll teach you how to harvest.
hosted by Riley
The Future of the U Street Community
We’re so excited to invite you to the third session of the Thriving Mindfully series hosted by our 2026 Artist-in-Residence, Ananda Leeke!
The third event in this series, The Future of the U Street Community, will take place on Wednesday, September 16th from 6:30-7:30 pm at True Reformer Building, located at 1200 U St NW. Come share your love for U Street and contribute to a WIP community art project (to be displayed during the final workshop).
A little more about this event, participants will...
💭 Engage in a land acknowledgement ritual
😌 Be introduced to Thriving Mindfully, a heart-centered approach to being present with breathing and intention setting exercises
🎶 Listen to music
💌 Express and document their vision of the U Street community in 10, 20, 30, 40, and/or 50 years…
🔍 Explore how they can use their presence, gifts, and expertise to create the future of the U Street community
All will be invited to discuss their vision in a sharing circle.
hosted by Ananda
Virtual Volunteer Fair
DC Tutoring & Mentoring Initiative is hosting our second Virtual Volunteer Fair of the year on Wednesday, September 16th at 6:30pm on Zoom! Attendees will meet over 10 local programs seeking mentors, tutors, coaches, and more. Nearly 2/3 kids in DC are reading below grade level, and more need extra caring adults in their lives. Your support can help make a difference. Sign up for FREE: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1999058229979
Breathe Easy: Group Meditation
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.
Yoga in the Garden
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).
TAG StoryKeeping Circle
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
Holding Big Tech Accountable: Tech policy 101
Deleting the apps, trying month offline, organizing phone-free gatherings — personal strategies like these are a great way to push back against the extractive, attention-sucking design of Big Tech platforms. But what about through law? Can policy actually hold these companies accountable and is there any hope?
Join the Attention Sphere for a panel and Q&A digging into the history and current state of tech policy: from decades of fights over privacy and surveillance to today’s battles over social media and AI. We’ll talk about what’s worked, what hasn’t, and what’s actually possible from here.
Guest Speakers:
~ Adam Billen, Co-Executive Director of Encode, where he’s helped pass laws like the TAKE IT DOWN Act and push state-level AI regulation across the country.
~ Zamaan Qureshi, co-founder and Director of Campaigns and Policy at Design It For Us, where he leads the youth-led fight for safer social media and tech accountability.
~ Ava Smithing, Founding Partner at The Attention Studio, working on nonpartisan policy solutions to build a healthier, less extractive tech ecosystem.
~ Kara Williams, Counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), where she leads state and federal privacy, social media, and AI policy.
hosted by Kendall
Monday Morning Musings
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
Paw-Paw Pawp-up
We're in peak paw paw season, and I wanna see what y'all can do with your paw paws (our magical little native fruit)! Bring any paw paws you've been able to forage (see: Rock Creek Park, Theodore Roosevelt Island, C&O Canal, etc), and let's indulge together. Creative paw paw dishes are encouraged (think baked goods, custards, ice cream, sauces, drinks, etc) but not required.
NOTE: Attending TAG-Along to Paw Paw Foraging the day before this event is highly encouraged & a great way to have paw paws to work with for this pop-up potluck : )
hosted by Alexis
Poetry Reading Circle
Creatives Club Poetry Workshop presents an afternoon of casual and cozy poetry reading in the Garden! Come share a new poem you’re working on, an old one you’re proud of, or perhaps a poem by an author that inspires you. This session is designed to get you comfortable with reading and listening in poetic community, so we welcome you to share a piece at any stage of the writing process - no critiques here!
Hosted by Jennifer & Jordyn
Roots, Rain & Rewilding: Planning Session for Temperance Alley Sanctuary
What if a vacant lot could become a thriving native habitat?
Join us for a casual, hands-on planning session to help shape the future of Temperance Alley Sanctuary, a vacant lot next to the main garden that we’re working together to rewild.
No prior gardening or ecology experience is needed. Come curious, bring your ideas, and help shape how this small piece of DC can support our ecological and climate resilience.
In this session, we’ll:
🌱 Choose native plants for October’s community planting
💧 Explore rainwater retention and hydrology to help restore the plot’s relationship with water
🌿 Learn how to properly transplant native plants and take some home
🗺️ Share ideas and help shape the design of the sanctuary
🤝 Connect with neighbors and practice community-based ecological stewardship
Hosted by Temperance Alley Sanctuary Stewards
(Joe, Avery, Eliyana, Chandan, Alexis, Lydia, Amy)
TAG-Along to Paw Paw Foraging!
It's Paw Paw season in the DMV!
Join your TAG friends as we “tag-along” on a foraging walk to harvest the tastiest native tropical fruit. We will meet at the Garden at the end of Saturday gardening hours and collectively make our way to the secret harvesting location. (Cars will be leaving TAG right around 1:30pm)
Please RSVP in the WhatsApp ahead of time so that we can help arrange transportation for everyone!
hosted by Stephen
Garden Volunteer Hours
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. The Farm Leads will help you learn all about the tasks of the day, and you’re welcome to come & go as you please!
As always, we’ll also be giving an orientation tour for newcomers. Welcome neighbors!
BrainRot Field Day
TAG invites you to… brainrot internet field day!!!
What if you could listen to every single instagram reel ever made, all at once? What if you could pin the tung tung tung to the sahur but IRL? This event is going to be a For US page.
Let’s get ready to 67 from 6-7!!
Hosted by Chloe
Play Jam: Improv at the Garden
Welcome to Play Jam! A casual space to enjoy clown and improv exercises for the experienced and new :)
Improvisational theater is an unplanned, spontaneously and collaboratively created experience that exists only in the present moment. A moment that ends as quickly as it starts, like the flame on a match.
Improv at the Garden will be a series of Improv games and warm-ups 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 warm-ups to create an experience that will never be made again.
Temperance Alley Garden is the perfect host; much like Improv Temperance exists in a temporary space, it may not exist forever, but that does not mean the stories it tells or the relationships it fosters are not meaningful. Both Improv and Temperance teach us to truly savor the moment, pay attention, actively listen, and most importantly, engage with each other and the land we’re on.
Hosted by Kunal
Donation Harvest for Martha's Table
Our midweek harvest is donated to Martha’s Table through a long-running partnership with Farm the District. Join us every hump day at 7 to give back to the community. No experience necessary, we’ll teach you how to harvest.
hosted by Riley
Breathe Easy: Group Meditation
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.
Stay in the U
Sign up for the U Street Neighborhood Association’s monthly newsletter, and we’ll keep you posted on upcoming events and neighborhood happenings. You can also subscribe to our Instagram, Google Calendar, and iCal.