Recent News of Twin Oaks
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See our Photo Gallery for many more news photos.
| Homegrown Music: Twin Oaks has its own all-women a capella group, sometimes known as FEC Sharp (FEC #). Here is a video of their performance on Validation Day (our version of Valentines Day) of Billy Joel's For the Longest Time. [Posted 11-March-2009.] | |
| Irish Music Concert, New Baby Born. We celebrated St Patrick's Day with an Irish music concert, but one of the performers (Ezra) was able to attend for only one song; his partner (Mala) had just given birth! We welcomed Samir Ghoshal Freeman into the world on March 17, at 7:30 pm, on the father's birthday yet. Birth announcement here. [Posted 26-Mar-2009.] |  |
Hey Baby, Welcome to the World! At 7:17 pm, on Thursday November 20, we welcomed the newest Twin Oaker, a daughter for Summer and Purl. She was born at home, with a full head of dark hair and her grandmother's nose, according to dad Purl. [Posted 27-November-2008.] |
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An assortment of the Misfortunes that were found inside the misfortune cookies: "Life has no meaning, at least not for you." "It won't get better." "You'll be assigned 14 K-shifts next week." (reader note: normally we each get 1 K-shift--kitchen cleaning--a week) "You will have a failed polyamorous relationship and lose your partner to your best friend." "You will never find matching socks again." |
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Costumes worn by members included: (warning: some may be in questionable taste!!) The pregnant Virgin Mary (by one of our members who is 3 months pregnant) Sarah Palin's pregnant teenage daughter (costume worn by a 40-year old man) An Undecided Voter (person's face painted half-black, half white) CrashDance (an 80's style outfit complete with legwarmers, with bruises all over the body from falling down while dancing) Smartie Pants (regular pants with Smarties candies attached all over them) The reincarnation of Benazir Bhutto (by the same member who had dressed up as her a couple of years ago, before she was assassinated) Peak Oil (person adorned with garbage bags and car-oil cans, with a trickle of fake oil dripping out of their head) Johnny Cash (complete with 3-piece live band, led the whole room in singing a round of "Ring of Fire") ....and our usual assortment of Twin Oaks members who dress up
as other Twin Oaks members, wearing the other person's clothes,
or adopting a distinctive hair style or accessory. |
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| Oz destroyed by fire! On the evening of June 14, during our 41st Anniversary dinner party, just as a huge thunderstorm was hitting us, the news came that our varnishing building was on fire. Several Oakers biked or ran to the scene, and many local volunteer fire company trucks arrived. The building was insured. It will be some time before we can rebuild and our chair varnishing buisness recover. Photo shows ruined Oz with untouched Em. City Stretcher Shop behind.[Posted 16-June-2008.] |  |
Musical Behaviorism: Each week at Twin Oaks these days, if we make our hammock production goals, then our work quota stays the same for the following week. If we don't make our goals, then our work quota goes up the following week. Last week we had mucho musical encouragement while working on the last night of the labor week--we were serenaded by Summer on the musical saw, Edmund on euphonium, and Catfish on accordian. Their lyrics included: "Oh we are weavers, of leisure products..." We also had the whole hammock shop sing a not-quite-on- key version of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" which took about ten minutes altogether. We made our production goal by 9 pm. [Posted 11-May-2008.] |
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| Forbes News Story. In it's April 10 online story about Utopias, forbes.com included Twin Oaks as one of "eight modern utopias". [Posted 15-Apr-2008.] | |
| US State Department online article about Twin Oaks. An article titled "Virginia Community Practices Grassroots Participatory Democracy" was published on the US State Dept website. See just the text of the article here. [1-Oct-2007] | Cooking for 100. At the request of one our ex-members, (hi Samadhi!) we have posted several recipes that have proved popular here over the years. Be advised--they are to-scale, so invite over 100 of your closest friends, and get cooking! [Posted 15-Nov-2007] |
| AT Record Hiker here. New member Calliope's mother Nancy visited us recently. Nancy is the oldest woman to through-hike the Appalachian Trail (according to AT Club records), finishing in 2007 at age 71. They are pictured here. (Nancy on the left in photo below). [Posted 29-Apr-2008.] |  |
| Dance Performance. It's not "Dancing with the Stars", but we were treated to a performance by ex-member Tall Todd (Marsden) visiting with his partner Susanna L. Hardt. They perform Ballroom and Latin dancing professionally, and just were awarded best combined score in their age bracket in the US National DanceSport championships in Baltimore MD. http://www.toddandsuzie.com/ [Posted 11-apr-2008] |  |
Live Music performance: We enjoyed the tunes of Kimya Dawson, who performed live at the Oaks in Zhankoye on January 24. Kimya's music is featured in the 2007 film Juno. [Posted 26-jan-2008] |
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| Matrimony, Commune-Style. In October, one couple here held their wedding ceremony at Twin Oaks. Approximately 100 friends (many ex-members) and relatives joined us in celebrating their union, and with so many people present, the event had a family-reunion flavor. We processed through the woods to a local church for the exchange of vows and rings, and headed back home for the outdoor reception, complete with live music and dancing. [Posted 23-Oct-2007] |
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| Annual Conferences successful. In late August 2007, our exciting annual Communities Conference and Women's Gathering were once again successfully observed. | Twin Oaks 40th Anniversary celebrated: June 16, 1967 to June 16, 2007. Activities included a contra dance, slide show from decades past, a Twin Oaks theatre performance, unveiling of a 40th Anniversary quilt, planting of a peace pole, a special guest appearance by founder Kat Kinkade, and of course lots of catching up with folks who hadn't seen each other for a loooong time. An ex-member brought some photos from the very early days of Twin Oaks, the first year or two of our existence. Folk dancing and VW vans included! Photos here. |
| Published articles by Twin Oakers. • "More Changes at Twin Oaks: 40 years and Counting....." about long term members leaving, by Valerie. Read the article here. Slated to appear in the Spring 2007 ICSA bulletin. • "Financial Security vs. Community Freedom" about Twin Oaks stopping making hammocks for Pier 1 Imports, by Tom Freeman. Read it here. It will appear in the spring 2007 issue of Communities Magazine. [1-Feb-2007] • "Aging in Community" about elders living at Twin Oaks, by Valerie LivingWater. Read it here. It will appear in the spring 2007 of Contraste, an alternative publication in Cologne, Germany. [1-Feb-2007] |
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| Bobcat! In mid-November, we discovered a bobcat that was killing some of our free-range chickens. We trapped it live and uninjured and released it into a more natural/wildlife area far from us. Here is the picture of it immediately after we captured it. [posted 27-Nov-2006] |  Photo by Joan Mazza |
| Anniversary Celebrated. June 16
saw us celebrating our 39th anniversary of Twin Oaks as a community.
A group of members performed "The Compleat Works of Wllm Shkspr
(Abridged)", a hilarious take-off on many of the Bards' plays.
Photos see photo gallery. [5-Jul-2006] |
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| "Twin Oms:" Twin Oaks is featured in the March 2006 issue of Yoga Journal, one of the premier yoga magazines in the US. Their article about intentional communities and ashrams includes photos and quotes from Twin Oakers. Visit www.yogajournal.com for ordering information. [25-Mar-2006] | ZEGG Forum. Two members of the ZEGG Community spent the past weekend at Twin Oaks offering a workshop on their "Forum" process, a communication and personal growth experience. Both Oakers and off-the-farm folks participated. [15-May-2006.] |
You know you've lived on a commune when...
Eight of the above are true for Valerie LivingWater, who has lived at Twin Oaks for 14 years. |
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| Twin Oaks grows a significant portion of its food in a 2-1/2 acre organic vegetable garden. Pam is the Garden Manager, and works year-round with a crew to provide home-grown produce for the community. Read an interview with her that will be published in an upcoming newsletter of the "Women, Food, and Agriculture Network." [1 Feb 2006] |  |
| Twin Oakers have a penchant
for naming everything, including all of our communally-owned vehicles. By Valerie Renwick-Porter. [23 Jan 2006] No one has a personal vehicle while living here. Here's a list of our current vehicle names: From our female icon theme:
Two of our vans:
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Other vehicle names:
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| New life! Mala gave birth to a healthy baby boy on September 27, at 11:55 pm. The baby was born in Kaweah residence with Ezra (dad), Nancy (midwife), Kele and Meredith (birth team) in attendance. A birth party was in progress downstairs throughout the evening, sending support and celebrating the imminent arrival of the newest Twin Oaker. More photos. [posted 1 Oct 05] |  |
| Sean's Art. Sean Samoheyl has been producing a lot of "self-taught" art at Twin Oaks: sculpture, painting, fiber, dolls, etc. His personal website has been improved recently and he's been showing/selling his amazing creations in a number of live and online venues. [31 Aug 2005] |  Sculpted and painted wood head by Sean. |
| Frog sounds! Summer is at its peak and since we've been getting regular rainstorms, there is an abundance frogs and toads at our pond, in the woods, and near our houses. A number of us have been enjoying trying to identify the different frogs by their calls. A book with CD by Lang Elliott has been incredibly useful in this enjoyable quest. [20 July 2005] | Frog calls we've so far identified by their calls
alone
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Life is a Cabaret: In mid-March, over 25 Twin Oakers performed the play Cabaret to 3 nights of enthusiastic audiences. The culmination of several months of rehearsals and hard work, the play was seen by some as a commentary on the parallels between today's political climate in the US and the Nazis' rise to power as portrayed in the play. Photos.
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| Musical Watchers Club. The Gene Kelly Chapter of the Wednesday Musical Watchers Club (a group of Oakers who get together to watch musicals once a week) has reached a milestone—100 musicals watched! The group has also taken a trip to New York City to take in some real-life musicals. [2 Feb 2005] | "Second Generation" Twin Oakers: current members Sky and Elona (pictured here) share the unique distinction of having parents who lived at Twin Oaks before they were born. In both cases, the parents left community to raise their families, and their offspring chose to return as members once they had reached adulthood. Photo. [8 Feb 2005]
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| Books that
Twin Oakers say have changed their lives
or blown their minds (in no particular order, Feb 2005): Elaine Morgan. The Descent of Woman/Aquatic Ape |
Philip Slater. The Pursuit of Loneliness: American Culture at the
Breaking Point. Colin Tipping. Radical Forgiveness. Aldous Huxley. Brave New World. Aldous Huxley. Island. Ernest Callenbach. Ecotopia. Ernest Callenbach. Ecotopia Emerging. Ayn Rand. Atlas Shrugged. Naomi Wolf. The Beauty Myth. John Knowles. A Separate Peace. Omar Cabezas. Fire From the Mountain. Albert Camus. The Plague. Tom Wolfe. The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test. Dr. Suess. Fox in Socks. Marge Piercy. Woman on the Edge of Time. Francesca Block. Weetzie Bat. Karl Marx. The Communist Manifesto. Karl Marx. Das Kapital. R. M. Buck. Comic Consciousness. Tom Robbins. All his books especially Jitterbug Perfume Margaret Atwood. The Handmaid's Tale. Carol Adams. The Sexual Politics of Meat. Rami. Rami's Book. Clarissa Pinkola. Women Who Run With the Wolves. Cheri Huber. All her books. Susan Campbell. Getting Real. Harville Hendrix. Getting the Love You Want. Parmahansa Yogananda. Autobiography of a Yogi. Chicken Soup Team Inc. Chicken Soup for the Three Week Visitor's Soul. (just kidding) |
| Member Joins Peace Corps. In early January, we said goodbye to Melissa, one of our members who will be spending the next two years working with the Peace Corps in Mali. At least 4 other current members have served with the Peace Corps before coming to Twin Oaks. We look forward to hearing from Melissa as her cross-cultural adventures begin. Photo. [6 Jan 2005] | |
| Home-cultured Romano cheese. One of several 8 inch diameter cheese rounds processed and ready to cure in our cheese kitchen. Twin Oaks produces all of our own cheeses and dairy products, including cheddar, gouda, swiss, blue cheese, cream cheese, yogurt, butter and occasionally ice-cream, all made with milk from our herd of dairy cows. Twin Oaks: 40 cows and one checkbook. More. [20 Nov 2004] | |
| Twin Oaks member Cameron prepares to launch a replica of a traditional seal-hunting kayak from northwest Greenland that he built himself. He recently kayaked in a bay in Delaware with others interested in traditional Greenland kayaks. Photo gallery. [13 Oct 04] | Member building replica traditional kayak. Twin Oaks member Cameron spends his free time these days building a replica of a traditional seal-hunting kayak from northwest Greenland. Cameron was an anthropology professor before moving to Twin Oaks. Photo. [10 Sep 2004] |
| Communities Conference 2004 [posted 16 Sep 2004] We had a great conference this year. It's trite to say except that it happens to be true that it was one of the best in recent years. Through some combination of good organization and support from a solid core of Oakers, no rain (at least until towards the end) and divine intervention of no unforeseen stressful complications and/or people immediately available to deal with aforementioned complications, the weekend was a smooth flow of revolutionary communalism in action. Read more... | |
| African Drumming Performance. We briefly hosted the African Showboyz, a percussion/dance group of brothers from Ghana, Africa. Their high-energy performance featured professional hand-made gourd drums, traditional African stringed instruments and a clapping/leaping dance style designed by their family to accompany the music. [23 July 2004] Two photos here. | |
Twin Oakers at the ICSA. Two Oakers participated in the International Communal Studies Association meeting last week at the historic Amana Colonies in Iowa. Over 65 people from the US, Europe and Israel participated; the group was a blend of academics studying communal living and actual real-live communitarians. Photo. [Jul 2004.] |
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| Validation Day celebrated at Twin Oaks. This long-standing alternative to Valentine's Day ensures that February 14th is special for everyone, not just those with romantic interests. A card is handmade for each member, individually designed with the recipients' interests in mind. [14 Feb 2004.] More info and photos. | |
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