Archive for the ‘News Articles’ Category
Tuesday, July 29th, 2008
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Community founder and author Kat Kinkade passed away in July at the age of 77. Kinkade was involved in the founding of Twin Oaks, East Wind, and Acorn, and published two memoirs of life at Twin Oaks, A Walden Two Experiment, and Is it Utopia Yet?. Several US newspapers, including the New York Times and the Washington Post, published obituaries of Kinkade, highlighting her involvement in the communities movement.
Both articles highlight these accomplishments, as well as Kinkade's move in and out of the communes she helped form. The New York Times wrote of Kinkade's involvement in the early years of Twin Oaks:
It was not easy. The farm's well ran dry, cows starved over the winter and rammed-earth bricks did not generate the kind of revenue that the founders had hoped for. Pot-smoking hippies who drifted into the commune found themselves at odds with work-ethic missionaries like Ms. Kinkade, whose blunt practicality and executive talent - rare qualities in the counterculture - helped the stumbling colony achieve not just self-sufficiency but something resembling prosperity.
"She was the Hillary Clinton of Twin Oaks," her daughter said.
Ultimately, Twin Oaks succeeded, and Kinkade put her energy into founding other communities. The Washington Post wrote:
Unlike thousands of other communes that sprang up in the 1960s only to succumb to the perplexities of shared living, Twin Oaks gradually began to flourish, despite early hardship and dissension. It grew to almost a hundred communards, became a self-sustaining land trust of 450 efficiently managed acres and began to thrive financially when it signed a long-term contract with Pier 1 for its hammocks.
Although she was involved in founding two other income-sharing communities -- in Missouri and Virginia -- she told The Post in 1998 that communal life had not measured up to her expectations.
"My mother was disappointed that Twin Oaks did not turn out to be the model for what the rest of our society would be," said her daughter, Dr. Josie Kinkade of Louisa, Va. "When she found out that it was really just a nice place for some middle-class people to live, she was disappointed."
Although, I suspect that few kitchens in middle-class homes contain a cross-stitch sampler reading, "From each according to their need, to each according to their ability".
Read the full articles here [New York Times] and here [Washington Post].
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Related Posts Tags: Acorn, East Wind, FEC, Kat Kincade, Twin Oaks
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Written by:
erika
Saturday, July 12th, 2008
The CBS News television affiliate in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, WHP-TV, reports on the green features of Hundredfold Farm, a new co-housing development in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The television spot is more in-depth, mentioning the farmland preservation, energy efficiency, and on-site waste water treatment achieved by the community.
Hundredfold Farm is a co-housing community in Adams County. It is a neighborhood created at first as a way to preserve farmland.
The neighborhood sits in the middle of an operating 80 acre Christmas tree farm, which each homeowner, owns an equal part of. With seven homes complete, eventually 14 homes will sit on just six acres of the farm, preserving the rest of the land.
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The layout of the community is designed after a small village, where neighbors are a close by and close with each other. The idea for the farm was created 10 years ago. This is the first neighborhood of its kind in Pennsylvania.
Read the article (with video).
Hundredfold Farm was mentioned previously on Buzz Blog as a possible campaign stop of Barack Obama during the Democratic primary. It's unclear whether that stop actually took place.
It has also been featured on FOX 43 News of York, PA in a 2- part viedo series (1) (2)
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Related Posts Tags: farmland preservation, Gettysburg Pennsylvania, greenhouse, Hundredfold Farm, trees, waste water treatment
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Written by:
erika
Tuesday, July 8th, 2008
The Times Educational Supplement, a publication for teachers in the UK, has an article about the educational opportunities at Findhorn Ecovillage in Scotland. The article starts with a brief nod to Findhorn's legendary gardens and faerie/angel culture but mostly focuses on the ecovillage's sustainability education programs. Here's an excerpt:
The Findhorn Foundation is a charitable trust earning income from activities as an education and conference centre, focusing on spiritual self-discovery, teaching how to live sustainably and a range of courses on the arts and healing.
The ecovillage, where community members experiment with new techniques for environmentally friendly living, won Best Practice designation from the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements in 1998. For more than 10 years, the foundation has engaged with the work of the UN as a non-government organisation, offering programmes in line with the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development 2005-14.
This community recorded the lowest eco-footprint in the industrialised world last year and is attracting the interest of politicians and others who would have given the place a wide berth until comparatively recently, according to Dawson. When he came here a decade ago, he felt it would have been political suicide for a local figure of substance to have been too closely identified with Findhorn as it was still considered a bit "away with the fairies". But he believes as the sustainability agenda has moved centre-stage, the way of life here doesn't seem quite so whacky to outsiders.
Read the article on Findhorn's sustainability education programs.
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Related Posts Tags: ecovillages, education, Findhorn, Scotland
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Tony Sirna
Thursday, June 26th, 2008
ABC News' Nightline did a 10 minute spot on a 5,000 person Russian commune of followers of Vissarion, a spiritual leader who claims to be the second coming of Jesus Christ.
Deep in the heart of Siberia's birch forests lies one of the largest and most remote religious communes of the planet. More than 5,000 people have left their families and their homes to move here and join the Church of the Last Testament, which has more than 10,000 followers worldwide. The church centers on one man. He is known simply as Vissarion, meaning "he who gives new life," or simply as the teacher, and he claims that he is Jesus Christ.
Life here is very basic. Vissarion's followers are strict vegetarians and they don't smoke or drink. The houses and churches are built from wood by hand and most of the energy comes from windmills and solar panels. At the followers' school, little boys are taught how to build model ships and young girls learn crochet and singing.
The villagers in the Abode of Dawn follow an almost entirely vegan diet, largely based on what they can grow themselves. When they move here, they give the church their pensions and whatever possessions they may have. In return they receive basics such as sugar, buckwheat and flour. No money is used within the community but they are given an allowance of 300 rubles, about $12, a month.
The piece has a fairly skeptical tone but the images of the community members show them as happy. Whether you agree with their spirituality or not, the images of a remote 5000 person community are striking and I'm sure it would be fascinating to seehow things work day to day.
See the video and read the article on the Russian Commune of Tiberkul
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Related Posts Tags: christian, Russia, Siberia, Tiberkul, Vissarion
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Written by:
Tony Sirna
Tuesday, June 24th, 2008
The St. Petersburg Times has an article about a group of Christian intentional communities in St. Petersburg and Tampa whose mission is enhanced by simple, communal living. The article profiles one house in a group of communities calling themselves New Monasticism. (Note, at time of writing, their "map of communities" is broken)
The residents of this 2,000-square-foot house are part of a Christian lifestyle called New Monasticism, reflecting what they think Jesus would do about poverty and consumerism in today's world.
They share bills, chores and prayer and live on limited means. They started a church and give to the poor and travel to serve Third World countries. By pooling their resources in blighted areas, they feel they can accomplish more than they would in the suburbs, alone.
The FIC directory includes at least one mention of this network, a forming community called The Magdaline House, but it appears they are setting up their own directory of communities on their web site.
Read the article in the St. Petersburg Times about Christian Communities
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Related Posts Tags: christian, Florida, New Monasticism, St. Petersburg, Tampa
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Written by:
erika
Monday, June 23rd, 2008
The New York Times carried an op-ed about forming community bonds in existing neighborhoods. A do-it-yourself approach, with no investment needed, other than time and effort. Peter Lovenheim writes,
Why is it that in an age of cheap long-distance rates, discount airlines and the Internet, when we can create community anywhere, we often don't know the people who live next door?
Maybe my neighbors didn't mind living this way, but I did. I wanted to get to know the people whose houses I passed each day - not just what they do for a living and how many children they have, but the depth of their experience and what kind of people they are.
Frankly, this reminds me precisely of what my parents have done in every neighborhood they've ever lived in. Knock on doors. Invite folks over for dinner. Start a phone list, let everyone know the kid's birthdays. They once held a fundraiser for one man's experimental cancer treatment that was mostly not covered by insurance. A car dealer donated a car for a raffle, and $25 tickets were sold. They've never, as far as I know, gone so far as to invite themselves on a sleepover, but there is a real sense of community that grows in every place they've lived.
Read the article on Creating Community in Your Neighborhood
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Written by:
erika
Thursday, June 19th, 2008
The Valley Advocate out of Northampton, MA has an extensive article on intentional communities in western Massachusetts. The author starts her exploration in a book about Total Loss Farm, a community formed in the late sixties out of the peace movement. Amid concerns for peak oil and sustainability she heads off to explore a smattering of the current communities in her area.
Intentional communities, groups living in consciously designed and structured dwellings, roles and relationships, are on the rise in the U.S., according to statistics published on the website of the Federation of Intentional Communities. There are, at this writing, 50 intentional communities (14 of these "forming") in Massachusetts. Over a dozen of these are within a 45-minute drive of Northampton.
One stop is Laughing Dog Farm a CSA (community supported agriculture) farm on the site of the former Renaissance Community.
Laughing Dog Farm sits on a steep hillside with a view of the massive, 1970s shingle-style mansion of a dorm that housed many in the Renaissance Community from the mid-'70s to 1988. Daniel and Divya's house, another Renaissance Community relic of '70s architectural optimism and grooviness, is ample and was also built as a dormitory.
Daniel learned organic micro-agriculture farming techniques that produce a wide variety of crops: the integration of multi-use beds that are heavily mulched to retain moisture. He has a 65-foot long hoop-house, an arched tunnel of translucent plastic. The hoop-house produces tomatoes in November. Daniel and his wife Divya grow food for 10 families, who purchase shares of the yearly harvest and collect vegetables all growing season. The operation doesn't pay for itself yet.
They're making it work with sacrifice, and they've learned to grow enough food to live on—in case they need to one day. At one point during my tour I burst out, "But it all seems so hard." Daniel smiled.
Another stop is Sirius Community "a 30-year-old ecovillage in Shutesbury." She describes their community center and wind generator and their activities in the town of Shuttesbury where they are actively working through local political channels to get a windmill installed at the Town Hall.
Living in an intentional community does not necessitate giving up on civic participation and the local governmental structure. Rather, the community living ethic is well suited to the collaborative solution of pressing practical problems.
Next the author visits with miyaca (pronounced "me-yah-cha") dawn coyote who is founding a comunity called Healing Grace Sanctuary:
She hopes one day to live on her Shelburne Falls land in an intentional community that is "sacred, sane, and humane." The community of her dreams will adhere to her creed: "We need to become outdoor creatures that occasionally go in, and stop being indoor creatures who occasionally go out." Her ardent description of the future "Healing Grace Sanctuary" on the Intentional Communities web directory led me to her - the first person I met on this journey.
Her next stop is an urban Chirstian community, Nehemiah Community, a community focused on service and social justice:
Members of Nehemiah go out at night, looking for the homeless people that they know. They make sure they have blankets and food if there are no beds in the city's overflow shelters. They are aware of who dies. A new project they are organizing is a quadruplex in Springfield called The Village for single mothers and their children. Jonathan organizes Mission Phoenix, twice-weekly designated art space at Christ Church Cathedral in the Loaves and Fishes kitchen. The program provides free materials and art classes for low-income and homeless people. In 2006 they held the first holiday sale of their art.
She stops in next at Rocky Hill Cohousing:
At the more familiar and bourgeois end of the spectrum of intentional communities is Rocky Hill Cohousing in Florence. A condominium association, the development comprises 28 homes in 15 buildings (mostly handsome duplexes) on 28 acres....
The sequestering of all cars to a parking lot (homes face each other and share common land; residents use carts to bring groceries to their houses) encourages greater freedom for children, who are more apt to play together spontaneously when they see each other outdoors. Arranged play dates are no longer required for kids to play together. One oft-traded commodity there is childcare. Kids my son's age had roamed freely in the woods of the Sirius Community, too.
The article is a very positive portrayal of the variety of communities in the area and in the movement. I like this concluding quote:
Friends living with friends - it just may be the heart of the revolution.
Read the Valley Advocate article on intentional communities in western Massachusetts.
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Related Posts Tags: cohousing, ecovillage, Healing Grace Sanctuary, Laughing Dog Farm, Massachusettes, Nehemiah Community, Rocky Hill Cohousing, Sirius, Total Loss Farm
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Written by:
Tony Sirna
Tuesday, June 17th, 2008
InsideBay Area.com has an article about a group of communities that formed in the hills near Palo Alto, CA in the late sixties and early seventies with such names as Struggle Mountain, Rancho Diablo, Earth Ranch and most famously, "The Land". Most of these communes disbanded in the 70s but members reunited this year for the a 30th anniversary party.
War resisters, Vietnam veterans, 15-year-old runaways, lost souls, upper-class refugees looking for something "real" - these were the people who created The Land's warm embrace and gentle, conscientious lifestyle of simplicity starting in 1971. Singer Joan Baez helped establish the Institute for the Study of Nonviolence there in 1969. She and her husband, David Harris, a celebrated war resister who went to jail for refusing to serve in Vietnam, lived at Struggle Mountain, a commune that still thrives on upper Page Mill Road.
"We were nonconformists. We didn't want to wear suits and ties. We were against the war, we were against capitalism. Everyone wanted a back-to-nature experience, even though most people came from an upper-class experience," said Burns. "We're not living in a community like that anymore. If we had a chance to, I think a lot of people would go back."
They lived without electricity, cut wood to keep warm, and took water from a pure, sweet-tasting natural spring that flowed from the roots of a Bay tree. The front houses near the main barn did have electricity and running water.
Decisions were made by consensus. Residents operated a "cook house" and baked bread, kept chickens and horses. Food was easily earned though a co-op arrangement with a local market. Artisans painted stained-glass windows for the cabins, which were built from recycled wood. A group of men ran a shop where they struggled to keep their old cars, backhoes and tractors alive. They printed their own newsletter, "Barn Talk." They sent their children to a nearby school.
Some of the ideas they embraced, such as recycling and using compost to fertilize their gardens, were ahead of their time, said Thyme Siegel, who lived on The Land. "We lived lightly on the earth before it was a concept. We used gray water, we recycled. We thought we were the village of the future," said Siegel.
As a personal aside, when I was in college, living in a student co-op at Stanford, a former resident of one of these communes spoke to us and was describing how hard it was to get everyone together to make decisions, saying "To them, the revolution meant 'no meetings'". I'll never forget that quote, and it runs through my head every time someone complains about too many meetings.
One of these Palo Alto Hills communities is still around:
The last remaining commune at Struggle Mountain today includes 10 residents, including some boarders who help pay the rent. They eat together less often than they used to, and many have jobs outside the commune, but they still make decisions by consensus. It's a touchstone for an entire generation and a place for artists and musicians to share their work, said Mark Schneider, a longtime resident.
Read the whole article about The Land and other Palo Alto communes
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Related Posts Tags: communes, Palo Alto, Struggle Mountain, The Land
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Written by:
Tony Sirna
Sunday, June 15th, 2008
The Arizona Daily Star has an article on water conservation that highlights water conservation expert Brad Lancaster of Milagro Cohousing. The article doesn't have much about cohousing, but describes the water conservation techniques that Lancaster demonstrates at Millagro Cohousing.
In the foothills of the Tucson Mountains west of town, the residents of Milagro Co-housing have mastered the water-capture business. All the water that falls on Milagro, and all the water used in the 28 homes there, is kept on site by careful design.
Six years after the community was built, the mature landscaping of its common areas has created a climate considerably cooler than the desert that surrounds Milagro and the asphalt-crazy city down the hill.
"In summer, when I wear shorts, I can feel the cold air drainage, like water, flowing on my legs," said Bob Gilby, one of the original residents. "Once you build something like this, the treats come fast, furious and cheap."
Brad Lancaster, who co-designed the water capture systems at Milagro with David Confer, calls that feeling "the bun dance of abundance" in his many presentations to local groups.
Read the article about water conservation at Milagro Cohousing.
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Related Posts Tags: Arizona, Brad Lancaster, cohousing, Milagro Cohousing, permaculture, water conservation
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Written by:
erika
Saturday, June 14th, 2008
Slate has an article by Lee Ann Kincade where she reflects on the similarities of her upbringing at Twin Oaks and the life of children in the recently raided FLDS community in Eldorado, Texas.
The children who were removed and the parents to whom they are returned seem like strangers from a distant world (or time) to you. But not to me. When I listen to the media describing their lives, they feel like distant kin. As the story unfolded, I found that I had more in common with these children than with people bringing me news of them.
Kinkade describes growing up with multiple caregivers and parent-level connections with those not biologically related to her:
Yet like the FLDS children, I grew up in a place where my "normal" was far enough from the average American childhood to make Dick and Jane books read like cultural anthropology. Like the FLDS children, my caregivers were nearly innumerable. Sometimes, it seemed as if nobody in particular was raising us. The most striking similarity between my life and theirs is the sense of division you feel when you grow up somewhere that defines itself as an alternative to the dominant culture. The boundaries of the property become the boundaries of ideology, dividing right from wrong, us from them. I no longer read the division as a moral issue, but I still see a divide. That's why, particularly when the news is of "outsiders," I read the newscasters as closely as the news itself and remember my own childhood.
As a child, the grown-up I was closest to cooked my homemade mac and cheese (before the hippies learned to cook tofu in any edible form) and was the only one who could get me to take a bath. She had two long-term relationships during my childhood and had them simultaneously. Biologically speaking, she wasn't my mother - but saying so is emotionally false. When I woke up from a nightmare (in the room I shared with a girl who is not my sister, but there is no better term to describe the person with whom I shared a room for 10 years and on whom I attempted to blame most of my childhood's high crimes and misdemeanors), I would walk up two flights of stairs to be comforted by the purveyor of mac and cheese, warmth, and safety. On certain days of the week, there would be a black-haired man next to her; on other days, a blond. I knew these men tangentially, knew they were her lovers, and didn't give them much thought. Whichever man it was would shove over. I would crawl under the blankets. She would put an arm around me.
Kinkade gives great commentary on the media's relationship to those whose lives are alien to their own (and those of their viewers/readers):
Underneath the desire to embrace cultural relativism and alternative definitions of family lurks a deep inability to reconcile the children who were taken into state custody with America's picture of itself. Americans might have an extremely generous and expansive notion of alternative lifestyle choices. But our notions of what constitutes an acceptable childhood occupy a very narrow bandwidth. Given the hairline margin for deviation, it isn't really surprising that the state of Texas' desire to protect the FLDS children resulted in chaos.
Its nice to see more public commentary on this topic from those with community experience.
Read the whole Slate article
June 24: This article was republished in the print newspaper, Dallas Morning News.
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Related Posts Tags: FDLS community, Lee Ann Kincade, Mormon, Texas, Twin Oaks
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Written by:
erika
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