View source for Twin Oaks Community, Virginia

{{Short description|Intentional community in Virginia, US}}
{{Use American English|date=July 2025}}
{{Promotional tone|date=September 2024}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2023}}
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'''Twin Oaks Community''' is an [[ecovillage]]<ref name="mojo" /> and [[intentional community]] of approximately one hundred people<ref name="Voice of America">{{cite web|title=Virginia Commune Still Draws Members After 40 Years|publisher=Voice of America|date=2009-08-29|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HffKdrLz1k|access-date=2010-12-30|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130324070115/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HffKdrLz1k|archive-date=2013-03-24|url-status=live}}</ref> living on {{convert|450|acre|km2|adj=off}} in [[Louisa County, Virginia]], United States.<ref name="CNN">{{cite web|url=http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/tech/2010/04/15/gsif.communal.vision.cnn?iref=all|title=Rural Community a Model 'Eco-village'|date=2010-04-22|website=CNN|access-date=2011-01-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101229043509/http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/tech/2010/04/15/gsif.communal.vision.cnn?iref=all|archive-date=2010-12-29|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Other American Dream">{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/magazine/1998/11/15/the-other-american-dream/dcaecdf3-7b52-4635-b0b8-20f60468f806/|title=The Other American Dream|last=Jones|first=Tamara|date=November 15, 1998|work=Washington Post Sunday Magazine|page=W12|access-date=November 25, 2019|archive-date=August 28, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170828034705/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/magazine/1998/11/15/the-other-american-dream/dcaecdf3-7b52-4635-b0b8-20f60468f806/|url-status=live}}</ref> It is a member of the [[Federation of Egalitarian Communities]].<ref>{{cite web
 |url          = http://www.thefec.org/communities/
 |title        = Our Communities
 |at           = § Member Communities
 |website      = Federation of Egalitarian Communities
 |date         = n.d.
 |access-date   = July 28, 2018
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20180729081416/http://www.thefec.org/communities/
 |archive-date = 2018-07-29
 |url-status   = live
}}</ref>  Founded in 1967,<ref name="NBC Richmond">{{cite web
 |title        = Louisa Commune Flourishes for 43 Years
 |date         = 2010
 |website      = WWBT NBC 12
 |url          = http://www.nbc12.com/Global/story.asp?S=12764171
 |first        = Curt
 |last         = Autry
 |access-date   = 2011-01-12
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20111118150914/http://www.nbc12.com/Global/story.asp?S=12764171
 |archive-date = 2011-11-18
 |url-status   = dead
}}</ref> it is one of the longest-enduring and largest [[Secularity|secular]] intentional communities in North America.<ref name="Other American Dream" /> The community's core values are [[cooperation]], [[egalitarianism]], [[nonviolence]], [[sustainability]], and income sharing.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x8NT2lMAcJwC&pg=PA144|title = Choices in Relationships: An Introduction to Marriage and the Family|author = David Knox, Caroline Schacht|date = 31 July 2009|publisher = Cengage Learning, 2009|isbn = 9780495808435|access-date=2011-01-23}}</ref> About 100 adults and 17 children live in the community.<ref name="Greenfield">{{cite news | last1=Greenfield | first1=Beth | title=Welcome to the Commune Where 100 Adults Raise 17 Kids | work=Yahoo! News | date=10 June 2015 | url=https://news.yahoo.com/welcome-to-the-commune-where-100-adults-raise-17-120635816292.html | access-date=17 January 2017 | archive-date=April 29, 2019 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190429025249/https://news.yahoo.com/welcome-to-the-commune-where-100-adults-raise-17-120635816292.html | url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Ravitz">{{cite news | last1=Ravitz | first1=Jessica | title=Utopia: It's complicated: Inside new-age and vintage communes | work=CNN | date=30 September 2015 | url=http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2015/09/us/communes-american-story/ | access-date=17 January 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170115210401/http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2015/09/us/communes-american-story/ | archive-date=2017-01-15 | url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="FIC">{{cite web | title=Twin Oaks Intentional Community | website=Fellowship for Intentional Community | date=10 January 2016 | url=http://www.ic.org/directory/twin-oaks-community/ | access-date=17 January 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170105104247/http://www.ic.org/directory/twin-oaks-community/ | archive-date=2017-01-05 | url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="NASCO 2014">{{cite web | title=Twin Oaks Communities Conference | website=North American Students of Cooperation (NASCO) | date=6 May 2014 | url=https://www.nasco.coop/events/twin-oaks-communities-conference-478 | access-date=17 January 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170118135626/https://www.nasco.coop/events/twin-oaks-communities-conference-478 | archive-date=2017-01-18 | url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="idealist.org">{{cite web | title=Twin Oaks Community | website=idealist.org | url=http://www.idealist.org/view/org/BCNzk8kpchSP/ | access-date=17 January 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170118052248/http://www.idealist.org/view/org/BCNzk8kpchSP/ | archive-date=2017-01-18 | url-status=live}}</ref>

== Founding ==
The community was founded on a {{convert|123|acre|km2|adj=on}} tobacco farm in 1967<ref name="Other American Dream" /> by a group of eight individuals with no farming experience that included [[Kat Kinkade]], who wrote two books about the community.<ref name="WaldenII">{{cite book|author=Kat Kinkade|year=1974|title=A Walden Two Experiment; The First Five Years of Twin Oaks Community|publisher=William Morrow & Co| isbn=0-688-05020-4}}</ref><ref name="IsItUtopia">{{cite book
|author=Kat Kinkade|title=Is It Utopia Yet?: An Insider's View of Twin Oaks Community in Its Twenty-Sixth Year|publisher=Twin Oaks Publishing|edition=2nd|date=August 1994|isbn=0-9640445-0-1}}</ref> The community's inspiration was [[B. F. Skinner]]'s novel ''[[Walden Two]],'' which describes a fictional [[behaviourist|behaviorist]] [[utopia]]. However, Skinner's vision quickly faded from prominence at Twin Oaks, as behaviorist principles were abandoned in favor of egalitarian principles. The community struggled greatly during its first few years, from high member turnover and low member income. According to Kinkade, the community avoided the problems of laziness, freeloading, and lack of structure stereotypically associated with communes by adopting a structured, yet flexible, labor system.<ref>{{cite book
|author=Kat Kinkade|title=Is It Utopia Yet?: An Insider's View of Twin Oaks Community in Its Twenty-Sixth Year|publisher=Twin Oaks Publishing|edition=2nd|date=August 1994|isbn=0-9640445-0-1|page=29}}</ref>

Modified versions of the community's organizational structure and labor credit system survive. As in Skinner's novel, the original labor credit system utilized "variable" credit hours. Certain jobs were worth more credit hours than others in order to make each job desirable. What the community found once the population reached about 40, is that there was neither universally desirable work, nor undesirable work and the variable credit hour system created incentives that encouraged work. The updated plan uses "standardized" credits; each job in the community is valued equally in credit hours.<ref name="Spalding">{{cite web|url=http://www.twinoaks.org/community/media/academic/thesis.html|title=Positioned Within 'The Outside World' The Cultural Construction Of Gender In An Egalitarian Intentional Community|last=Spalding|first=Ashley|year=2000|work=Dep't of Anthropology, University of South Carolina|publisher=(hosted at twinoaks.org)|access-date=13 January 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101226040515/http://twinoaks.org/community/media/academic/thesis.html|archive-date=2010-12-26|url-status=live}}</ref>

== Life as a member ==
[[File:Verminweaving.jpg|thumb|left|200px|[[Hammock]]-making is one of Twin Oaks' main sources of income]]Twin Oaks has approximately 100 members.<ref name="NBC Richmond" /> People interested in joining Twin Oaks must attend a scheduled three-week visitor period.<ref name="Other American Dream" /> During this period, visitors tour the community and attend orientations on various aspects of membership. Unlike most co-housing situations, there is no cost to join the community, nor any rent or ongoing costs associated with living there.<ref name="Voice of America" /> Basic necessities—housing, clothing, food, health care—are all provided to members in return for their 38 weekly hours of work.<ref name=":1">{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJRjJrknMG4 |title=Inside America's Hidden "Utopia" Commune |date=2024-07-06 |last=Crossroads America |access-date=2024-08-01 |via=YouTube}}</ref> Since 2011, Twin Oaks has consistently had a waiting list, so visitors who are accepted for membership need to wait typically three to nine months before they can join. Before a new member can join, while the community is at its population capacity, a current member needs to drop membership. Historically, Twin Oaks has expanded its housing when it has had a waiting list for a prolonged period by building new residences and expanding the stock of bedrooms available.<ref name="IsItUtopia" />

A member of Twin Oaks works around 38 [[work week|hours a week]].<ref name=":1" /> Some labor is directed toward generating income, and the rest consists of domestic work like gardening/food production, cooking, bike repair, building maintenance, cleaning, and child care. Most Twin Oakers perform a wide variety of tasks each week instead of spending all of their time in one labor area.<ref name="notQuite" /> Members can also choose to work outside of Twin Oaks.<ref name="Other American Dream" /> The income from this labor may go to the community, although some portion of it can go into a member's "vacation earnings". Excess labor done in a week accumulates as vacation time.

Though live television viewing is prohibited, Twin Oaks' members have access to the Internet as well as to public computers. Members can also watch movies and tapes of TV programs. People in the community often gather for other recreational activities such as dancing, meditating, discussing literature, staging musicals, and playing board games.<ref name="Other American Dream" />

Twin Oaks members are religiously diverse. The membership includes [[Christians]], [[atheists]], [[paganism|pagans]], [[Buddhists]], and others. The community hosts pagan [[Handfasting (Neopaganism)|handfasting]]s, Equinox parties, and Thanksgiving dinners, and it celebrates June 16, the anniversary of its founding.

Interpersonal relationships are also diverse. Multiple types of gender relationships coexist, including monogamy, celibacy, and [[polyamory]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://twinoaks.org/docmanhidden/twin-oaks-in-media-periodicals/9-bi-sexual-in-community/file|title=Introspection : Being Bi in Community|publisher=Richmond Bisexual Network|date=2001|access-date=1 October 2023|archive-date=January 23, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220123224615/https://twinoaks.org/docmanhidden/twin-oaks-in-media-periodicals/9-bi-sexual-in-community/file|url-status=live}}</ref>

Residents live in dormitory-style living quarters spread out across the community. Each member has a private bedroom, but shares public spaces.<ref name="Voice of America" /><ref name="NBC Richmond" />

Member turnover is no longer as high as it was in the community's early years,<ref name="Other American Dream" /> and many former Twin Oakers live in nearby [[Charlottesville, Virginia|Charlottesville]] and [[Louisa, Virginia|Louisa]] to maintain ties to the community.

The community itself acknowledges that it has yet to create the perfect society; it even provides a guidebook entitled "Not Utopia Yet" to visitors. Those who choose to live at Twin Oaks for several years—including founder Kinkade—sometimes feel "trapped" there. This is because members have little opportunity to build up equity or savings.<ref name="notQuite">''New York Times Magazine'', 3 August 1997. Daniel Pinchbeck, "Paradise Not Quite Lost," pp. 26-29</ref> The [[BBC Four]] television series ''Utopia: In Search of the Dream'', broadcast on August 15, 2017, devoted an 11-minute segment to Twin Oaks. Members and one former member (the founders' daughter), interviewed by Professor Richard Clay, expressed concerns about the inability to build savings, and complex interpersonal relationships. Clay observed that 20 percent of the membership turned over annually.<ref name=":0">[[BBC Four]] television series ''Utopia: In Search of the Dream''</ref>

== Community businesses ==
Twin Oaks' 38-hour work week is divided between domestic and income-producing labor.<ref name="mojo" /> Twin Oaks operates several community-owned businesses, including Twin Oaks Tofu, Twin Oaks Hammocks, and Twin Oaks Book Indexing. Additionally, members working in the Twin Oaks Seed Farm grow seeds for [[Southern Exposure Seed Exchange]]. From these sources, Twin Oaks generates around $600,000 per year.<ref name="NBC 29">{{cite web |date=2010-08-31 |title=Twin Oaks: Living in Harmony |url=http://www.nbc29.com/global/story.asp?s=13073101 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120308122845/http://www.nbc29.com/global/story.asp?s=13073101 |archive-date=2012-03-08 |access-date=2011-01-12 |publisher=NBC 29 WVIR-TV}}</ref> This money pays for community upkeep and goods that cannot be produced on site, and each member receives a monthly [[stipend]] for personal use (i.e., to purchase items that the community does not provide). In news segments, Twin Oakers often attribute the longevity of the community to its engagement in [[capitalism]] through its tofu and hammocks businesses.<ref name="mojo" /><ref name="Voice of America" /><ref name="NBC Richmond" />
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== Supporting the communities movement {{anchor|Twin Oaks and the communities movement}} ==
Twin Oaks has helped establish three sister communities: [[Acorn Community]],<ref name="Other American Dream" /> about {{convert|7|mi|km}} from Twin Oaks, [[Living Energy Farm]], also in Louisa County, Virginia; and [[East Wind Community]] in south central Missouri.

Twin Oaks also hosts annual intentional community gatherings cosponsored by the [[Fellowship for Intentional Community]]: The Communities Conference,<ref name="cc">{{cite web|url=http://communitiesconference.org/|title=Twin Oaks Communities Conference|access-date=13 January 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110208231356/http://www.communitiesconference.org/|archive-date=2011-02-08|url-status=live}}</ref> and the Women's Gathering,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.womensgathering.org/ |title=Twin Oaks Women's Gathering |access-date=2011-01-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110314224105/http://womensgathering.org/ |archive-date=2011-03-14 |url-status=live}}</ref> both of which take place every August.

== Media coverage {{anchor|Twin Oaks in the media}} ==

The history of Twin Oaks Community is detailed extensively in two books by Kathleen (Kat) Kinkade, one of the co-founders of the community. The first, ''A Walden Two Experiment'',<ref name="WaldenII" /> covers the first five years of the community. The second, ''Is it Utopia Yet?'', covers the next 20 years.<ref name="IsItUtopia" /> Another book from the 1980s, ''Living the Dream'', by Ingrid Komar (the mother of a member at the time the book was written), also discusses Twin Oaks' history.<ref name="Komar 1983">{{cite book | last=Komar | first=Ingrid | title=Living the dream: A documentary study of the Twin Oaks community | publisher=Jerome S. Weiman | series=Communal societies and utopian studies book series | year=1983 | isbn=9780848247744 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Oj2wAAAAIAAJ}}</ref> About half a dozen dissertations and a dozen master's theses have been written about the community, as well.<ref>{{cite web | title=Academic Articles | website=Twin Oaks Intentional Community | url=http://www.twinoaks.org/twinoaks-media/academic-articles | access-date=17 January 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170609100503/http://www.twinoaks.org/twinoaks-media/academic-articles | archive-date=2017-06-09 | url-status=live}}</ref> In 1998, the ''[[Washington Post Magazine]]'' did a cover story on Twin Oaks.<ref name="Other American Dream"/> A 21st century book, ''Surviving the Dream'', by Craig Kurtz (a member from 2007 to 2020), analyzes Twin Oaks' political structure.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kurtz |first=Craig |date=2023 |title=Surviving the Dream: Based on my 13 Years at Twin Oaks Community |url= https://www.amazon.com/Surviving-Dream-Based-Years-Twin/dp/B0C1J3FC9C |isbn=9798390498750}}{{self-published source|date=August 2024}}</ref>

==Ecology {{anchor|Twin Oaks and ecology}}==

Twin Oaks seeks to be a model of sustainability.<ref name="CNN" /> The average Twin Oaks member consumes fewer resources than the average American due to the community's practices of resource sharing<ref name="mojo">{{cite AV media
 |url          = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTwJz8c4wcY
 |title        = Twin Oaks
 |date         = Nov 9, 2009
 |type         = Video
 |publisher    = America's Mojo
 |website      = [[YouTube]]
 |accessdate   = July 29, 2018
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20170425143141/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTwJz8c4wcY
 |archive-date = 2017-04-25
 |url-status   = live
}}</ref> and self-sufficiency.<ref name="NBC eco">{{cite web|title=Twin Oaks: Living a Sustainable Lifestyle|date=2010-09-01|publisher=NBC 29 WVIR-TV|url=http://www.nbc29.com/global/Story.asp?s=13080639|access-date=2011-01-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120308122859/http://www.nbc29.com/global/Story.asp?s=13080639|archive-date=2012-03-08|url-status=dead}}</ref> Members hold all resources in common except for the personal items they keep in their bedrooms. For instance, members share housing, a fleet of 17 vehicles, and a large "clothing library".<ref name="mojo" /><ref name="CNN" /><ref name="NBC 29" /> Twin Oaks members consume 70% less gasoline, 80% less electricity, and 76% less natural gas per capita than do their neighbors.<ref>{{cite web|title=A Human-Sized Answer to a Global Problem |url=http://thefec.org/node/1161|url-status=dead
|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120722002504/http://thefec.org/node/1161|archive-date=2012-07-22}}</ref>

==References==

{{reflist}}

==External links==
*{{Official website}}

{{Louisa County, Virginia}}
{{authority control}}

[[Category:1967 establishments in Virginia]]
[[Category:Ecovillages]]
[[Category:Egalitarian communities]]
[[Category:Intentional communities in the United States]]
[[Category:Populated places established in 1967]]
[[Category:Rural community development]]
[[Category:Unincorporated communities in Louisa County, Virginia]]
[[Category:Unincorporated communities in Virginia]]
[[Category:Utopian communities in the United States]]
[[Category:Federation of Egalitarian Communities]]