Kat Kinkade
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Kat Kinkade is one of the 8 co-founders of Twin Oaks, an intentional community in Virginia originally inspired by the behaviorist utopia depicted in B.F. Skinner's book Walden Two. Kinkade is the only one of the original founders to remain a community member for most of the community's history. Her daughter, Josie, was also a member of Twin Oaks Community as a child.
Kinkade helped found Twin Oaks in 1967, when she was in her mid 30's, after a career as a "bored secretary" and a brief stint at a cooperative house in Washington, D.C. In the 1970s, Kinkade left Twin Oaks to move to Missouri to help found East Wind, an offshoot of Twin Oaks. She eventually returned to Twin Oaks, though East Wind continues to this day.
In 1993, Kinkade was one of the founders of Acorn Community, her third income sharing intentional community. While Acorn is located only 7 miles from Twin Oaks, the founders were not interested in exactly duplicating Twin Oaks. Instead they chose several important differences including consensus decision making and face-to-face membership "clearnesses" (see Clearness committee).
Kinkade was also instrumental in founding the network of income sharing egalitarian communities called The Federation of Egalitarian Communities or the FEC. Twin Oaks, East Wind, Acorn and 3 other communities belong to the FEC.
Kinkade became disillusioned with certain aspects of Twin Oaks, such as what she perceives as its excessively rigid version of egalitarianism and its unwillingness to recognize and reward her unique level of contribution to the community. A Washington Post article on the community from 1998 available at the Twin oaks website details her objections to the way that the community developed over time.
Now in her 70s, Kinkade has returned to Twin Oaks. She was on an indefinite "personal affairs leave" at Twin Oaks, which gave her the option of returning to the community without needing to be voted back in by the membership. Kinkade is the only person in the history of Twin Oaks to receive an indefinite personal affairs leave - all other such leaves have come with a one-year expiration date, after which the former member must be voted on to rejoin.
[edit] Books
- A Walden Two Experiment; The First Five Years of Twin Oaks Community William Morrow & Co (February 1974) ISBN 0-688-05020-4
- Is It Utopia Yet?: An Insider's View of Twin Oaks Community in Its Twenty-Sixth Year Twin Oaks Publishing; 2nd edition (August 1994) ISBN 0-9640445-0-1
