Oranbega Retreat Center

02/02/2023

Hello friends! After a long silence, Oranbega Retreat Center is re-emerging with a renewed website and new energy for a great 2023 Season. Already people are coming out of their Pandemic hesitations about traveling to decide that this year is a great one to take a little time out, go somewhere inspiring and nurturing and write that book, compose those songs, make that art, follow that Spirit and be creative. Join them! Go to our website and book your retreat today!

01/24/2022

Burns Night Supper at Oranbega! Come (virtually) to Oranbega Retreat Center on Tuesday, January 25, 2022, to celebrate the great Scottish bard and songster, Robert Burns. Scots everywhere mark this birthday of the great poet with a supper featuring Haggis, accompanied by piping, poetry, songs and stories. Our second Annual celebration features Caroline Cotter, a well known singer-songwriter who embodies the tradition of lyrical wit, beauty, and social commentary that is Rabbie Burns' leagacy to the whole world. Come join us by zoom at 6:00 p.m. Access the Zoom link at our website

01/09/2022

What kind of tea do you like? And how do you take it? Mostly I like a black tea like a Darjeeling or Assam, with milk, but right now I am sipping a delicious, slightly peppery Oolong, with a little lemon.

Or perhaps you prefer coffee?

01/09/2022

Tea-time at Oranbega! We had a delightful tea-tasting as part of our New Year and Epiphany celebration on January 5. Using a wonderful sampler of 24 teas from the Vahdam Tea Company of India, we tasted black, green, oolong, and chai teas and herbal tisanes. It was remarkable to taste the differences, both sharp and subtle, between the brews. What a wonderful way to welcome guests and to welcome a New Year. May this be the year you come and taste what we offer at Oranbega Retreat Center!

06/29/2021

We would like to thank everybody involved with our pride concert yesterday afternoon, and share with you a rough cut video of our guest Danie Ocean, playing with Phelan Gallagher, Phil Kell, and Spence Nelson!

06/28/2021

Richard Rodgers birthday June 28
I’m as corny as Kansas in August
High as a kite on the 4th of July
Rogers and Hammerstein musicals—have you sung in one? Would you like to? What’s your favorite one? Or do you think they are all just too corny for words?

06/20/2021

Juneteenth (June 19th) has just passed: the day when former enslaved African Americans in Texas finally learned they were free. It is fast (but not fast enough) becoming a national holiday. To honor it and Pride month at the same time here are some quotes from Bayard Rustin, a chief advisor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., organizer of the March on Washington, and proud gay black activist. “When an individual is protesting society's refusal to acknowledge his dignity as a human being, his very act of protest confers dignity on him.” “My activism did not spring from my being gay, or, for that matter, from my being black. Rather, it is rooted fundamentally in my Quaker upbringing and the values that were instilled in me by my grandparents who reared me.” How has your religious or other upbringing affected your ability to stand up against the forces of oppression?

06/16/2021

June 16 is Bloomsday: The one day on which the whole of the action takes place in the enormous and groundbreaking work of James Joyce’s modern Homeric saga set in Dublin, Ulysses. Have you read this work? Are you a lover or a hater, or do you just not care? Jenny says: “One of my favorite courses as an undergraduate involved Dr. Carl Niemeyer of Union College, Schenectady, walking us through James Joyce’s Ulysses, page by page. I learned more about literature, art, poetry, memory, culture, life, love, opera, s*x and boredom than in almost any other class.”
Catch Jenny Reece participating in a Bloomsday podcast where selected passages from Ulysses will be read by a worldwide cast of Joyce-lovers:

We are gathering recordings from our friends around the world - and that includes you!Our idea is to get short recordings of Joyce-lovers reading their favorite passage from Ulysses and compile them into a Bloomsday celebration podcast, so you can listen to Ulysses readings and feel a part of the Jo...

06/07/2021

Wild Things this week! Where the Wild Things Are author and illustrator Maurice Sendak was born on June 10, 1928. The New York Times‘ obituary called Sendak “the most important children’s book artist of the 20th century.” Author Neil Gaiman remarked, “He was unique, grumpy, brilliant, gay, wise, magical and made the world better by creating art in it.” Did you have this book read to you (over and over) as a child? Or have you read it (over and over) to yours? Let the wild rumpus begin!

06/01/2021

June is Pride Month! Sing a Rainbow! Here is a link to Danie Ocean’s "Sing a Rainbow" Danie is a visually-impaired African-American le***an singer songwriter whose great interview with us was part of our May Is Music Month celebration and we look forward to more of her music on June 28th. There are many songs about rainbows: what’s your favorite? What are your thoughts on the Rainbow as a symbol of the LGBTQ+ community?

Track 15 on the album Waking Dreams.