Colette La Bouffe bids Taos farewell
ABy Colette LaBouff
S I GET READY TO LEAVE, I have been thinking about what being in Taos and at TCA has meant. Since I arrived on July 29, 2018 (with my belongings in a Roswell friend’s horse trailer) and began work as Executive Director on July 31, I have not stopped. I mean it.
There was a lot to do, and after the first year, I felt ready to build with others, to talk about what that means and how to do it. Then the pandemic came to all of us.
There have been big moments in the day-to-day work, but, if I recounted those, you would roll your eyes. They seem mostly administrative milestones: bureaucratic permissions, licenses, large repairs, maintenance solutions, budgets, grants, hires, the cumulative and immense support of the community in dollars and time.
These moments have an institutional meaning that, well, institutions cannot really ever feel. It’s the administrators that feel something about them; the only thing to do is to mark them and move on, recognize that other hurdles, victories and failures like them are coming soon.
What’s made my time at TCA meaningful have been the smallest moments.
In the first months here, I had a birthday. I came to work and found a plant and a cake on my desk. I didn’t yet have friends to share the cake with, but I worked with people — Susan Nuss and Peggy Hamilton — who thought of me.
A conversation with Carolyn Kalom at Chokola downtown about past musicals and plays at TCA and all the costumes — many she had made — for productions which are central to the memory of many in the community. We asked questions: where were the pictures? Where were the posters? Could we make an exhibit out of that?
A breakfast with Maye Torres at Michael’s Kitchen to visit and talk about who curates what. What if there were more guest curators for exhibitions? We went from there to more questions.
Some months later, welcoming guests at the Stables Gallery for Lights
Have your cake, and eat it too.
Up, an exhibition that focused on the productions across decades of TCA’s theater history. There were performances from beautiful Taos voices that night.
The first meeting about a Dia de Los Muertos gathering: Tim Rivera, Laurie Cochrane, Maria Theresa Garcia (and her grandson!) in a crowded TCA office. Later, we’d work together to consider how to observe and remember even through the pandemic
Visiting Debbie Lujan at Taos Pueblo with Ngugi wa Thiong’o when he came to Taos in May 2019. Later that day, Ngugi and I walked to Studio 107B, where Maye Torres and Ngugi visited with singing at the piano. The Moi Pei Triplets, with Taos Opera Institute, had heard Ngugi was in town; they came to a reception, sang for Ngugi. He remarked more than once during the visit that Taos was incredible with its creative energy.
Sitting in the TCA theater to watch “All the President’s Men” in 35mm on a Sunday. Seeing the film for the second time. Thinking how magical a filmtheater is and how incredible that Taos has this one.
Stopping to have lunch on any regular work-day when Alice asked what I brought to eat. If no one asks and no one stops, work just goes on and on. Reading poems at Ennui Gallery! And then there were cakes. If I didn’t have folks to share that first cake with, I did as time went on. I made cakes for receptions. And, when there were no gatherings, there were cakes just for us.
I brought cakes to the office for no reason. Or for birthdays. Sometimes I wouldn’t have time to make a cake. Alice or Marty made sure there was a cake. When none of us could bake a cake, we counted on Koko’s for a torte or pie.
What small thing can you bring?
Cake. I can make cakes. An administrator of anything knows that, mostly, your job is to steer. You put things together in words, or projects, or by introducing people who are in better proximity than you to get work done. You respond to alarms, weather, costs and limitations. When there are phone calls, emails, complaints, and snow to shovel, cakes are everything.
Today, we celebrated Carlene’s birthday with flourless chocolate cake in the Encore Gallery at the theater; there were 10 of us in person and two Zooming in for the event. A family strolled in to look at the art on the walls. The piano technician loaded out his tools and table.
We ate the whole cake. Which is to say, we were together to share and argue over who should have the last slice. Which is also to say that having people to argue with over the last piece is the heart of it.