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As we shared in September 2020, Naomi, HOBT’s General Manager, resigned as she and her family will be moving back to Auckland, New Zealand. On her last day, Naomi shared some of her reflections on her journey with HOBT.

 

Originally from New Zealand, Naomi has produced projects that use puppetry and ritual as a vehicle for resistance, transformation, and healing after the 2011 earthquakes.  After immigrating from NZ in 2014, MayDay was her first stop before joining HOBT staff in 2015. As HOBT's General Manager, Naomi brings her love of program design and emergent systems to support the many roots of MayDay within the community.

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Today I turn in my keys, take a deep breath and say goodbye. After 5 years on staff at HOBT it is hard to hold the depth of feeling I have about this moment. Earlier this week I walked through the Avalon theatre, boarded up and empty. I cleared my desk, took some photos, but mostly walked around touching the walls, the tables, the puppets, saying goodbye to many many ghosts. Remembering baby showers, and funerals, and feasts, and laughing and tears and fear and joy and through all of it, never alone.

 

Together we made real, we imagined, we witnessed. We used puppetry and ritual to guide us through transition, to offer up meaning in moments when nothing made sense.

 

Together we pushed to tell more truth, to love deeper and to fight harder. We held up the mirror to ourselves and to each other. We listened, we worked, we made mistakes, we did better.

 

I have so much deep gratitude for being a part of this place.

 

HOBT, I will hold you close in my heart as I cross the pacific ocean.

 

Thank you!