Making Santa Dance Again with The Repair Café
If you’re unfamiliar with the concept of a “Repair Café,” it’s almost exactly what it sounds like: a friendly, communal space where you can bring your damaged goods and receive free tutelage on how to bring them back to life. The first Repair Café was established in Amsterdam in 2009, and upwards of 2,500 now exist worldwide. In August, New Orleans’ own Repair Café celebrated its fourth birthday at its home in the Broadmoor Improvement Association’s Arts & Wellness Center, as indicated by the cake featured prominently on the table of donated snacks found at each gathering. The room buzzed as one after the other, people entered laden with items they intended to salvage—an iron, a pair of pants, a metronome. At various stations around the room sat a dream team of “coaches”—volunteers with various handy skill sets—preparing to do their best to save the parade of faulty gadgets from the landfill. A cheerful “Fixed It!” sign waited patiently on a table for its photo op following each successful repair. Billie Golan became acquainted with Repair Cafés while studying at SUNY New Paltz and brought the movement to New Orleans back in 2022. I had the chance to chat with her at the Rook Cafe to discuss Repair Café’s origins, and where she hopes to take it in years to come.
