Have you ever wanted to write a letter that would be impossible to send? A love letter to an ex, perhaps, or the words you wish you could say to an estranged family member or someone who has died? The Unsent Letter Mailbox, a temporary public art project that was first installed on February 14, 2024, in Washington Square Park in New York City, allows passersby to do just that. According to the invitation on the project’s website, “There is nothing too dark, nothing too shameful…nothing that cannot be said.” The artist behind this project, Sofia Kavlin, had just arrived in New York from Bolivia for graduate school when, feeling isolated, she conceived of the mailbox. Inspired by the possibility of providing strangers an opportunity for creativity and catharsis, Kavlin invited people walking by to pen letters, deposit them in the mailbox, and then pick a stranger’s letter to read aloud.

What began as an interactive urban art project has grown into a salon series, “Write to Read.” At the salons, participants write letters during a workshop period, then read another participant’s anonymous letter aloud. Kavlin believes that people are too focused on consumption in our digital, modern world and that these unsent letters present an occasion for reciprocity and community. Since the project’s inception, nearly a thousand letters have been collected; there have been sixteen urban installations in nine public locations across New York, and seven “Write to Read” salons have featured six guest performing artists. Kavlin recently moved to Austin and hopes salons will continue to proliferate there and in other cities as more people learn about the project. Her aspiration is that the Unsent Letter Mailbox and “Write to Read” series will “build bridges across political and cultural divides and use anonymous storytelling as a tool to foster understanding and empathy among people who might otherwise feel like they have nothing in common.” To submit an unsent letter, visit unsentlettermailbox.com [3] or mail a physical letter to 250 9th Street, Suite 3, Brooklyn, New York, 11215.