Letters Across the City

Project Description:

Letters Across the City is a location based storytelling project that brings New York Citys hidden emotional history to life through place based letters. Set across iconic sites such as Grand Central Terminal, Governors Island, Ellis Island, Coney Island, Central Park, the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Washington Square Park, South Street Seaport, and New York Harbor, each location features a historically grounded narrative inspired by real archival correspondence. From WWII goodbye letters and immigrant arrival notes to protest manifestos, sailor farewells, and romantic postcards, the project explores how ordinary people used writing to navigate war, migration, labor, love, and social change. Each site pairs documented historical context with a contemporary reflective letter, allowing visitors to experience both past and present emotional landscapes layered onto the same physical space. Mapped through ArcGIS, these letters can be discovered directly at their original locations, transforming the city into a living archive of voices, memory, and movement. Together, they reveal how New York has long been a city of goodbyes, beginnings, longing, resistance, and hope written into its streets, parks, harbors, and terminals.