Postcard to a Stranger
When coronavirus swept in during the spring of 2020, shuttering people inside—in shared big-city apartments, parental homes in suburbia, temporary rentals on foreign continents—we envisioned a fresh iteration of our flagship column, “Letter to a Stranger,” aimed at bridging connections between those distanced by the pandemic.
These postcards are poignant messages to people we notice from a distance during this crisis: shoppers in grocery lines, neighbors smoking on fire escapes, kids on bikes. We all harbor thoughts about such strangers, whether they’re at the edges of our lives or six feet away on a sidewalk. Are they alone? Are they afraid? Are they noticing us? Are they smiling behind their masks? This project is an invitation to jot some of these crackling sentiments and curiosities down, and to cast them out, where they might just collapse some of this social distance.
Manhattan, NY
Edgewater, IL
New Orleans, LA
Austin, TX
Paris, France
Cairo, Egypt
Chicago, IL
Dryden, NY
St. Louis, MO
Los Angeles, CA
Brooklyn, NY
West Lake Hills, TX
Modjeska Canyon, CA
Naples, FL
Singapore
Portland, OR
Sunnyside, WA
Tyrol, Austria
Brooklyn, NY
Brooklyn, NY
Portland, OR
Richmond, VA
Tel Aviv
Denver, CO
Ocean City, MD
Danbury, CT
Tulsa, OK
Mumbai
Manhattan, NY
New Orleans, LA
Berlin
Brooklyn, NY
Postcard Writers:
Jenessa Abrams, Faith Adiele, Aviya Kushner, Lena Sponring, Lavinia Spalding, Liesl Schwabe, Greg Marshall, Naomi Gordon-Loebl, Sara Lieberman, Robin Romm, Anna Vodicka, Abigail Glasgow, Rachel Swearingen, Nurit Chinn, Nick Kowalczyk, Alexander Lumans, Sophie Mendelson, Katie Machen, Iona Brannon, Sarah Perry, Madeleine Barnes, Lauren Hilgers, Marcia DeSanctis, Lisa Alvarez, Vidhi Taparia, Kristina Cuello, Francesca Giacco, Brian Benson, Tami Fairweather, Ginny Fahs, Diana Hubbell, and Kyle McCarthy.
Postcard Illustrators:
Owen Murray, Devon Geyelin, Annie Weatherwax, Sonja Bajic, Dustin Dunaway, Amélie Rey Lescure, Pauline Patterson, Megan Vossler, Nikita Sveshnikov, and Sarah Muren.
Special thanks to Owen Murray for his design support.
This project would not be what it is without his creativity, generosity, and skill.
