NYC Man Revives The Art of Letter Writing To Chase The Coronavirus Blues

• A man sits on a folding chair in Brooklyn and types letters on an old-fashioned typewriter for neighbors.
• The letters are either dictated or a collaborative effort between him and the letter-writer.
• He has now written more than 50 letters for his neighbors in four weeks.

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In his project manifesto on Facebook, Brooklyn-based performance artist and English professor Brandon Woolf wrote in a poem, “The Console” (short for consolation):

“Let’s not mourn our mailboxes

Maligned

As vessels of civic futility,”

“But make renewed use of them.

To sit together (at a distance)

And console one another. And those we love.

Posting letters from the edge

I’ll be at the mailbox all month—with paper and stamps and hand-sanitizer—ready to serve as you’re your medium, your console.

Together, if you’d like, we can take a moment to type a note of consolation, a blue-edged missive to a friend you think could use it.”

During this pandemic, the 37-year-old professor sees the letter as a way to reach out and comfort one another.

Yes, in this time where we are socially distancing from each other, he sits on a folding chair with a mailbox alongside him and writes letters with a vintage portable typewriter.  His prop up sign says, “Free Letters for Friends Feeling Blue.”

Woolf in an interview with The Park Slope Scribe said, “When interpersonal connection is risky, what are other ways where we can be together? “What is a better experience than getting a piece of mail in your mailbox from somebody you didn’t expect to hear from?”

A note may be from a different era far from that of the immediate text or chat message but the feeling it invokes when you receive it, makes up for the anticipation while waiting for it to arrive.

It brings back memories, and you can always read and re-read the message.

Source: Good News Network