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One Leg Up On Storytelling with The Strangers Project · OneLegUpAlex Media

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  All right, Well this is fate because I've been trying to get to my
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  next mess on for a while. Brandon Dowman, the man of the Strangers
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  project, is here with me right now in his own studio at the Oculus.
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  I mean this is an upgrade from Washington Square Park, is it not?
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  Yeah, definitely. I love every space I get to share these,
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  but this one's been really special. So tell me about this project. I
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  just heard it you started in two thousand and nine. Yeah. I started
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  this in two thousand and nine. Is what I thought was going to be
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  a small, little experiment. I set up a sign inviting people to sitting
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  right about their life. Since then, I've collected more than eighty five thousand
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  stories across the country, and I share them with beautiful communities online and then
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  in physical installations like this. And obviously Washington Square Park made an impact on
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  this project, isn't it. Yeah. So I do this in all kinds
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  of different spaces, schools, museums, festivals, but a lot of what
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  I do is just out in public space. And yeah, over the years,
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  Washington Square Park here in New York has been a really special place for
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  the project. You know, since O nine current events has not always been
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  fun. Have you found that to be an increase in these stories based on
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  the news as well? Yes and no. But for the most part,
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  these stories are really introspective, so they're tapping more into just like just journal
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  entries about what you know, people's lives and where they're fitting in their lives
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  in that moment. Stuff certainly does come up, but whenever I'm showing them
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  some of these, they are always from any point in history of the projects.
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  Even the stuff on the walls here, it could be from over ten
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  years ago, it could be from yesterday. Now. Obviously I have a
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  lot of followers, but for those who are not following, where can they
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  follow you? Right now? Just strangersproject dot com you can find everything.
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  But I'm most active on Instagram, Strangers prooj also getting started on TikTok,
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  but just the website has everything as well. What's it mean to slow people
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  down with this? I mean, this is a bustling city, but here
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  we are standing in front of all these different stories, kind of slowing us
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  all down a little bit. Yeah, they're always wereen in person. That's
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  been a really important part for me. You know, you can read them
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  online, but they're only shared pen and paper in person, nothing mail day
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  and nothing sent in online. I really wanted people to have the opportunity to,
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  as you said, slowed down and work with the actual sheet of paper,
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  that physical touch of being right there in the moment. All right,
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  let me ask you this. Have people become not strangers through this project?
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  We have people actually connected through this absolutely both. I've continued to meet a
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  lot of these people, you know, regulars as they come back. And
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  then other people many times have said they've you know, ended up talking to
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  somebody else writing a story, especially like in Washingins Square Park where somebody would
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  see someone else with a clipboard and they'd be like, oh, are you
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  doing the story thing too? And yeah, people are definitely connected. Is
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  diversity as much as New York City? Do you see that university? Through
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  all these notes? Everybody, it's all ages, all walks of life.
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  Yeah, everybody. Now, have you written your own story as well?
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  I've done a few anonymously mixed in among probably about three times over the past
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  fifteen years. Wow. Oh, it's an imprompt of interview, so it's
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  all off the couple of Yeah, so you're able to roll with it.
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  Yeah, for sure, this is the oculus. Obviously people can find you
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  here, but I feel like your impact is felt worldwide. Do you feel
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  that, Oh yeah, definitely. There's as much as I love being able
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  to do this in person, there was also a really beautiful global community of
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  people that read these all over the world, and it's really exciting when those
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  people get to finally see the space in person. You know, every day
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  here, especially somewhere like Yaculous, it's New York, people are visiting I
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  people come in all the time or saying I've been following this for one,
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  five, ten years, and they're so excited. Another question to see are
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  you a New Yorker by blood, by birth? Not originally? I am
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  from Michigan originally, which is where I started this, but I moved to
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  New York in twenty twelve. And what inspired you to put this out there
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  into the New York City world. I you know, I'd been doing it
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  for a few years before that. Before I was doing this full time,
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  I worked with a nonprofit called Active Minds, doing mental health work with college
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  students all around the country, and I actually ran one of their national touring
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  programs, and I got to do this in my free time as I was
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  traveling around the country and one of our events was here in New York City,
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  and I fell in love with it. So i just changed my plane
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  ticket to go to New York instead of back to Michigan. And so I've
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  been here percent any strong emotions after people write these letters, I mean,
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  have you seen crying? Have you seen laughing? Scene? It's a big
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  sight relieve everything you can imagine, So every every type of emotion, you
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  know, people are sharing some really intimate moments of their life. Sometimes we
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  actually have tissue boxes all around the space because there are a lot of tears
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  shed, but in a good way. A lot of people say it's a
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  it's a really good cry for them. Well, you're leaving your marker in
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  the city and I'm so glad to have this time with you today. Yeah,
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  I'm so glad to chat with you. This was Brandon from the Strangers
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  Project and we'll follow up again. Yeah, sounds great.