A New Chapter for the Strangers Project

On creating a space for you

Hey everyone,

I wanted to take a moment to reintroduce you to this space and share some exciting updates.

I’ve been collecting stories and hosting spaces for this project since 2009. While the heart of the project has always lived in the physical spaces—where over 100,000 handwritten stories have been shared and countless more have been witnessed—I’ve also always tried to find ways to share parts of the experience online.

Lately, I’ve been reflecting on how much the project has grown. After the hardest chapter in 2020, when I wasn’t sure there would even be a future for this project, things have bounced back in ways I could only dream of. Since 2022, I’ve had a semi-permanent exhibit at the World Trade Center Oculus that’s been open every week—over 800 individual story-collecting days—and it’s been incredible to welcome thousands of people each week to read and share stories.

Social media has become fast-paced and demanding in ways that often feel at odds with the slower, more meaningful connections at the heart of this project.

And with the projects’ growth, I’ve also felt the challenge of staying meaningfully connected online. I’ve felt the tension of watching strangers spend hours in the space laughing, crying, connecting, and then feeling dissonance when the online landscape seemed to reward the exact opposite kind of engagement.

At my physical space I always have a small area where visitors can write a little card with a comment about the experience they had. Every day before I head home, I open the box to find reflections like this:

Exhibit Comment Cards

I read these comment cards left by dozens of strangers every single day, and couldn’t understand why the digital landscape felt so far from that.

That’s when I realized that the answer isn’t to force the project to fit into that mold, but to lean into what makes it special:

The genuine human stories and slower, more intentional connections that happen in the space.

So today, I’m beginning a new chapter through Substack and Patreon—spaces where I can share in ways that feel more true to the heart of the project. When you walk into the exhibit, you see the words: “This space is for you.” And I want to bring that experience, as best I can, to wherever you are.

Here’s a quick breakdown of how this new landscape will look.

Each platform will have a unique way to engage with the project, so if you’re really into what I’m doing, following along on each will give you the most full-bodied experience.

New Platforms

• Substack: The Strangers Project in your inbox. This is the main newsletter with weekly story packs, reflections, and extra content for donating subscribers.

• Patreon: The community hub. This will be a more intimate and interactive home for the project, with behind-the-scenes looks at what it’s like to run something like this, community experiments, special story playlists (including stories that don’t fit on other platforms due to content restrictions), and more.

Legacy Platforms

• Instagram: This has been the digital core for a long time, but changes to the platform have shifted it away from what I want for the project. I’ll still share stories here, but my focus is moving toward the direct-to-community platforms above.

• TikTok: More of the experiential side—stories, daily project life, and moments that give you a sense of what it’s like to be in the space.

Each of these platforms is free for everyone, but they also offer ways to directly support the project. I’m an independent artist trying to build something special for the world. By choosing to be a paid subscriber, you’re saying: “This matters. I want more of this in the world.” This space exists because people have chosen to say yes to that. I hope you will too.

Thank you, truly, for being part of this journey—whether you’ve visited in person, followed online, or shared your own story. I’m looking forward to supporting a slower, more intentional online community, building what comes next, together.

— Brandon

PS. To celebrate the launch, I’m offering a 20% discount on Supporting Subscriptions through October. Thank you for everything.

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