“What if the letters we never sent could bring us closer together, and spark conversations we never knew we needed?”
Hi there,
We’re Sofia & Gary Su (a.k.a Sugary)
Through the serendipitous forces of New York City, we met randomly (twice) on two separate occasions — and finally agreed to have a cup of tea at Paquita in the West Village.
When we met, we bonded over our shared passion for community building and fostering IRL human connection through immersive activations and narrative-driven experiences.
During that first fateful meeting over a cup of tea, Sofia shared the unsent letter mailbox project with Sugary and he knew this was something worth his time. During that first meeting, we dove into their own experiences with isolation in New York — and explored what it meant to build community when the currents of culture are definitely not in one’s favor. Ironically, in an age of hyper-connectivity, cultivating a sense of belonging in a big city has never been as hard.
We set off to launch the Unsent Letter Mailbox urban installation series in May 2024, traveling to multiple parks in New York, and hosting monthly anonymous writing salons titled “The Write to Read,” featuring local artists.
We are so happy you found us. If you’ve submitted a letter or attended a salon, we thank you for pouring a piece of your soul into the words you’ve written.
We see you and we hear you.
about our project
What is the Unsent Letter Mailbox?
The Unsent Letter Mailbox creates artistic anonymous spaces to transform the unexpressed into opportunities for authentic human connection.
We invite humans to write anonymous unsent letters, in exchange for reading one written by someone else. By writing and submitting your unsent letter, you earn your write to read.
How did you come up with the idea?
Sofia started to think about anonymity riding the M line during her first week in the city. A boy, early twenties, got on and started threatening to kill himself unless the people there helped him. Everyone kept scrolling, avoiding eye-contact, except for this one voice who asked “Why do you want to do that?” A fifteen minute conversation ensued between the boy and the man who asked the question. He managed to calm him down, and Sofia realized, even when we have nothing to give, we can listen. The term “bystander effect” was coined in the 1960 to describe an innately urban experience — onlookers are less likely to help a person in need if other people are present.
Sofia experienced this first hand, and also experienced the other side of the coin — which is to listen to a person’s humanity.
The unsent letter mailbox was conceptualized, designed and built by Sofia during her time as a at Parsons in January 2024, and was first taken to Washington Square Park on Valentines Day 2024.
The full-fledged vision for the Unsent Letter Mailbox emerged through a conversation at Carelab in October 2023, a course in Parsons focusing on designing systems of care. Sophie Calle’s project Take Care of Yourself came up and Sofia had an aha! moment. In an interview Calle explained: “I received an email telling me it was over. I didn't know how to respond. So I asked 107 women to interpret this letter.”
She sketched out an illustration of an unsent letter mailbox in her journal that day, and ruminated for a few months before taking action. With the mailbox, she wanted to create a blank canvas, turning anonymity into a tool to encourage radical honesty and reciprocity among city dwellers.
What kind of letters are “unsent letters”?
We accept all unsent letters — ranging from the silly to serious.
The letters we’ve received span a wide range of recipients and topics: the child given up for adoption years ago, the ex-lover who is now married, the unloved body part and the multiple personalities contained in a dissociative personality disorder. Letters to deceased loved-ones, ex-friends, future hypothetical spouses, a multitude, to say the least.