In April 2006, a city-wide writing program began in Philadelphia called the Autobiography Project. The program's basic idea was to invite residents of the city to tell their own life stories or simply individual stories taken from their lives in 300 words or less. The Project even sponsored community writing workshops for those Philadelphians unsure of their literary abilities and some of these were so successful that similar groups may yet become regular fixtures at the institutions involved. Over 340 such memoirs were submitted over a six-week period. A panel of local writers and cultural figures then chose 20 particularly memorable autobiographies, and these were printed as full-size posters, complete with a photograph of each author, and installed within bus shelters throughout the city. The posters will remain up until July 23rd.
In many ways, the most interesting aspect of the Autobiography Project is how it has briefly reclaimed a handful of Philadelphia's bus shelters and transport routes in the name of public life and personal narrative. De-commercializing each bus stop, in other words, the Project has replaced ads for new films, hair products, and athletic gear, turning Philadelphia's bus routes into a narrative experience. Traveling from one stop to the next, you not only learn about someone who, until that moment, had been an anonymous stranger perhaps even someone you once saw on your daily commute but you may also realize your own capacity for autobiographical reflection.
Out of all the things you've done, for instance or thought, or witnessed what would you share with a whole city? What could you communicate using 300 words or less? In this complete list of the chosen stories, including downloadable PDFs, do you see an autobiography whose details resonate with your own?
In the often isolating world of contemporary urbanism, the Autobiography Project makes strangers into people again; a city becomes a community. Of course, this is speaking ideally; after all, the Project only encompasses twenty bus shelters in a city with hundreds of such routes and spaces and it all ends on July 23rd. But the possibility that this might expand, whether within Philadelphia or outward, to other cities around the world, is both practical and deeply inspiring: private, individual life narratives could someday become a regular feature of the global city, as daily as bus passes, weather reports, and traffic updates.
Knowing the stories of just a few strangers can transform the appearance of countless others. Random people on the sidewalk who you once found irrelevant, even irritating, become multi-dimensional by virtue of having autobiographies of their own, they are complicated; sympathetic; real.
Various iterations of this kind of approach to substituting public advertising space with literary or socially-oriented material have already occurred around the world. In Mexico City, free books are available in the subway; in Seattle, the buses feature poetry above the seats; and in Denver, as we pointed out today, the sides of buses raise awareness around global warming.
If using public space as a venue for collective self-reflection seems like a good idea to you, and you want to start something like this in your own community, you can always contact the Project's organizers and perhaps next summer similar posters will begin to appear in public spaces near you.
