Performance artist Sheryl Oring pulled out her 1960s secretarial uniform and typewriter this morning, November 5, to compose hundreds of postcards in public — just as she has every Election Day since 2004, when former President George W. Bush defeated John Kerry in his second bid for the White House.
In all the years of her touring I Wish to Say performance series, Oring has diligently typed around 4,500 postcards, all containing unique messages from members of the public addressed to the nation’s future president. In each session, participants dictate their presidential message to Oring who, dressed as a secretary, types and sends their letters to the White House. She keeps a carbon copy of each message for her growing archive. Sometimes, Oring snaps a Polaroid photo of the author and attaches it to the note.
“People’s messages often are a barometer of what’s happening in society,” Oring told Hyperallergic in a phone interview.
Today, November 5, Oring set up shop at the Free Library of Philadelphia’s Central Parkway branch for her final pre-election pop-up to capture the swing state residents’ presidential hopes. Oring started early this year, hosting her first one-on-one session in the city this August before touring through New York, Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, and Illinois. She’ll continue through the presidential inauguration and into the first 100 days of the next administration, with invitations from Scripps College and Hunter College to perform on their campuses in November.
Oring told Hyperallergic she felt “jittery” being in Pennsylvania today.
“Everyone’s saying that Pennsylvania is going to decide the election,” she said. “Being in Philadelphia today feels particularly meaningful, and it’s also a place where I was working at the University of the Arts until it closed.” (Oring was dean of the School of Art before the institution abruptly ceased operations this summer.)
“There’s a lot of emotion today,” she said.
In Philadelphia, Oring is joined by a group of sophomores at the Revolution School, a private high school, who will analyze the viewpoints expressed in the cards for a history project.
From her 2024 pre-election tour so far, Oring said a few notes stood out. “One person said, simply, ‘Don’t forget about Puerto Rico,’” she said. Other notes addressed homes lost to hurricanes in Florida, with one author signing off his postcard as “Homeless Howard.”
During her stops at the University of North Carolina Greensboro and the University of South Florida, Oring said students called for unity amidst polarity, worried about being able to afford housing after college and fearing a loss of reproductive rights.
This year, some participants are choosing to open their letters with the salutation “Dear Madame President,” for the second time in US history, as seen in photographs of postcards shared by Oring.
The artist said she was inspired by her grandmother, who was a secretary in the Political Science department at the University of Maryland. Her decision to use the typewriter came first, followed by her secretarial uniform which changes each election cycle. Drawing on her former career as a journalist, holding jobs at the San Francisco Chronicle and New York Times, Oring invokes traditional reporting tools to promote free expression.
“It’s quite different to go out with a typewriter than it would be to go out with just a piece of paper or a computer or something. It really attracts people,” Oring said. For the younger generations, it’s sometimes the first time they are seeing a typewriter, she said.
When asked what she wouldn’t agree to write on a postcard and send to the White House, Oring said she consulted a lawyer, who told her she could not mail any credible threat.
“That has not happened,” Oring said. “I do think that my human presence, when someone is thinking about what they want to say, leads to more articulate or thoughtful messages than one might find online where there’s nobody on the other end.”
The record for longest postcard appointment, she said, happened this year and timed in at 30 minutes.
“She thoughtfully proposed her message,” she said. “There was nobody in line. So, you know, I was patient and just worked with her.” Others know within just a couple of minutes what to say.
When she first got started composing the messages in 2004, Oring said, the primary concerns she documented were the Iraq War and gay marriage. This year, she received more requests to write about gun violence inside schools. “I was not typing that 20 years ago,” she said.
Bill Rhoda, co-owner of Philly Typewriter, lent typewriters to Oring and restored her personal collection to use in this year’s performance tour, writing his own postcard calling for the next president to “lead with kindness.”
One participant today, Hanifa, who asked to be identified by first name only, said she told Oring to simply write, “Do right by us.”
“That’s literally all I said,” Hanifa said. “At the end of the day, regardless of who wins … they’re going to be funding a genocide and this should not be happening.”
Around inauguration time, copies of the notes composed during today’s performance will be on display inside the Free Library of Philadelphia.
Isabella Segalovich contributed reporting and photography.
