How to Organize a Collaging & Letter Writing Party
Are you interested in sparking conversations about the end of life with a group of friends, family, colleagues, or even strangers? Postal Service for the Dead is an ongoing, collective project where people send letters to anyone in their life who has died. It’s one way to engage the often challenging topics of death and grief. Creating art together is a useful tool for difficult conversations, as it allows people to express themselves in a fun and supportive way. Back in April, we hosted our first public program for Grief in Public Day. We collaged cards and wrote letters to people who have died. It was such a fun and meaningful event and we wanted to share details as an event template, so anyone can organize their own letter writing party.
Below is an outline to help you host your own letter writing party, which includes a list of suggested materials, timeline, prompts, and printable signage. If you host your own letter writing party, please tag us on Facebook or Instagram – we’d love to see your photos!
An Important Note
As you prepare yourself for a letter writing party, please keep in mind that everyone’s journey with grief is different. Some people may have similar experiences to you, some may not. Some might belong to different religions, or have different spiritual practices, or have none at all. Some people might miss their person while others may feel relief, anger, or gratitude. Many people speak differently about death, which can sometimes cause discomfort. When you welcome people into your space, please welcome all that they bring. Postal Service for the Dead aims to be a safe, welcoming, and supportive project for all identities.
You may also consider reviewing Neu Project’s Guide to Neuro-inclusive Events – learn more and download their guide HERE.
What is Collaging?
A collage is an artistic composition made of various materials or images glued on a surface. By cutting small pieces of a larger image, you combine various components to create a new image. Collage is a great technique for folks who are new to creative expression because there’s really no wrong way to do it! Check out the video series about collage on Art 21 to see how different artists create artworks by using collage.
Audience
Who is the workshop for? Are you hosting an intimate gathering of close friends? Are you offering this workshop for free to the public? Are you bringing together a family to discuss death for the first time? All these things are important to consider before you plan your workshop. Your relationship to your attendees will help shape many of the choices you make.
Location
Is this event happening in public? Is it in collaboration with a business? Is it at home? Wherever you are, we encourage you to host this event near a mailbox so people can experience walking their card to the mailbox. If you are not near a mailbox — no problem! Encourage participants to take the letters home and send them when it feels appropriate.
Invitation Language
Here is some suggested language for your writing party invitation. Feel free to change it to fit your voice and the specifics of your event!
On [Date, Time] [I/Organization] will be hosting a letter writing party for people in our lives who [we have lost/have died]. All materials will be provided! Please [pop in/arrive at whatever location at whatever date and time] to create unique collaged cards, share your grief, and talk about the end of life. If you choose to, participants will be invited to send their letter through Postal Service for the Dead, an ongoing, collective project where people send letters to anyone in their life who has died. All ages are welcome [or designate who this event is for, be it youth, LGBTQ+, BIPOC, etc. – it’s cool to create affinity spaces for grief!].
Suggested Materials
For all the items we list below, we recommend checking out your local thrift stores whenever possible. If you are gathering family or friends together, ask for help in collecting items, too!
Magazines: we recommend gathering a variety of magazines like cooking, gardening, sports, lifestyle, and news.
Scissors: one per attendee.
Glue sticks: one per attendee.
Blank cards: We got an eclectic variety of blank cards from Remainders Creative Reuse in Pasadena. Look around your community to see if you have a similar store or check out your local thrift store! Otherwise do a quick search online for black cards such as these. You could also make your own cards out of cardstock by cutting it down to size and folding with a bone folder. We suggest at least 1.5 per attendee (some people will get excited and want to make multiple cards).
Envelopes: Just make sure they match the size of cards!
Stamps: If you’re hosting a public program, we recommend supplying stamps to make the process more accessible. If you’re hosting an intimate gathering, you might ask your guests to bring their own stamps.
Pens: We recommend offering a variety of colors, and make sure there’s at least one per attendee.
Tables & chairs: Make sure there is enough working space for your anticipated number of guests. For our public workshop, I set up two six-foot tables with 4 chairs at each one. This ended up working for us, but if you are in a higher traffic area you might need more room! We highly recommend making the space look inviting. Simply adding plain black table cloth or something bright and colorful to your table can help (again – check out those thrift stores!).
Additional materials: You might consider supplying markers, crayons and colored pencils for attendees to draw on their collages (we love a multi-media moment!). Stickers can also be a fun way to provide extra decoration to your collages. You might also want to provide tissues in case there are weepy moments. Don’t forget a small garbage bin for the unusable paper scraps!
Timeline
We offered our public workshop from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm and about 20 people came through. We could have gone for about an hour more but I was happy to wrap up after 3 hours! For a pop-in style event, I think this is a good timeline. If you are offering a more structured workshop where attendees show up at a specific time, I would say 1.5 hours is plenty. Allow yourself 30 minutes before to set up and 30 minutes after to clean up – and don’t hesitate to enlist the help of volunteers or friends with this!
Prompts
For our public workshop, we printed out simple instructions for attendees, but I was there the entire time to guide attendees. Here’s a little script we used to talk to strangers:
Welcome! My name is [Janelle] and today we are creating cards and writing to people in our life who have died. This is part of a project called Postal Service for the Dead, which allows people to send letters to those they’ve lost. Are you interested in joining us? Great! We are using the collage technique – are you familiar with this? [If no, explain what collage is – don’t assume everyone knows what this is!]. Awesome! I recommend first deciding who you want to write to. Then flip through a few magazines and find images, colors, textures and words that remind you of that person. Once you have all your pieces, you can arrange them in an interesting way. When you’re done with your image feel free to write to your person. Or if you prefer, you can take the card home and write in private.
As I got to know people, I gauged their comfort in talking about what brought them to the workshop. Some conversation questions you can ask include:
Can I ask who you are writing to?
What was their name?
Oh wow that [blue, bird, flower, cake, etc.] image you cut out is interesting. What made you pick that?
Do you have a memory of your person you’d like to share?
What has your journey with grief looked like?
An Important Note
As the facilitator, remember you are creating the space for people to talk, reflect, and share their experiences. Stick with “I” statements, don’t interrupt, and offer compassion. The grief road is a bumpy one.
Remember the Symbols
If people choose to send their letters to Postal service for the Dead, please send them to the following address and remind them of our privacy symbol system:
Sleepy Sue Studio
PO BOX 31412
Los Angeles, CA
90031
Option 1: Do not read. If you do not want our team to read your letter, please leave the backside of the envelope blank.
Option 2: Read my letter but do not share. If you would like our team to read your letter but do not want the contents shared publicly, please mark the back of your envelope with a heart.
Option 3: You can open my letter and share. If you agree to share your letter publicly, which includes digital platforms such as our Instagram, please include a star on the backside of your envelope. We invite you to write freely and any mentioned names will be censored for anonymity before sharing. By sharing the letters, we hope to normalize the full range of emotions and experiences that go alongside death, dying, and grieving.
Printable Signage
The following signs are designs to be printed on 8.5”x11” and cut down to 8”x10”. Check out your local thrift store for some picture frames that you can then display these in!
Additional Considerations
If you organize a more structured event, rather than pop-in style such as we did, then you might consider offering a moment for participants to share what they wrote. I would recommend you offer this and don’t expect people to immediately jump in on sharing – be okay with a moment of silence as people consider their options.
That’s all for now! Thanks for reading and if you have any questions please comment below. Be sure to tag us on Facebook or Instagram!