Get it off your chest
In the form below, you’re invited to submit anything you’d like to get of your chest– anything you feel you need to divulge. You can share a personal story, whether happy, sad, heavy or strange. You can admit your true feelings. You can apologize. If you feel a burden, The Other Chair is listening.
Submissions will then be chosen for a print magazine, available for free within the Durham Region.
All submissions must be completely anonymous. Do not share any names or identifiable information of any sort. Anything with identifiable information will be disqualified from publication.
Submissions will be heavily curated. Your submission may not see print. This is entirely at the discretion of the editors.
Participants must be from, or connected to, the Durham Region of Ontario (Oshawa, Whitby, Ajax, Pickering, Clarington, Uxbridge, Scugog, Beaverton).
The goal of The Other Chair is to provide a sense of catharsis through sharing; to better understand and relate to our neighbours; to know our challenges, situations, actions, and victories are heard. You are not alone.
If you are experiencing _____
CONTACTS:
When will the first issue of The Other Chair be available?
When we receive enough submissions. Eventually, responses to previous submissions may be printed. Our goal is to publish issues quarterly, though this will depend on participation.
Where will issues be available?
We will list locations when our first issue is ready for publication. All locations will be within the Durham Region.
How much will the magazine cost?
Copies of this magazine will be available for free. Always.
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The inspiration:
In 1980, Allan Bridge (pseudonym Mr. Apology) set up a hotline, connected to his answering machine in New York City, inviting others to call in and anonymously apologize– to others, or themselves. The “Apology Project” lasted 15 years, until Bridge’s death in 1995, with more than 1000 hours of recorded confessions. During this time, a magazine spinoff was created– Apology. For more information, consult the novel, film, podcast or play based on Bridge’s work.
In addition, The Empty Chair is a talk therapy technique whereby, in simplest terms, you express your thoughts and feelings to an empty chair while imagining someone is there. This can allow you to explore words and emotions that may be otherwise difficult to communicate. But it is equally powerful to know you are being heard– especially in a safe, neutral, anonymous medium. We invite readers to fill the empty chair, so that we may hear each other honestly, and know we are being heard.
Wunderlit 