The Story

She made a homemade stencil that said, “Before I die I want to _____,” and with help from old and new friends, she painted the side of a crumbling house in her neighborhood with chalkboard paint and stenciled it with this prompt so that anyone walking by could pick up a piece of chalk, reflect on death and life, and share their personal aspirations in public.

It was an experiment and she didn’t know what to expect. Because it was cheap to make, she thought it wasn’t a big deal if it didn’t work out.

By the next day, the wall was filled with responses bursting into the margins: Before I die I want to… follow my childhood dream, see my daughter graduate, abandon all insecurities, straddle the International Date Line, get my wife back, see my students become teachers, be ok with not understanding, be someone’s cavalry, hold her one more time, be completely myself. The gamut of humanity was on full display, and the wall became an honest mess of the longing, pain, joy, insecurity, gratitude, fear, and wonder you find in every community. As she read through the responses, Candy understood her neighbors in new ways and she was reminded that she was not alone as she tried to make sense of life.

This neglected space had become a constructive one where strangers who ordinarily had little to do with one another began taking care of it. Some people donated chalk while others helped wash the wall. Neighbors introduced themselves while reading through the day’s responses. “People are around all the time,” said the grandmother who lived across the street. “The block is safer now.”

Ten months later, the wall in New Orleans ended for the happiest of reasons: a new owner rebuilt the property and the house became a home again. But this wasn’t the end of the project. Candy received hundreds of unexpected messages from people around the world who wanted to make a wall with their communities. So she created step-by-step resources for people to create their own walls and thanks to passionate people around the world, there are now over 4,000 Before I Die walls in over 75 countries and 36 languages. You can see a full list of countries below, and photos from selected Before I Die walls from around the world can be viewed here.

These participatory installations serve as an accessible memento mori where we can reflect upon our mortality with neighbors and passersby. Each response represents an individual’s unique desires and values, and each wall offers a snapshot of our shared anxieties and hopes, our collective joys and struggles. By creating spaces where we can share our inner lives in public, Before I Die reimagines the ways we remember what really matters in an age of increasing distraction and flux.

Explore selected responses from around the world. If you’re interested in creating a wall, learn more. The Before I Die book offers a collection of stories from walls around the globe, and you can help support the project by purchasing one of our products. The project has also inspired dozens of remixes that offer new ways to engage with the people around us.