Melis Sonmez immigrated to the U-S four years ago from Turkey. Realizing the immigrant experience to America wasn’t as bright and shiny as she thought it’d be, she reached out to other ex-pats to hear about their own immigrant experience.

She founded Brightside, an online magazine aimed at sharing the stories of artists who come from around the world to live in the United States. And now, she wants to take it a step further.

Her newest project, titled “From Immigrants,” looks at a new way of sharing stories: mass producing love letters from immigrants and spreading them around Chicago and other cities.

Melis Sonmez joins Morning Shift to share more about the “From Immigrants” project, and why she thinks now is the right time for it.

GUEST: Melis Sonmez, director of the online magazine Bright Side

LEARN MORE: 100,000 ‘From Immigrants’ love letters to the U.S. are being left around Chicago and other cities (Chicago Reader, 7/10/18)

Kickstarter: “From Immigrants”