This artist wants to help you write a letter to the next president

Driving the news: The former University of the Arts dean is bringing her project, "I Wish to Say," to the Free Library of Philadelphia on Election Day — her second stop in the city this election.

• It's part performance art, part person-on-the-street interview, tapping into Oring's experience as a reporter and editor at the San Francisco Chronicle.
• A carbon copy of the letters she creates Tuesday will be on display at an upcoming art exhibition at the library.

The intrigue: Oring will be dressed in retro threads — drawing inspiration from her late grandmother, who showed up every day to her job as a secretary in the University of Maryland's political science department "dressed to the nines."

Flashback: Oring began touring the country during the 2004 presidential race because she wanted to reconnect with the electoral process after spending years living overseas.

• While in Berlin, she created her first major political art exhibition, "Writer's Block," which featured hundreds of typewriters locked up in rebar cages. It was a statement about the perils of Nazi book-burning and censorship.

What they're saying: Oring shared several examples of the notes she has received during this tour, including one that started out, "To the leader of the melting pot," and reflected a theme of unity she's encountered in most of her stops.

• Another came from a woman during her first stop in Philly, highlighting women's struggle for equality: "Women are needed. And guess what? Women are going to make America great again."

The bottom line: There's nowhere Oring would rather be for this historic election than in Philadelphia, somewhere she has deep ties, channeling "the power of the secretary."

If you go: Parkway Central branch from 11am-3pm