Twin Cities First Kiss Map plots out the tales of local romances
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Illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios
A Twin Cities artist is charting the romantic geography of the metro — through collecting and mapping first kisses.
The big picture: Dio Cramer is collecting submissions for a project they're calling the Twin Cities First Kiss Map, plotting first kiss locations across the metro and the anonymous stories behind them.
- The map had received nearly 350 responses as of mid-October, and Cramer plans to publish a print edition and accompanying book by early winter.
How it works: Users submit their story and its location via a Google Form. Cramer manually plots the points on a private Google map, and they are hand-drawing a version for the print edition.
- Submissions don't need to be your first kiss ever, just any first kiss with a new person.
Caveat: The map is subjective — current points heavily skew toward areas Cramer and their social circle know well, like south Minneapolis and their alma mater in St. Paul.
- Geographical boundaries are also flexible, with first kisses stretching to Bloomington, Roseville and the western suburbs.
What they're saying: Creating the map has been a unique look at people's relationships with spaces around them, Cramer told Axios.
- "A first kiss is such a human experience — they're personal, but also common," Cramer said. "I may have never been to that place, but now I pass by and think of the kisses that have happened there."
Fun facts: One first kiss hotspot is 26th Street and Lyndale Avenue, the corner that houses CC Club, Aldi, Lucky Cat Records and a rotating series of health food cafes.
- Several first kisses were reported at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport, and in one instance, two people separately submitted the same kiss.
Read on for some stories…
💋 Five anonymous first kisses
📍 Cedar Lake Road: "Extremely awkward first kiss in car. Married now so I guess it worked out ok."
📍 Summit Hill, overlooking the Mississippi: "My last first kiss before I moved away. Drunken stumbling home with a silly creative. We stumbled into someone's yard and made out in the grass. It stained my shoes."
📍 Cathedral Hill: "I've never been in the Virginia Street Swedenborgian Church, but I sure had a religious experience (of the kissing variety) on the street outside it."
📍 Seward: "It was April 2020. We were on a walk on our first date, and a whole line of cars started slowly rolling down 30th Avenue. People with trombones and cymbals emerged from sunroofs. They were doing a Covid birthday parade for a neighbor."
- "It was a sunny day, windy and cold but clear. Then out of nowhere, it started snowing. We couldn't hold back anymore and practically made out until midnight."
📍 CC Club: "We played pool and talked mad sh*t and had to make out about it, lovers to besties arc."
Find bonus stories on our Instagram. Some submissions have been edited for length and clarity.