Twin Cities First Kiss Map wants to hear about your first smooch

Remember that first kiss? It could have been the love of your life, a one-night stand or someone you went on a couple of dates with.

Artist Dio Cramer hopes you’ll submit that memory and place to their project, Twin Cities First Kiss Map.

The map has received more than 600 anonymous submissions from 500 people to date.

Eventually, selected first kiss places and memories will be plotted on a paper map that Cramer likely will self-publish and distribute later this winter as a book.

Submit your “first kiss” story or up to five stories using this Google Doc.

The project is about psychogeography — the study of how geographical environments affect a person’s emotions and behavior.

“I’m using this as a way to deepen my relationship to this place and provide a little bit of insight into these very personal stories that we all have,” said Cramer, 27, who uses they/them pronouns.

Some of the first kiss stories end in long-term partnership. A participant who had a first kiss on the roof of the Northrup King Building wrote: “It was the day that Prince died, so the city was lit up purple and there were helicopters overhead. We are now 7 years into a happy marriage.”

Other first kisses might be best forgotten, like this one at the Hiawatha Golf Course parking lot: “My first boyfriend ‘knew a spot’ and proceeded to pull into the golf course parking lot. We made out in the front seat of his truck for 20 minutes and I hated every second of it and broke up with him a few days later.”

Cramer, originally from the D.C. area, attended Macalester College in St. Paul. They studied geography, and the idea of a “first kiss” map made sense for a project.

“I think I love first kisses and they’re such an intimate and sweet and often silly and nerve-wracking moment,” Cramer said. “Often times I wonder if I had grown up here, what would my experiences have been like on these geographies?”

Cramer started the project about a year ago, mostly sharing it in social circles. In the past month, they put up about 10 flyers, expanding the scope to coffee shops and community spaces.

Early on, Cramer noticed that E. 26th Street and Lyndale Av S. was a hot spot. Several people also submitted first kisses from the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Hot spots have popped up at Macalester College and the University of Minnesota, too.

Cramer also has received submissions of a first kiss from both parties.

“Those have been the very sweet ones, to read and experience from two different people,” they said.

Now when driving past locations mentioned on the map, Cramer thinks about the first kisses that happened there.

“It’s bringing the intimate into the public that’s also anonymous,” they said. “It’s still very intimate and sweet, and it’s a really fun experience.”

Or submit your own first kiss and include an email to get updates.

Cub Foods Roseville by Como Park, in the Ben and Jerry’s ice cream section: “Near midnight, it was the only grocery store open, we were the only customers in the store. It was weirdly and wildly romantic :)”

East River Flats Park parking lot: “It was 9:30pm, campus security knocked on my car’s window and asked if I paid for my spot. I did not. I got ticketed right after my first kiss.”