Every now and then, someone with chalk and a purpose, or a marker and determination, will take over a patch of sidewalk, or the boarding around a construction site, and share their thoughts with us passers-by. We’re inured to concert posters and fashion promos, but something from the heart, where someone stopped, had something to say, said it, and said it well—that’s really StopNRead-worthy.

Herewith. three recent entries: