How a subway tunnel became NYC’s most unlikely therapy spot

A narrow tunnel in New York City’s subway has transformed into the city’s most informal interactive therapy space.

Lined with thousands of Post-it notes between 6th and 7th Avenue, each message reveals a subway rider’s thoughts, hopes, fears, or humour, as part of “Subway Therapy”, an art project by Matthew Chavez.

“People will walk up and spend one minute and come up to me and say, Wow, this is amazing. This made my day. This made my week. I really needed this,” said Chavez.

Danielle Guy was visiting from Alabama and said she stumbled across the project while transiting the subway: “I put that ‘I choose kindness even when it’s hard’ because I’ve had a hard time wanting to lash out whenever I’ve been treated not so awesome by some people recently. And it’s easy to want to be mean back, but being kind is the best thing to do.”

Chavez, who first started the project in 2016 days after President Donald Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton, said while the project isn’t intrinsically political, putting it up after the election elicits a lot of political notes.

“This project is not a reaction to the election, but because it invites people to express how they’re feeling at the time that they’re feeling it. Certainly, the context of the election influences what people write about,” said Chavez.

Notes range from “OMG why Trump,” to a picture of crying eyes, to “My GF butt.”

“There’s something about the hustle of New York City. It’s weird. It’s interesting. People have so much to say. And I love being in places where people are moving from one place to another. They just stop. They real quick get something off their chest and then they’re on their way,” explains Chavez.

Video editor • Theo Farrant