11 November 2016•Update: 11 November 2016
By Canberk Yuksel
NEW YORK
“This feels better than Facebook,” one person wrote on a yellow Post-It plastered on the wall of a subway corridor in downtown Manhattan.
It is one of the thousands of sticky notes adorning the tiled wall that express hope, love, anger, frustration and anxiety in the aftermath of a divisive election cycle that culminated in a stunning outcome.
Matthew “Levee” Chavez, 28, is the man behind Subway Therapy -- a silent, cathartic way for a city to let it all out.
“I’m really passionate about helping people and I think it’s a full-time job,” Chavez told Anadolu Agency.
“I have been so loved by my family I have amazing friends but there are a lot of people that don’t have that. So what do they do?” he said.
The Brooklyn resident who works as a voiceover artist and bartender said he has been creating Subway Therapy for the last six months.
“All you need is love,” one note says. “This is not the end, stay united,” read another. One asks, “How did we get here? Where did our country go?” Another appeals to the desperate: “Please don’t move to Canada, we need you here,” it says.
“In the last couple of years I’ve been really fascinated by absolution – how do people feel good about things that they feel bad about,” Chavez said. “So I wanted to explore that.
“I didn’t do this. I just put sticky notes and pens for people. People did this; our community did this,” he said.
As Chavez was helping people pick up sticky notes on a small table and answering questions, a teen walking through the corridor stopped.
Mason, 15, also from Brooklyn, broke down in tears as he thanked Chavez for the project.
“It’s OK, let it all out,” Chavez said, comforting him with a hug.
“It’s just incredibly frustrating to me,” Mason told Anadolu Agency. “This will affect the youth of every single election incredibly more than it will affect the seniors.”
Todd, who also lives in Brooklyn but voted by mailing in his ballot to Colorado, expressed similar frustration about Donald Trump winning the presidency after beating Hillary Clinton.
“My dad voted for Trump. It is super disappointing,” he said. “If he won, it is our fault, all of us, because we are not reaching out to people who feel alienated.”
The nonpartisan Chavez believes his project can help everyone cope better.
“This election has kind of ignited all this fire, but it’s been fire full of divisive rhetoric of people who are talking about how different they are," he said. “Two teams and you’re either from one team or you belong to the other team.
“I figured the community in New York is going to be distraught. A lot of my friends melted down. People all over the world are feeling so much stress,” he said. “I just wanted to give people an opportunity to channel that somewhere productive that is not just negative.”
