In the passageway under 14th Street between the F and M and 1, 2 and 3 trains, subway riders will find brightly colored paper covering the ordinarily plain white tile. But it’s what’s written on each note that’s important.

“The biggest theme that we’ve been seeing is really love and hope and people supporting each other,” said Matthew Chavez, the creator of the post-it notes that dot the passageway called Subway Therapy. “Obviously, because of the recent news and the election, people are either excited about it or really worried about certain things they may be experiencing.”

What You Need To Know

  • Subway Therapy started in 2016, with a huge response after the 2016 election

  • Subway riders can post their feelings or any message they want on the walls of the 14th Street passageway between the F/M and 1, 2, and 3 trains
  • This round of subway therapy will go through Saturday
  • The installation was approved by the MTA

Chavez started Subway Therapy eight years ago. He received a huge response in the subway after the 2016 election. Since then, he’s taken the Post-its to transit hubs around the world, but slowed down and worked on other projects after Covid — focused on bringing people together.

“One of the biggest things that I’ve been seeing is that people are really grappling with division in America,” Chavez said. “And I think that is something that we’re really, really focused on.”

While some just look and walk by, others feel compelled to stop.

“It inspired me,” Patricia Gonzalez said. “I was like going to work and I was like, wow, there’s a lot of colors on the wall.”

Her message was political.

“I posted Make America Great Again and I know many people on this wall are not agreeing with me,” Gonzalez said. “I know Trump is not perfect, but I come from a communist country, and my experience is very different from people here who believe in communism but haven’t experienced it.”

Other messages are also inspirational, in a different way.

“I wrote ‘we are one in the universe. It breathes like us. Show love everyone,’” Amanda Gray said. “So, I’m more spiritual. I’m in recovery. And this is how we try to live, day-by-day. One day at a time. We’re all here together. We have to figure out how to make it work.”

And that’s what Chavez is trying to do.

“We really want to invite civic participation,” he said. “We really want people to have a dialogue with each other so that we can understand each other and move towards a more connected nation,” he said.

This round of subway therapy will go through Saturday. The installation was approved by the MTA.