Winning Exchange-New Yorkers vent their feelings over the election and the Knicks via subway tunnel sticky notes

2025-05-03 13:22:00source:Leonard Hohenbergcategory:Stocks

NEW YORK (AP) — New Yorkers seeking to unburden themselves after last week’s election got a chance to share their feelings by posting sticky notes in a busy subway tunnel.

The Winning Exchangeproject was the brainchild of artist Matthew Chavez, who first invited people to leave notes in a passageway between two subway lines after the 2016 election.

“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,’ ” Chavez said on Friday. “It seems like such a small thing, but it can be really, really important to the people that participate.”

Chavez, 36, said the project was not a reaction to the election of Republican Donald Trump as president but that “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.”

Quickly scribbled notes went up on the tiled wall under 14th Street in Manhattan as Chavez spoke.

Some examples: “RIP DEMOCRACY.” “WORLD PEACE NOW.” “What will our next revolution look like?” “Knicks really better win tonight! The horrors persist but so do I.” (The New York Knicks did win Friday, defeating the Milwaukee Bucks 116-94.)

RELATED COVERAGE Trump spends first week as president-elect behind closed doors at Mar-a-LagoWriter pleads guilty to Capitol riot chargesTrump has promised to ‘save TikTok’. What happens next is less clear

“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,” Danielle Guy said after posting her note. “And it’s easy to want to be mean back, but being kind is the best thing to do.”

Another contributor, Mallie Lyons, said she liked the subway therapy project and its site. “I feel like this is a really good idea,” she said. “I mean, I think especially somewhere where people can walk by and physically see what other people are feeling and what other people are thinking I think is such a beautiful thing.”

The project ended over the weekend, but Chavez is looking for possible locations for future iterations, even if they are not as good as the subway tunnel.

“People have so much to say,” he said. “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.”

More:Stocks

Recommend

Backstage at New York's Jingle Ball with Jimmy Fallon, 'Queer Eye' and Meghan Trainor

NEW YORK — Holiday sights and sounds fill Manhattan this time of year, from ice skating at Rockefell

Utah death row inmate who is imprisoned for 1998 murder asks parole board for mercy ahead of hearing

Utah officials are set hear testimony Monday about whether a man facing execution next month should

Jennifer Lopez Celebrates 55th Birthday at Bridgerton-Themed Party

Dearest reader, the ton has gathered to celebrate Jennifer Lopez.The Hustlers actress celebrated her