VALIDATION DAY
Validation Day is our ongoing, annual celebration of boundless love and universal acceptance, in collaboration with All the Saints Theater Company. Each year we distribute dozens of handwritten love notes anonymously and gratuitously to anyone and everyone we encounter.
2019 We launched Validation Day as part of our exhibition These Are My Friends and they Remain With Me Forever at Gallery5.
2020 We marched from Monroe Park to the ICA, where we performed a canta storia for our assembled guests.
2021 Validation Day went virtual and we shared handwritten love and affirmation through instagram.
Rationale
On Valentine’s Day in elementary school, everyone gave Valentines to everyone else. There is a way in which we acknowledge the humanity of children and their emotional vulnerability, but do not extend the same humanity to ourselves.
Jean Vanier, founder of the worldwide network of L’Arche Communities for adults with developmental disabilities, wrote in Community and Growth, “There is always an element of sadness in celebration, because there are people on this earth of ours who are not celebrating […]. That is why all celebration should end with a silence in which we remember before God all those who cannot celebrate and are in pain today,” (360).
Twin Oaks Community, in Louisa Virginia, has renamed this holiday Validation Day. In their re-design of the holiday, everyone receives a card reflecting gratitude and validation for their unique contribution to the community. Inspired by their example, we devised our own creative redesign of Valentine’s Day.
