Find the Uni

Next stop:

New locations to be announced soon. Stay tuned.

Previous Stop: Lower East Side, NYC

The Uni came out on Saturday, April 28 at Sara D. Roosevelt Park on the Lower East Side in New York City. We were there as part of a kid-oriented “Read-A- Palooza” festival sponsored by the early education and literacy organization, Jumpstart. Lots of books to read and fun activities. Thanks Jumpstart!

Previous Stop: Biblioball 2011!

Saturday, Dec. 3, 2011. Learn more here. Benefits Literacy for Incarcerated Teens. Planning on attending the Biblioball? Bring a book for public space and donate it to the Uni, and you’ll receive a complimentary raffle ticket.

Previous Stop: Brooklyn (11201), Brooklyn Book Festival, with Brooklyn Public Library. Sep. 18, 2011, 10AM-6PM.

On Sunday, the Brooklyn Public Library and The Uni Project joined together to create a children’s reading room on Borough Hall Plaza at the 2011 Brooklyn Book Festival. The Uni took on a new form, or forms actually. The Brooklyn Public Library added BPL books which could be browsed on-site and even checked out by BPL patrons.

Previous Stop: New Amsterdam Market New York, NY (10038)
Sep. 11, 2011, 11AM-4PM.

The Uni was put into service for the first time on Sunday, Sep. 11 at the New Amsterdam Market on the East River in Lower Manhattan. The time frame was tight, and some cubes were deployed empty, but it felt right to get this underway. Read more about our decision to launch a reading room at this location.

On Sep. 11 the Uni at New Amsterdam Market offered:

BOOKS

a selection of children’s picture books,
curated book cubes from 826NYC, New York Bound Books, Furnace Press, and others.
a set of book cubes selected specifically for the location, focusing on themes suggested by Market founder Robert LaValva and others: urban waterfronts, markets, Lower Manhattan history, small business, and urban living.

YOKO ONO WISH TREE

Yoko Ono’s WISH TREE project began in 1981 and was inspired by her childhood memory of going to a temple in Japan where the trees were filled with people’s wishes written on pieces of paper and knotted around tree branches. The specific tree that will appear in the Uni on Sep. 11, 2011, was originally used for Ono’s retrospective exhibition at the MIT List Visual Arts Center in 2001. All visitors are invited to write a wish and attach to the tree.

DRAWING LAB

Artist and educator Deb Putnoi has created an interactive exhibit called The Drawing Lab, which will be installed across four Uni cubes. The exhibit gives you an opportunity to draw, and it features a working Zoetrope where you can create your own hand-powered animation.

I AM A CAMERA—Flash Fiction Cube

A Uni activity cube created by Jared Green. Flash fiction is a very short story, usually no more than 1,000 words, that captures a little piece of life “in a flash.” Flash fiction can be funny, serious, sad, exciting, or anything else you want—but it has to be short. Pick up a clipboard, walk around the market, and write.

DONATE A BOOK FOR PUBLIC SPACE

There will be no ribbon cutting or ceremony to mark the launch of the Uni. Instead, we’re inviting people to drop by the market and donate a favorite book for public space, which Uni Librarians will shelve right then and there.

Thanks for joining us on the waterfront on Sunday.