On Saturday, June 1, we landed at Penn South Playground in Chelsea for the second of two deployments organized in conjunction with middle and high school students from nearby Avenues: The World School. (See photos of first deployment.)

This time, we didn’t have the patron numbers we had hoped for—the heat, a public school carnival, and a wonderful flea market drew kids out of the playground.

Chelsea is a challenging neighborhood for the Uni because it lacks a central community space—the long blocks create small pockets where neighbors gather, and I think the trick is choosing which pocket to visit on a given day/time. We did meet a number of local contacts who can help us place the Uni more effectively in Chelsea in the future. Every deployment teaches us something about how to do this better for NYC neighborhoods!

Uni at Penn South

The heat chose the baseplate location for us: shade.

Uni at Penn South

Uni at Penn South

Two young helpers leapt into action to help shelve the books!

Uni at Penn South

Uni at Penn South

Uni Penn South

Uni at Penn South

Uni Penn South

Uni at Penn South

Tim Shriver, Dream Director at the the Lab School in Chelsea for the Future Project and Ivan Cestero from Avenues.

Uni at Penn South

A cube curated for the day by the Future Project.

Uni at Penn South

Tom Bonnell, head of Avenues Middle School, swung by the Uni to check out cubes curated by students.

Uni Penn South

Uni at Penn South

Uni at Penn South

Thanks to Emily Jacobson, intrepid Uni volunteer who also works at NYPL, and Ivan for staying to help pack up. See you soon on a cooler day in Chelsea!