Updates about our work
Chelsea Uni, student-led Uni
Chelsea Uni, a student-led Uni. Where: Chelsea, Manhattan (New York City) When: Wed May 29 and Sat Jun 1 (detailed schedule) Chelsea Uni is a Uni reading room initiated by middle and high school students in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan and led by the Avenues...
Is there a little museum in the Uni?
Pop-up library, portable reading room, modular educational platform, experimental classroom, placemaking tool. From the start, we wrestled with how to describe and name the Uni. The Uni is intended to be modular and adaptable, but one thing is certain: museums are in...
The Uni, proudly into picture books
This week, a New England librarian and friend of the Uni sent me a children's picture book about a broken down bus that gets turned into a community center. We happily read it around the office, and it struck me that she gave the picture book just like others give...
Are you coming back next weekend?
The Uni is part library, part classroom, and entirely portable. We use it to transform public space and to open a new front in the effort to educate, support, and inspire urban kids. The walk home from school is cluttered with opportunities to consume—let's put some...
Uni offers library to storm-hit Red Hook, meets future librarians
The Uni spent the day in Red Hook, Brooklyn, to serve a waterfront community still struggling after the storm. We set up between FEMA and the food trucks, across the street from a mobile clinic. And we went in partnership with the Brooklyn Public Library—BPL staff did...
Uni in Queens to support storm relief
Yesterday, the Uni was in Queens for a community storm relief event hosted by the Queens Museum of Art. We offered a place for folks to gather, read, and also donate books to those affected by the storm. Special thanks to Urban Librarians Unite for working on...
Uni will go to Red Hook, Brooklyn to serve community hard hit by storm
Now that the Uni office is up and running after a week-long blackout, we're ready to put the Uni into service for other New Yorkers hit by the storm. The Uni was not created primarily for disaster relief and rebuilding, but it sure was built to be ready for it. Here's...
Uni heads to Queens as part of storm relief effort
The Uni is up and running after the storm took out power, water, and heat in our lower Manhattan office for a week. Here's West Broadway from our window during the blackout and after the lights came back: This Saturday, the Uni will join relief efforts at a community...
New York Hall of Science creates cube for the Uni
The New York Hall of Science has donated a mini-collection of science-related books to fill one of our cubes! This gives the Uni a new tool to get people on the street thinking about science. One of our favorite titles is the oversize book "Actual Size," which doesn't...