The People's Library

The People’s Library, formerly located at the heart of the Occupy Wall Street movement in Zuccotti Park, was lauded at the fastest growing library in America by Melvin Jules Bukiet (writing for OccupyWriters.com). “About a thousand books a day are lent out and about a thousand more arrive, so many that they’ve had to find storage space elsewhere. “ Bukiet wrote, “to put these numbers in perspective, a suburban library I know lends out about 400 items a day, the majority of which are ‘media,’ a.k.a. videos.”

The morning of November 15, when the NYPD raided Zuccotti Park, they also confiscated the 5,000 books in The People’s Library. Readers, writers, and librarians were outraged when they saw bins of books being emptied into a dumpster on the livestream of the raid.

Hours after the raid was over, when a barricade with a single entrance was erected, people returned to the park. The NYPD and other security officials were not letting people into the park with large backpacks, many of whom had books belonging to The People’s Library. Matthew Taylor, a Queens resident, was there that afternoon and said that people were practically leaping over the barricade and telling the NYPD, “I have to return this book before I get fined for being overdue!”

A few days after the raid Mayor Bloomberg’s office tweeted a picture of some of the books they had confiscated, ensuring the public and the librarians that the books were safe and could be retrieved.  Of the 5000 books that belonged to the library only 1300 books were returned, about one third of the collection. Of those 1300 books that were returned only 800 are fit to be read. At press conference last week, Norman Siegel a civil rights lawyer pleaded that, “The Bloomberg Administration needs to replace every book missing or damaged…. We have the titles and authors. The Bloomberg Administration needs to acknowledge that a wrong was committed and that this can never happen again.”

I saw The People’s Library last October and was astounded by the collection. The library had a large children’s book collection, philosophy books, text books, Twilight, and, after making a joke about reading Ayn Rand on Wall Street, The Fountanhead. During the press conference, Siegel pointed out that the library even had Bloomberg on Bloomberg.

The donation based library has since gained support from the American Library Association and now exists in a transient state, with small “branches” popping up at Occupy Wall Street marches (and drum circles) throughout the city. There was even a #OWSbookmobile that traveled around New York City picking up books in hopes of replenishing the lacking collection.

The People’s Library and its patrons are a community of engaged readers, in a country where educators are constantly figuring out how to get young people interested in books. It is deplorable that our own government is destroying our books. But, the library is just one small part of the Occupy Wall Street movement, as one of the librarians said at the press conference, “You can take our books. You can take our park. But you can’t take our spirit. And we’re not going anywhere”

 

The Man Behind The Park

Photo: Farrell/News

Before September 17, the name Zuccotti did not have much of a meaning to the thousands of people who, for the next two months would occupy, live and visit the park. Many people still do not know why the park is called Zuccotti Park or for whom it was named.

74-year-old John E. Zuccotti is the former City Planning Commission chairman and was appointed as the first deputy mayor under Abe Bearne in 1970. He is the co-chairman of the board of Brookfield Properties, a multi-billion dollar real estate development firm.  During his career he specialized in planning, housing, real estate and municipal law and played a leading role in the development process of major residential and commercial projects throughout the city.

“If you go there, you can’t tell the protesters from the tourists. It has a kind of festive atmosphere.” Zuccotti said to the New York Times about the occupation in early October. However, in recent weeks he seems to have different concerns of the parks new reputation.

When asked, 18 out of 20 people, who have been actively participating in the occupation, had no idea as to whom John Zuccotti is. The other two people had interesting answers. One, a 22 year old from Baltimore said, “Zuccotti is a type of bonzi tree, that is very rare.” The other person, a 32 year old man from Brooklyn thought it was, “a political figure who was assassinated in the 1800’s.”

“He was very worried about it,” former Mayor Ed Koch told the Daily News after speaking with Zuccotti recently. “He said, everybody knows my name, Zuccotti, not because of what I’ve done as an individual, but because of the park.”  

Photo: Office Links

Originally know as 1 Liberty Plaza the space was renamed Liberty Square after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. After Brookfield Properties spent over $8 million in renovations in 2006 it was renamed Zuccotti Park. But why was that the chosen place of occupation? One of the Chief Executive Officers, Ric Clarke explained during an interview, “it’s easy—location, location, location.”

A block-long, the half-acre park is a privately owned public plaza and typically does not allow overnight camping or serve as a base for mass protests. He continued, “It’s in the heart of the financial district and is one of the largest privately owned public spaces in the city.”  

Moses, a 24 year old from Virginia Beach who has participated in the occupation since the first week said, "I don't think this is a personal thing against the guy who the park was named for. It's an ideal location for the message we are trying to send. It's a great $8 million campground. "

The Price of Remembering

Photo Credit: MTA, Bing Lee on Canal Street

photo of Calarava plan

The MTA has erected permanent art in over 150 locations throughout the Triborough area. Many of these locations make homage to it’s location in the city. Around Canal Street, Bing Lee made a tiled work entitled Empress Voyage, which looks at the history of trade between Asia and the United States. At Inwood 207^th Street Sheila de Bretteville created a work entitled To The Start…At Long Last in an attempt to recognize the multinational community in Brooklyn. In many there are depictions of the struggle New York City has faced with race. In Brooklyn While there are many of these commemorations in the stations, one was destined to take up the task of remembering September 11^th. Besides the constuction site downtown, the only other memorial to September 11^th is on the 69^th Street Pier in Greenpoint, it was erected in 2005 and is entitled Beacon, “Brooklyn remembers September 11^th” is inscribed in the bronze

MTA’s Art for Transit makes up less than 1% of the total $130 million operation, with minute budget of $1 million, according to the 2011 MTA Final Proposed Budget.

In terms of remembering September 11^th, Port Authority is taking a much larger role, as the PATH station stops at the World Trade Center Stop. With MTA’s income at zero for this fiscal year, after continually dropping since 2008, and a PATH station next to the new September 11^th memorial, Port Authority is working to make a ‘Transit Hub’ at the corner of Vesey Street and West Street to replace the existing one that boarders the 8 acres of the 9/11 memorial.

Construction began in September 2005. The opening will be in 2014 at an estimated budget of $3.2 million rising from a previous budget of 2.2 million. According to the Port Authority annual report of 2010, the station will be “the Grand Central Station of Lower Manhattan.” In 2004 Spanish Architect, Santiago Calatrava unveiled his design of a white, wing-like structure that would rise from the spine of the hub, creating the shape of a bird, however, since then, the cost of the wings has been too high and they have been clipped from the plan according to the Architectural Record. The structure is now the ribcage of a large beast, letting light in four stories down. The new station promises to be the perfect subway station flush with stores and “climate controlled platforms” according to the Port Authority World Trade Center site. It will serve 250,000 voyagers a day.

Calatrava’s now-ghost wings represent the weight of the project for New York City. Whether they are outwardly political or not, transportation authority of New York City is in many ways responsible for raising awareness of events in public spaces. Perhaps in 30 years from now, a New Yorker will be able to walk by an MTA, arts for transit piece on September 11^th with a short glance and a whisp of a thought. But until then, Lower Manhattan is still a crowded construction area whose importance seems to be bigger than any dollar sign amount. Manhattan photographer, Carlton Davis suggests, it is “a fresh wound in the minds of New Yorkers.”

The Race for Mayor

I'm working on a graphic illustration of "The Race for Mayor." It's not yet complete, but here's a snippet of what it looks like.

Occupy Anywhere, Just Not Here.

The Town Hall Meeting in the Kellen Gallery ended in a manner consistent to other discussions on the New School Occupation – lacking resolve.

Amidst the freshly-painted walls covering the defacement performed over Thanksgiving, the University Student Senate, President and Provost met with members of the student body, faculty and staff in order to find a solution to the New School Occupation.

In the meeting, a variety of New School students, faculty and staff members all echoed sentiments similar to those of the frustrated Financial District residents who wanted the occupiers cleared out, in that it isn’t the entire movement they were against, but they way some were conducting it and how that was negatively effecting them. Others however countered with opinions in full support, almost claiming the progressive nature of the school made it their (our) prerogative to produce aggressive, “political” art.

Ultimately, the meeting ended having accomplished little, if anything at all.

11/28 Town Hall

On Monday, November 28, a University Town Hall was held in response to the student occupier’s vandalizing the Kellen Gallery. Three University Student Senate senators acted as mediators and facilitators of the informal town hall. The main objectives were to discuss the New School occupation and how to continue going forwards. Melissa Holmes, one of the senators, started the three-hour meeting at the Kellen Gallery by asking, “How did you experience this week?”

The first speaker was A. Rodriguez, a Parsons student and a worker at the Kellen Gallery. He talked about his unease at the offering of the gallery as a new space for the occupiers. He also elaborated on his role in helping take down the current exhibition on Thursday and then cleaning up the spray painted gallery on Sunday after the occupiers had left. Besides Mr. Rodriguez, three other student gallery workers, their employer and the gallery curator spoke at the town hall.

The initial model of having an open forum where seated attendees could simply shout out quickly became disorganized and argumentative. The student senators then asked all attendees who would like to say something to form a stack on the side of the room. Speakers took turns voicing their concerns. Various speakers repeated a few specific opinions throughout the meeting.

Some emphasized the lack of disrespect the occupiers showed towards the gallery and their horror at seeing 90 Fifth Avenue and the Kellen Gallery treated so badly. Others spoke about their role in the occupation movement and their sorrow at seeing the actions of a few uncooperative dissenters ruin the opportunity for students to have a space to congregate in. Both students and faculty from various schools of the university spoke.

When the student senators took a temperature check of the room an hour and a half into the meeting, many of the audience had already left. The response to the question, whether or not students want a space, was tepid. Near the two-hour mark, it was decided that a vote could not be taken now on whether or not the Kellen Gallery should continue to be the space offered to the student occupiers. It was also impossible to decide whether the students should be given a space at all. The student senators asked repeatedly for suggestions on how to move forwards.

A Brief Look at the Iconography of Occupy Wall Street

First, in attempting to convey a classic, “All-American” theme, it comes off looking like a Civil War recruitment poster or a bourbon advertisement.

Content wise, this poster should probably be split into to separate banners. As it stands both the top and bottom half have the weight, removing any clear and natural direction for the eye to follow. The result of this is it seems jumbled – the framing doesn’t even really match from top to bottom, with the bottom corners wider than the top, as well as being different stylistically.

The top half in itself is a fairly effective poster; its message is clear and consistently worded. The bottom half however is a mess. As it is, the three levels (WE, ARE, 99) are in limbo. Through the size and spacing, our eyes are drawn immediately to the large “99”, which, as the focal point should be centered with even spacing and clear lines up both sides or should be a dramatically different size. Of those three levels, either one needs to be demonstrated as the most important and set out dramatically, or they should all be given equal weight and the focus should be consistent.

A well-designed graphic should effectively utilize the negative space (basically blank space), where this designer simply inserted small graphics and increased the size to almost entirely eliminate any negative space, which is why it feels cluttered and disjointed.

Also, the font and design appear to be trying to convey an “All-American” sentiment, however it ends up feeling more like a civil war recruitment poster or a bourbon ad.

As an image, this is framed nicely. Content-wise, it isn’t exactly clear. As this isn’t necessarily an advertisement, its message doesn’t have to be obviously understood, however some clarity (or at least something standing) would be nice and effective. The poster needs some oomph to it. Perhaps changing the white lettering to a bold, fiery red would go well with the serenity of the general image – also, increasing the font size would draw more focus to the purpose behind the image and it would seem less like just a pretty picture.

This is a well-created poster. The message is clear and it is an effective take-off of the British, “Keep Calm and Carry On” posters from World War II. Technically the distance between both the camera and “#occupy*” and the letters should be reduced, thereby moving them further away from the outer borders (even the crown in the original poster is rather close to the words and not way off towards the top). However, it works perfectly fine as is.

This poster could have been very good. Utilizing old propaganda-type formats works very well with a movement of this type and could be incredibly effective, however this poster needs to work on its negative space and special movement. Reducing the size of the “1%” man and moving him further into the corner while increasing the amount of people, tightening the gaps between them and spreading them further into the main focal space of the poster would effectively demonstrate the percentages they are attempting to convey. The entire piece could also be centered, demonstrating a sense of isolation, as one man stands alone with a mass of people before him. Also, the text box is unnecessary and aesthetically, should be removed. The text inside doesn’t say anything that visual itself isn’t already saying and so removing it wouldn’t take anything away from the message.

Graphically, this poster has major spacing issues, but aesthetics are probably not its primary focus. While the message can be understood, reducing the space between lines and pulling the letters in and away from the edges could simplify it. Using multiple fonts is fine, however it is an awkward transition between the two which could be remedied through spacing adjustments. Also, the line beneath “WE ARE” is redundant; the largest writing on a poster will inherently have the greatest focus, and by using such strong lettering the designer has given it all the emphasis it needs.

This poster is awkward. While it utilizes the bold, fiery red text missing in the other bull poster, it also opens up several additional issues. The lines framing “What is our one demand?” seem unnecessary and could be removed without detracting from the overall message, however, so could those words. They carry significance relating to many of the critical responses of the movement, however, “JOIN US” itself sort of does that on its own. On the “JOIN U.S.”, the periods abbreviating U and S are aesthetically detracting, and as far as the message goes, this doesn’t come off as a natural or effective place for wordplay and therefore appears unnecessary as well. Then, as with the other posters, the white text is very close to the bottom edge, which could be remedied by moving it up, however they could also just delete “Bring Tent” as it seems like an after-thought – or a joke. “JOIN US. September 17^th. Bring Tent.”