On Saturday, November 1st,
become a role model for reading!
This Saturday, November 1st, marks the 27th Literacy Across Harlem Day since Total Equity Now and our community partners launched this first-day-of-every-month movement. If you're in Harlem and it's the first day of the month, don't forget to #RockThoseReads--carry reading materials publicly and proudly, outside of your bag, wherever you go. Whether you're an elementary-school student, a senior citizen, or somewhere in between, think of yourself as a reading leader!
#RockThoseReads Street-Team Community Service Project
Join our next #RockThoseReads Street-Team Community Service Project this Saturday, November 1st, from 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on the northeast corner of 137th Street and Broadway, just outside the 1-train stop.
For 90 minutes we will:
- hand out Literacy Across Harlem Day flyers;
- ask passersby to list their current and recommended "reads";
- tell folks why we love reading, and listen to their reading-related stories;
- encourage others to carry their "reads" outside of their bags!
This time, our all-volunteer Street Team includes the service-minded teens of "Club Real Deal," a youth-leadership program here in Harlem at NYC Mission Society's Minisink Townhouse. (Earlier this month, those same dedicated young people braved heavy rain and strong winds to help us sort and deliver hundreds of donated books.)
If you're affiliated with a school, youth-development organization, civic group, small business, fraternity/sorority, faith-based institution, or other community entity and would like to have your group participate in this project, email [email protected] and let us know how many volunteers you plan to send or bring.
#RockThoseReads Selfies
It's simple: show your reading pride, and spark reading-related conversations, by tweeting or instagramming to @TotalEquityNow and #RockThoseReads a selfie of your "read" of the day!
Donate Books via Harlem4Kids' "Storytime Saturdays"
As we announced in August, our team is partnering with Harlem4Kids (" H4K") to collect and donate like-new children's books throughout the 2014-2015 school year, empowering hundreds of Harlem children with the gift of reading.
Families attending H4K's "Storytime Saturdays"--a weekly program for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers that encourages parent participation while combining stories, movement, sing-a-longs, making music, and counting in different languages--will have an opportunity to donate high-quality, like-new books. TEN will pick up and sort the books before delivering them to community-based homeless shelters and other transitional living facilities, expanding the personal and facility-based libraries that keep reading materials within arm's reach of dozens of families for whom buying large numbers of books is not an option.
Swap Those Reads
Visit one of our Literacy Across Harlem Day partners--the local, literacy-loving establishments listed below--and "swap those reads" (leave a gently used book and take one that another Harlemite dropped off).
Central Harlem
*Astor Row Cafe (404 Lenox Ave. at 130th)
East Harlem
*La Casa Azul Bookstore (143 E. 103rd St. btwn Park and Lexington)
*East Harlem Cafe (1651 Lexington Ave. at 104th)
West Harlem
*Sister's Uptown Bookstore & Cultural Center (1942 Amsterdam Ave. at 156th) [Not open on Sundays, but do stop by on Saturday or Monday.]
*Cafe One (1619 Amsterdam Ave. at 140th)
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