Brooklyn Spaces: 50 Hubs of Culture and Creativity

by Oriana Leckert

As an incubator of culture and creativity, Brooklyn is celebrated and imitated across the world. The settings for much of its dynamic underground scene are the numerous industrial spaces that were vacated as manufacturing dwindled across the huge borough. Adapted, hacked, and reused, these spaces host an eclectic range of activities by and for Brooklyn’s unique creative class, from DIY music venues to skillsharing centers. These are spaces to make art together, throw parties and concerts, host classes and performances, grow vegetables, build innovative products, and, most importantly, to support and inspire one another while welcoming more and more collaborators into the fold. In Brooklyn 50 Hubs of Culture and Creativity, Oriana Leckert introduces us to the creators driving Brooklyn’s cultural renaissance, and in their company takes us on a tour of these unique alternative spaces. Whether a graffiti art show in an abandoned power station, a circus school in a former ice house, or a shuffleboard club in a disused die-cutting factory, these spaces present a vibrant cross-section of life in the borough where trends in music, fashion, food, and lifestyle are set. A chronicle of a thriving and ever-renewing scene, this book will appeal to everyone who’s interested in the unique energy that makes Brooklyn Brooklyn.

Genres: New York, Nonfiction

225 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 19, 2015

About the author

Oriana is a writer, editor, and cultural hipstorian [sic] whose love for Brooklyn borders on obsession. She is the author of Brooklyn Spaces: 50 Hubs of Culture & Creativity (Monacelli, 2015) and creatrix of the website of the same name.

Her writing has appeared on Slate, Atlas Obscura, New York Post, Matador, Hyperallergic, Curbed, Brokelyn, Brooklyn Based, Greenpointers, and more. She is relentlessly happy and will probably correct your grammar.

Reviews

[Oriana]

Um, hey guys. I kind of wrote a book! Maybe you want to read it? <3

Also, I am having a great big awesome crazy launch party on May 30th!! NYC-area folks, maybe you want to come out? There will be brass bands and banjos and aerialists and a photo show and all sorts of surprises. Full descrip up on Facebook here, or Eventbrite here. It'll be kiiiiind of like this:



Please come?

[Althea J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a great find — Oriana Leckert shines a light on the creative spirit of Brooklyn that lives and thrives right under my nose. I’ve lived here for years and have visited a couple of these spaces (Superhero Supply Co., represent!!) but for the most part, I have only heard murmurings of cool things happening. I’ve often associated the creative community with pretension and exclusion, mainly because I knew so little about it and have been lazy about seeking out new and interesting adventures. In this book, Oriana does a lot of the leg-work for me, and taps into a welcoming vibe that makes me want to go out and explore what my community has to offer!!

My list of fun things to do this summer has just exploded:


She doesn’t glorify a “scene,” she celebrates an ethos of DIY, community and creative energy. That makes this book a great read and a valuable resource.

[#ReadAllTheBooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to admit, I'm a homebody. I like going out and traveling, but for the most part I'm content to stay at home. I do, however, like reading about places outside of my home state, especially in places with an extremely eclectic culture like New York. This book seemed like it'd pretty obviously be something I would like.

This book has multiple lavish photographs and lengthy descriptions of each location, along with basic information about where each is in Brooklyn and so on. It's pretty much designed for people to flip through at their leisure and pick and choose which ones they read and when. You could read it straight through if you really wanted to, but I think I had more fun flipping through this and picking entries at random than I did trying to read them one after the other. It's a pretty good example of the "bathroom reader" or coffee table type of book, since while this is definitely entertaining it's also something that you keep around just so you could flip through it.

The only downfall is that it doesn't really go into a huge portion of Brooklyn, as another reviewer has pointed out. While this isn't a dealbreaker for me, it is a little disappointing since I know that there is more to Brooklyn than the quirky portions. With how lovingly the author covers the areas she does, I'd have liked for her to have gone into some depth about the other areas. Maybe a future book could take care of this?

(ARC provided by Vine)

[Terrell Solano · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got my copy through the Goodreads First Reads in exchange for an honest review.

Honestly? This book ROCKS! I left NY in 1996 and have only been back briefly twice so I have serious separation anxiety to say the least. Some of these places I knew of, a few I had been to or seen but there are so many that I find I MUST go back and see, visit and explore. Now when I mention a few places I can just whip out the book and say "No, really LOOK!" Full of little facts and awesome photos, you can almost smell the canvas, coffee and conversation ;) Thanks for helping this Brooklyn Girl feel a little closer to home and even more anxious to get back there.

[Shaneace · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is such a creative book filled with all different types of places that can be found throughout Brookyln. There's a little bit of everything in these spaces but one thing that stood out the most was the focus on community, everyone that was apart of each space just wanted to connect with like-minded people and share the things they enjoyed with others while enriching the community around them (and sometimes creating their own). The pictures are truly wonderful and give you a clear image of just what these amazing places are like.

This book inspires me to look for the spaces in my own area, those hidden places that may be overlooked if your not careful.

[Susan (aka Just My Op) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book might have worked better as a coffee table book, In its current format, it would be a coffee table book only for a very tiny table.

I wanted to see some unique uses of spaces, something really out of the ordinary. What I got was information on repurposed spaces, and the stories that went with them.

For my tastes, there was too much sameness. Too many of these unique places were not that at all, just another room with too much junk in it, and art that started looking like graffiti. I thought a lot of it was somewhat ugly. But then, one man's trash is another man's treasure, or so it is said.

Too much, too much. I would have liked information on fewer places but ones that didn't look so much like the one that came before and the one that came after.

I did like that the book told of the original purpose of the buildings or the space, and the story of how they came to be. Many of the spaces were for performing arts, and the photos of the artists overwhelmed the photos of the spaces.

The photos looked more like random snapshots than the artistic photography I expected. The quality of the printing didn't improve the photography. It would have worked better as a full-sized coffee table book. Still, for a book as much about artists as about their spaces, I expected more artistry, especially for a book that retails for just under 30 bucks.

The type is tiny and hard on the eyes.

Overall, this book was something of a letdown.

I was given a published edition copy of this book for review.

[Nick Bachusky · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't wait to get to Brooklyn to check out some of these places!!