brooklyn spaces is now a book!

Documenting the beautiful and the bizarre, the intricate and the slapdash, the upcycled, hacked, and remade, Brooklyn Spaces: 50 Hubs of Culture & Creativity is a dazzling compendium of outrageously creative spaces in one of the most creatively outrageous cities in the world.

Brooklyn has a proud manufacturing history, but when much of the industry departed, a vast number of huge, unusual buildings were left scattered throughout the dense urban area. These disused factories and warehouse were ripe for reuse by the massive influx of creative people who have flooded the borough over the past few decades. The spaces now serve as community and cultural hubs for artists, performers, makers, and creators of all stripes.

In this book, you’ll find an illegal graffiti art mecca in an abandoned subway station, a multimedia exhibition space in a former cannonball factory, a yoga collective in a one-time chicken slaughterhouse, and an experimental distillery in manufacturing complex that dates back to the Industrial Revolution. Brooklyn Spaces illuminates the ways these spaces are being reimagined and celebrated, told through interviews with the creators, as well as hundreds of pictures by prominent Brooklyn photographers, including Maximus Comissar, Alix Piorun, Walter Wlodarczyk, Tod Seelie, Michael Blase, and Erica Camille.

You can read some teaser posts here on the site, but the book includes tons of new spaces, new photos, new interviews, and new research into the history of these eclectic and wonderful places. It presents a chronicle of a thriving and ever-renewing cultural scene, a creative renaissance in all its stranger sprawling glory.

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At Monacelli Press →

At Random House →

At Amazon.com →

At Thought Catalog (ebook) →

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Updates!

* I was a guest on the Gimme Tinnitus radio show on 1/17. Listen here.

* I appeared on the podcast In Which We Reveal Our Ignorance, discussing DIY in Brooklyn, on Jan 9th. Listen here.

* I gave a lecture as part of New York Obscura Society’s Obscura Talks on 12/02 at Unnameable Books.

* I was a featured writer on the discussion series The Hustle at Word Books on 11/15.

* I spoke on a panel as part of HONK NYC, the annual street band extravaganza, at NYU on 10/14.

* I signed books at the Silent Barn’s Silent OH! market on 10/29. Books were 15% off, with $5 of each sale going toward helping rebuild the Barn after the fire.

* I co-curated a special edition of the Miss Manhattan Reading Series: To the 5 Boroughs on October 5th. I read to represent (duh) Brooklyn. RSVP here!

* I spoke on the Brooklyn Book Festival panel Brooklyn Spaces & Places with Fodor’s Editor-in-Chief Arabella Bowen and Carlo Scissura, CEO and President of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, on 9/20.

* I moderated a TEDxBushwick panel discussion about “collaborative creation” on 8/12 at Lot 45.

* I was a guest judge at Open Source Gallery’s 8th Annual Soap Box Derby on 8/29.

* The latest episode of WFUV’s Cityscape with George Bodarky is all about Brooklyn Spaces! It’s available online here.

* I spoke on a Kickstarter panel about DIY music venues on 7/25. The conversation addressed the role of venues in revitalizing music scenes, how to establish new spaces for live music, and the ways emerging spaces are transforming the landscape for musicians and fans alike.

* I read on 6/21 as part of Popsickle Brooklyn Literary Arts Fest at Soda Bar in Prospect Heights.

* Sarah Miller of 1010WINS interviewed me about Brooklyn Spaces on her show.

* 5/30: Launch party!

The launch party was a marvelous, smashing, flaming success! The folks at Brokelyn were kind enough to give me a platform to write it up—please check out the post, which includes marvelous pix from Bk Spaces photogs Walter and Michael. There was also great press both before and after the party: Brokelyn said “you should definitely show face if you want to call yourself a true Brooklynite,” Brooklyn Paper praised its eclectic performers, and Brooklyn Based called it “the mother of all book launches.”

5/18: GoodReads giveaway

Want to win a signed copy? There are 10 on offer. Head here to enter!