bed-stuy – brooklyn spaces

chicken hut

oriana on 18 May ’15

[I’m counting down to the release of the Brooklyn Spaces book by doing one mini-post per day, sharing teasers of some of the places you’ll find in it. This is the last one—the book is out tomorrow!]

neighborhood: bed-stuy | space type: living space | active since: 2000 | links: n/a

In a Brooklyn that gets more sanitized every day, there are still a few wild holdouts, and the Chicken Hut is one of the last men standing. “This is our reckless abandon studio,” says Greg H., who started the space with fellow woodworker JPL in the attic of what was then a working feather-processing factory. “It’s our home and the place where we’ve done every crazy fucking thing we’ve ever thought of.”

Chicken Hut bedroom [pic by Alix Piorun]

For fifteen years the Hut has been home to a revolving cast of more than 80 artists, builders, and renegade makers, from puppeteers to sculptors to luthiers. The space serves as an archive of their creations: robotic aliens, giant rubber sea creatures, and papier-mâché animal heads. Over the years the space has hosted art salons and open studios, as well as fundraisers for fellow artists, like Swoon and the Swimming Cities crew. And then there are the bikes. Chicken Hut is the unofficial clubhouse for the New York chapter of the mutant-bike-building group Black Label Bike Club. They’re also responsible for the annual freak-bike bacchanal Bike Kill, one of the craziest street parties of the year since 2002.

Chicken Hut founder Greg H. at Bike Kill 2014 [pic by Alix Piorun]

The Hut is also notorious for its parties—the crew throws a half-dozen jubilantly anarchic bashes each year, and each event contains many worlds: a dance floor helmed by housemate DJ Dirtyfinger here, a thrash metal band playing over there, a dirty marionette show down the hall, and a barbecue on the roof—with some 600 people bouncing back and forth among them.

Filthy Savage plays a wild party [pic by Walter Wlodarczyk]

The Chicken Hut is one of the longest-running underground outposts left in Brooklyn, a boisterous patched-together family that feels increasingly out of place amid the neighborhood’s myriad new condos and buttoned-up populous. The residents are currently in loft-law proceedings, and if they win, the building will be brought up to residential code and they’ll be granted the right to stay. “If I can’t live in this place, there’s no way I would stay in this city,” Greg says. “The grit and character this city is globally renowned for is just gone.”

Want to learn more about the Chicken Hut, and 49 other incredible Brooklyn Spaces? Buy the book!

mas house

oriana on 16 May ’15

[I’m counting down to the release of the Brooklyn Spaces book by doing one mini-post per day, sharing teasers of some of the places you’ll find in it.]

neighborhood: bed-stuy | space type: communal living | active: 2009–2015 | links: n/a

“We’re trying to make this a better city, a more livable city, together,” says Rebekah S., one of a dozen anarchist-focused denizens of MAs House, a close-knit community that supported a range of radical ideals like mutual aid, anti-authoritarianism, environmental and social justice, freeganism, and gender and sexual parity. Residents were very involved in the Occupy Wall Street movement, Mayday actions, and the People’s Climate March. Environmental-justice and anticapitalism activists working on projects like Bushwick City Farm, Time’s Up, the 123 Community Center, and the Brooklyn Free Store have lived there. Residents have distributed leftist magazines on cargo bikes, conducted anarchist study groups and prisoner letter-writing campaigns, and provided jail support for arrested protestors. They also hosted art shows, film screenings, and concerts, often to support progressive causes.

pix by Kit Crenshaw

“You can feed a lot more people with a lot less money, time, and energy if you make one big pot of food together, rather than a bunch of individual meals,” says Laurel L., who started the space. “The whole really is stronger than the sum of its parts, and it’s very inspiring to be one of those parts.”

Unfortunately, due to increasingly aggressive tactics by the landlord, the MAs denizens were evicted in early 2015, scattering to several other activist, anarchist, and communally focused living spaces across Brooklyn—although they are still fighting for the right to reclaim their home.

Want to learn more about MAs House, and 49 other incredible Brooklyn Spaces? Buy the book!

treehaus

oriana on 25 Apr ’11

neighborhood: bed-stuy | active since: 2007 | space type: community house | links: website, tumblr, facebook

Treehaus is a collective home centered around sustainability, open communication, respect, and cooking. There are thirteen members of the collective sharing a lovely four-floor brownstone, along with two cats and three chickens. Many of the housemates are artists, filmmakers, and crafters—a few are working on a documentary about the space, and one is in the middle of conceiving a performance art piece centered around a mermaid-egg piñata full of frozen shrimp. They often have parties, music, and other cool events, including craft swaps, dances, and an annual Pie Social.

They were all incredibly low-key and warm and welcoming, offering me any of their communal food, as well as some awesome homemade Treehaus Tea. During our interview, housemates wandered in and out, cooking and sharing and laughing and talking. It was a great picture of happy domestic coexistence, and a strong argument for the benefits of communal living in our huge, often lonely and alienating city.

Interview with Aimeé, Jackie, and Dave below!

rubulad

oriana on 18 Feb ’11

photo from the New York Times

neighborhood: bed-stuy | space type: parties & art space | active since: 1993 | links: none (sorry!)

update December 2011: Rubulad is moving! After nine years in South Williamsburg and six in Bed-Stuy, this amazing space is hunting for a new home. And they’ve just completed a down-to-the-wire Kickstarter campaign, raising over $35k to help them on their way. It remains to be seen where they’ll go, but it’s clear this vital community will continue to grow and inspire creative culture for years to come.

***

Rubulad—along with House of Yes, the 123 Community Center, and a handful of others—is what inspired me to start this project in the first place. For fifteen years, Rubulad has been an incubator of creative art and culture in New York; it’s one of the oldest, longest-running paeans to cultural experimentation, wild beauty, art for the sake of art. The influence of the space on Brooklyn’s creative class is impossible to overstate.

photo by E.A.R.

Rubulad is a huge, stunning, two-floor warehouse on the Bed-Stuy / Crown Heights border, and is both notorious and revered for the massive themed parties they’ve been hosting for over a decade. The events include installation art, eclectic performances, film screenings, and musicians, and attract a diverse crown, the majority of whom dress up in elaborate costumes to fit the themes.

photo by E.A.R.

Remnants of every one of the parties still adorn every inch of visible space—the walls, ceilings, rooftop, furniture, backyard, and garden are teeming with a dizzying array of decorations, from framed shellacked jellybeans to glitter-painted stuffed animals to a giant birdcage with a carousel horse inside.

photo by E.A.R.

In addition to the parties, Rubulad has also been home to many more intimate events, like kids’ days, smaller music performances, benefit parties, and art shows. Grub, the bi-monthly freegan community dinner bottom-lined by In Our Hearts, was held here for years. Want to hear how it all began? Read through for my interview with Sari, one of Rubulad’s founders.

Grub, photo by Julia Roberts

brooklyn spaces: When did you start doing this and why?
Sari: We’ve been going in different incarnations since ’93. It was started by four bands: Fly Ashtray, Uncle Wiggly, Smack Dab, and the Gamma Rays. Together we rented a huge place in South Williamsburg, back when things were cheap.

photo by E.A.R.

brooklyn spaces: Did you start right off throwing parties?
Sari: Well, we had this big space full of all these artists and musicians. And it felt a little flat to all the bands to just be playing in bars and not have any kind of control over the environment. We wanted to take a hand in that and say, “We’d like this band to play with these other performers, and then show these projections, and have a little play in between.” And we just invited the neighborhood in.

photo by me

brooklyn spaces: What were some of the obstacles you faced when you left Williamsburg for this new space?
Sari: One obstacle was the neighborhood. It took a while for people to want to come to Bed-Stuy. It’s hard to imagine that now, but even five years ago, people were like, “What? The G train?! You’re kidding!” But things moved quickly.

Grub, photo by Julia Roberts

brooklyn spaces: Let’s talk some more about the art and the artists.
Sari: I come at this as kind of a director of a show. My dream is to create a holistic piece of art, an experiential environment that many different people had a hand in. Our desire is to create work for people, and for people to get other work from having been here. The artists here have a chance to really evolve. We’re kind of family-oriented; lots of artists come back to do work here again and again, and so we get to see how they change and what happens to their art over several years. It’s really nice to give artists an opportunity for that growth, as opposed to just doing one show here, one show there.

photo by E.A.R.

brooklyn spaces: I read the interview you did with Nonsense NYC some years ago, where you talked about how for one party you needed sheets, and so you called all these hospitals to see if they would donate sheets.
Sari: We do have to hustle to get things, but you can have good adventures that way. That’s the part I like, the moment when you’re standing in a record store trying to find a square-dance caller or something else that you never thought you’d be doing.

photo from the Village Voice

brooklyn spaces: What have been some of your favorite party themes?
Sari: They always surprise you. You never really know when you pick a theme whether it’s gonna work. One of my favorite ones was Laundry Day. Who would have known that Laundry Day would turn out to be such a good theme? There’s a great picture floating around the internet of a girl playing music in roller curlers in front of the set of the laundry. And there was one party I really loved like ten years ago called Night of the Living Toys. That was really beautiful. If you look around the space, you can see remnants from them all.

photo from brokeassstuart.com

brooklyn spaces: How do you find the artists? Or do they find you?
Sari: Gosh, a lot of them find us. If they’re supposed to be here, they somehow hear about us, even in Australia or something. There’s really a lot of good stuff out there, almost endless good stuff. It’s amazing all the stuff that people know how to do.

photo by E.A.R.

brooklyn spaces: Clearly this is a creative space for making and appreciating art. But there are people who just see it as a party house. What do you think about that?
Sari: Well, those people are really missing the point, because if that’s what we wanted, we would just have a bar. People who are just looking for a place to drink beer, I encourage them to go to a bar, there are many. It’s not like we’re against that, but our parties are meant to be experiential. The whole point is for people to experience art that they wouldn’t see in the commercial world, or listen to music that they wouldn’t hear on commercial radio. Not that I mean to disparage beer, and I don’t want to underestimate the importance of celebration, because that’s really important to us. We definitely want to encourage more celebration and to help people make more holidays. People need them! Life is sad sometimes.

photo by E.A.R.

brooklyn spaces: How do you think being in Brooklyn has affected Rubulad? Do you feel like what you’re doing and have done is specific to Brooklyn?
Sari: That’s an interesting question. I’m a New Yorker and I went to high school in Brooklyn, so I’ve gotten to see Brooklyn really change. It used to be that everyone in Brooklyn just wanted to get to the city, and they thought of themselves as bridge-and-tunnel people. They’d think, if you make it, you go to Manhattan. That’s really changed, Brooklyn has really become its own city. Manhattan has become a place where the money lives more than where the people live. Here in Brooklyn there’s more space for independent stuff to happen, and there’s a lot of help from a great community. There are so many other spaces, other people who are doing amazing things. There’s a lot of cross-pollination between different groups, and we work with many groups who do things that are so different than we do. What was the last part of that question?

photo by Julia Roberts

brooklyn spaces: Do you feel like what you’re doing here is specific to Brooklyn?
Sari: Well, for years we thought that we were the only space like this in the world. We didn’t know that there were other Rubulads all over America and all over the world. I guess Burning Man was the first time we were like, “Holy shit, there are so many other people doing stuff!” The way we do things is specific to where we are, for sure, but we have connections to so many different kinds of spaces all over the place. I have a desire to live a life that doesn’t involve a certain kind of people, and I’ve been able to achieve that. I’m happy to never have to go to Midtown to work and live that sort of life. In New York that’s pretty hard to achieve, since it’s so expensive to live here. But there’s something about the grit of the struggle in Brooklyn that gives people a little added bite and energy. There’s so much going on right now, it’s a really good time around here, in Bushwick, Bed-Stuy. There are so many groups around that are really amazing, like the Groove Hoopers, or the Chicken Hut people. They’re like gutter-punk bike-jousters, and they throw a heck of a party. And we love Secret Project Robot. There’s so much going on in Brooklyn that we’re really excited about.

brooklyn spaces: Do you have any advice for creative people who are trying to figure out how to be involved in something like Rubulad?
Sari: There was a boy in here who once said in an interview, “Do art, be art, live art,” and that made me so happy. I want to encourage people to not be shy, to just make stuff and share it, because that’s what it’s for. I hope more people will make more spaces and do more weird theaters and galleries. If you decide to create your own thing and make it happen the way you want to, other people will enjoy it and join in.

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Like this? Read about other underground performance & party spaces: 12-turn-13, Monster Island, Flux Factory, Gemini & Scorpio loft, The Lab (Electric Warehouse), Red Lotus Room, Big Sky Works, Newsonic, Gowanus Ballroom

the brooklyn free store

oriana on 3 Jan ’11

neighborhood: bed-stuy | space type: community space | active: 2009–2011 | links: facebook, twitter, tumblr

update: I am really sad to add an update on the closing of this terrific space. In March of 2011, the Brooklyn Free Store—along with the apartment building next door—were burned down. Arson is strongly suspected. The New York Times has an article about the blaze, and kind souls wishing to can donate to the group’s efforts to rebuild.

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Started by a diverse group of anarchists and activists, the Brooklyn Free Store is an alternative to capitalism. In an abandoned Bed-Stuy lot, the group has assembled a cornucopia of cast-offs, including clothes, books, jewelry, furniture, tools, toys, and more, all gifted by the community. The Free Store is never closed, so anyone can take or leave anything, anytime.

The Brooklyn Free Store at its grand opening, 8/09/10, photo by Alex Maubrey

The Free Store also hosts events, including movie screenings, music performances, and skillshares, which always feature dumpstered snacks for all. The space got a lot of media attention in the few months it’s been active, including articles in the New York Times, the New York Daily News, The Awl, and the Brooklyn Paper.

Due to the results of recent unkind weather, the Free Store has been taking steps to make the space more permanent. They’ve held several “roof-raising” days, and the new structure looks amazing.

photo by Erica Sackin

Q&A with Laurel, one of the founding members of the Free Store

brooklyn spaces: What made you guys start this project?
Laurel: I think everyone had different and overlapping motives. The Free Store is about environmental issues because it reduces waste. It’s about mutual aid and building community because everything is free and the store is open to anyone and everyone. It’s about anti-capitalism because there’s no money involved. It’s about anarchism because no one is in charge. This may sound like a contradiction, but it’s also about leadership, because everyone is invited to take on any aspect of the project—we don’t seek a world without leaders, we seek a world full of leaders.

brooklyn spaces: What made you want to get involved?
Laurel: To me the Free Store is a proactive positive solution to some of the things I dislike about our society. It’s a participatory example of one alternative to capitalism, a gift economy. We shy away from terms like “donation” or “barter” or “trade”; a gift economy means giving what you have to give, and taking whatever you want or need. On paper this may seem problematic, because the assumption is that people are greedy and will just take and take, but as we’ve seen over the last few months with this project, that’s not the case at all. There’s never a lack of new items in the space.

brooklyn spaces: What has been the response from the community?
Laurel: Better than we could have imagined! This is an anarchist project, so we didn’t want to be “in charge.” And the neighbors immediately embraced the Free Store as their own. People come and tidy up, take out the trash, decide what should be put where and what should be discarded. I often hear people saying that the neighborhood feels much better now that the free store is here. Even the guy who technically owns the land has been by to say what a great thing we’re doing.

brooklyn spaces: So does the space run itself?
Laurel: For the most part it does. For the day-to-day maintenance, my friends and I don’t have to do much of anything, unless we feel like it. But for larger issues, we do sometimes need to step in. When the “roof” (which was just a tarp) collapsed during the blizzard, it was clear that there was a major problem that was bigger than an individual could or would fix. So we got a group together to come in and build a permanent structure out of wood from pallets that were gifted to us by Home Depot. More than a dozen of us came out in the freezing snow for the “roof raising,” and several more people we didn’t even know came in off the street to help, motivated only by their common belief in the project, which was a really empowering thing. This whole project has been extremely educational and personally fulfilling, watching my philosophies come to life, and it gives me great hope for humanity and the future.

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Like this? Read about more activist spaces: No-Space, #OccupyWallStreet art show, Time’s Up, Trinity Project, Trees Not Trash, Books Through Bars, Boswyck Farms, Bushwick City Farms, Film Biz Recycling