Where Brooklyn At?

Posted by Nick Martinez in New York Nick

The New York Arts Program housing is on 29 Street and 8 Avenue in Chelsea, Manhattan. It’s comfortable digs, within walking distance of Penn Station, Port Authority, Time Square and basically everything you’d need. When I tell locals where I’m situated in the city, they always seem impressed.

Manhattan is prime real estate, a testament of 50 years of good old-fashioned gentrification. But, I don’t want to talk about Manhattan yet. Let’s talk about Brooklyn: the hippest place to live in New York City.

Brooklyn is experiencing a bit of a pop culture renaissance lately. Jay-Z helped bring the New Jersey Nets to his former hometown of Brooklyn (he lives in an Upper East Side palace now) a couple years ago. The popular HBO series “Girls” (I haven’t seen it yet) is set in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Williamsburg has long been considered the hipster mecca (suck it Portland), though since I’ve said that it is no longer cool. And of course there’s Bushwick, the only relatively cheap place to move to the city (I’ve heard the heroin is not to shabby!).

In an effort to assimilate when in these neighborhoods, I’ve tried to update my fashion. For sociological reasons, I swear! I hate hipsters. Oh no…it’s happening…

Anyways, the areas mentioned are notable because they have the largest collection of struggling artists, writers and musicians on the planet. They’re poor and like their music obscure.

There have been articles written about this trend of Brooklyn becoming cool, deriding it as another case of cultural appropriation. To me, it seems like a case of the second to last guy getting pissed off at the new guy.

My biggest experience in Brooklyn was attending a studio opening with my friend Brady from NYAP. Brady works at an art gallery in Chelsea, setting up instillations and working with other artists on their studio space. One of the artists he worked for invited him and a friend to a new show he was having in Crown Heights.

Finding the place was easily the hardest part. Brady and I exited the subway and checked our phones for a map. We walked and thought we found the building but weren’t sure. We walked in, climbed some stairs and tried to follow voices. Finally, Brady found the artist and made the introductions.

“Hey man, sorry we’re late, there wasn’t a sign. This is my friend Nick,” said Brady.

“Hello,” I said shaking the artist’s hand.

“Hi. Yeah sorry I didn’t want to turn this into a thing, you know? Grab a beer from the trash can.”

Brady and I turned to find a trash can full of beer. We entered a small room with the other guests. It was the artist’s residence converted into studio space with a divider wall. Or the other way around. It was hard to tell. The collection of paintings centered around the idea of masculinity, with phallic symbols and weird muscle groupings abound. Being the knuckle-dragging rube that I am,  I failed to appreciate the social commentary. Though a couple of them were aesthetically pleasing if you ignored the penis.

The artist called us over to talk about NYAP. He found it fascinating that we were encouraged  to explore the city as much as possible. We told him where we lived.

“Oh really?” he said. “You know, Brooklyn, is like Manhattan in the 90s.”

Brooklyn is much more than the face of aimless 20-somethings clinging to dreams. There are numerous ethnic neighborhoods, Hasidic Jews and struggling families. But, I haven’t gone there, and you haven’t watched a TV show about it.

I just want to give the people what they want. Like tofu to a vegan. Like Trader Joe’s to a wino. Like Nice Veins to a hipster. Nice Veins? Oh, you probably haven’t heard of them.