When industry and manufacture left Brooklyn, a vast number of very large, very empty spaces opened up, scattered throughout one of the densest cities in the world- with artists at the helm, these have become spaces for living, making art, throwing parties, hosting classes and performances, building innovative products, and fostering creative communities, hubs for like-minded people to support and inspire each other. Today, there’s an art gallery in a former cannonball factory in Gowanus, an illegal graffiti art show in an abandoned subway station, and a gin distillery in a Sunset Park boiler room dating back to the Industrial Revolution.

Oriana Leckert takes us on a tour of these alternative spaces, shows us how they’re being reimagined and celebrated, and introduces us to some of their denizens, the creative class driving Brooklyn’s renaissance. She presents a vivid slice of life in the borough that has come to be accepted and celebrated as both the incubator and the arbiter of taste. A beautiful offering that will appeal to everyone who’s interested in what makes Brooklyn Brooklyn.