Reasons to leave campus – Brooklyn edition
Whether you’re Do the Right Thing or Broad City
Last week, we gave you five reasons to leave campus. Now we’re giving you five reasons to hit BROOKLYN next time you ditch Morningside Heights.
Indulge your inner snob
New York’s obscure art scene, traditionally associated with the West Village, SoHo and Chelsea, has moved to Brooklyn. If funky and high-brow are your middle names, ditch Lincoln Center for the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM). The BAM cinématek shuns Blockbusters for international, independent, and classic movies organized by thematic programs (this season’s programs include Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, Cuba Golden 60s, The Vertigo Effect and Hitchcock, Afrofuturism on Film, Indie 80s, among others). The BAM also offers theater, dance, opera and jazz shows, and houses its own restaurant and café.
The Brooklyn Museum (free for university students) is a refreshing alternative to the Whitney, the MoMA, and the Met. But don’t expect a well-organized, classical museum: the Brooklyn Museum is notoriously hectic and seemingly disjointed. This summer, exhibits included The Rise of the Sneaker Culture, Basquiat: the Unknown Notebooks and FAILE: Savage/Sacred Minds.
If the Columbia Bookstore isn’t doing it for you, check out Greenlight Bookstore, BookCourt or WORD, all independent neighborhood bookstores attempting to preserve the bookstore culture in the age of Barnes & Noble.
The night life
You’ve ditched Mel’s for One Oak. Cannon’s for VIP Room. You’ve gone to the Jane more times than you’ll admit. But eventually, even the downtown nightlife — with its arbitrary cover charges, 30+ crowds, and insistent promoters — begins to bore you. It’s time to hop on the 1 (then the 2… then the L…)
Don’t worry, the 45-minute subway ride to Verboten is worth it (if you take an Uber to Verboten, you’re doing it wrong). Inside the warehouse-turned-club is a haven for quality underground music, mostly house and deep house. But beware: this is no space for “mainstream EDM” and although there is no dress code, “rave gear and business attire are discouraged.”
If you’re feeling a concert, check out Output or Music Hall of Williamsburg, which frequently house big name DJs, but with better vibes and less tweens than Terminal 5 or Webster Hall.
Beer
Home to the Brooklyn Lager, Brooklyn’s Northside is full of exclusively-beer bars, old-guard dive bars and the Brooklyn Brewery. Tour the brewery, have a drink at its biergarten, or head over to Habana Outpost for $1 beers. No $8-20 cocktails here.
Markets
Brooklyn is really, really into markets: flea markets, farmer’s markets, food stand markets, antiquities markets, etc. For a neighborly community feel, skip Smorgasburg and check out the Prospect Park farmer’s market (Saturdays 8AM-4PM) and the Fort Greene Brooklyn Flea (Saturday & Sunday 10AM-6PM) instead. To sell old clothes or buy weird cheap things, hit up Beacon’s Closet and Buffalo Exchange.
Before it’s too late
Brooklyn is one of the last remnants of New York City “grit” in the post-Mayor Guliani era. But its time is running out. Historically marginalized and predominantly African American, the borough, now part of the white hipster mainstream, is increasingly seeing the construction of chain stores and massive building projects — of course, at the expense of affordable housing and the city’s racial minorities. More than ever, tourists and yuppies are starting to make their way across the bridge, threatening the authenticity of the borough’s street rep. For now, it remains at a curious intersection, caught somewhere between the old and the new. But Brooklyn is a ticking time bomb of gentrification, so take the time to discover it now, or you might end up missing out on the college student’s hidden New York gem.