Brooklyn Makers


Book Description

A creative renaissance blooms in Brooklyn. At its heart is a thriving community of artisans producing a remarkable variety of handmade goods. In Brooklyn Makers, photographer Jennifer Causey captures the spirit of this homegrown movement by documenting thirty of the borough's most celebrated craftsmen. This eclectic mix of established and up-and-coming makers includes bakers, ceramic artists, clothing designers, florists, distillers, and more. With an eye for small details, Causey's charming photographs reveal each artisan at work in their own space. Her lively interviews reveal what inspires them, keeps them motivated, and their thoughts on the city where they live and work.




Made in Brooklyn


Book Description

Made in Brooklyn provides a belated critique of the Maker Movement: from its origins in the nineteenth century to its impact on labor and its entanglement in the neoliberal economic model of the tech industry. This critique is rooted in a case study of one neighborhood in Brooklyn, where artists occupy former factory buildings as makers. Although the Maker Movement promises to revitalize the city and its dying industrial infrastructure by remaking these areas as centers of small-scale production, it often falls short of its utopian ideals. Through her analysis of the Maker Movement, the author addresses broader questions around the nature of artistic work after the internet, as well as what the term ‘hipster’ means in the context of youth culture, gentrification, labor, and the influence of the internet. Part history, part ethnography, this book is an attempt to provide a unified analysis of how the tech industry has infiltrated artistic practice and urban space.




Brooklyn Street Style


Book Description

The indispensable, illustrated guide to fashion and life in New York City’s most stylish borough—featuring essential shops, restaurants, bars, and more. Brooklyn style is eclectic, creative, and distinct from neighborhood to neighborhood. It’s not about chasing labels. It is stylish on its own terms, and it’s about dressing for real life. Brooklyn Street Style: The No-Rules Guide to Fashion explores what has made the borough a global fashion capital and presents style advice from a host of Brooklyn tastemakers. The contributors include notable women from the design, fashion, food, and entertainment worlds: style expert Mary Alice Stephenson, Girls costume designer Jenn Rogien, Urban Bush Babes blogger Cipriana Quann, Sleigh Bells’s singer/beauty-industry activist Alexis Krauss, and award-winning actor/playwright Eisa Davis. Chapters distill what’s happening in the borough today—from the maker movement to eco-conscious fashion—with more than 175 striking street-style photographs. Full of suggestions for both visitors and locals alike, the book’s Brooklyn Guide offers a curated listing of the essential shops, markets, restaurants, and bars.




The Violin Maker


Book Description

“[A] magical, profound, and elegant look at the continued need for high quality in our throw away society.” —Douglas Brinkley, Historian This intensely human story, which moves from an ageless workshop in Brooklyn to the rehearsal rooms of Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, and across the globe to Cremona, the birthplace of Stradivari, opens up for the reader the insular and fascinating realm of music, musicians, and the craftsmanship that is essential to that world. How does a simple piece of wood become the king of instruments? On a quest to learn about what many consider the world’s most perfect instrument, author and musician John Marchese befriends Sam Zygmuntowicz, an old-world craftsman in Brooklyn, New York, along with the man who is waiting for Sam’s next violin, Eugene Drucker of the world famous Emerson String Quartet. The violin does something remarkable, magical, and evocative. It is capable of bringing to life the mathematical marvels of Bach, the moan of a Gypsy melody, the wounded dignity of Beethoven's Concerto in D Major. No other instrument is steeped in such a rich brew of myth and lore—and yet the making of a violin starts with a simple block of wood. The Violin Maker takes the reader on a journey as that block of wood, in the hands of a master craftsman, becomes an instrument to rival one made by the greatest master of all time.




The Brooklyn Experience


Book Description

From Paris to Rio, everyone’s curious about hot, new Brooklyn. The Brooklyn Experience, Ellen Freudenheim’s fourth comprehensive Brooklyn guidebook, offers a true insider’s guide, complete with photographs, itineraries, and insights into one of the most creative, dynamic cities in the modern world. Walk over the Brooklyn Bridge at dawn or sunset, discover thirty-eight unique Brooklyn neighborhoods, and experience the borough like a native. Find out where to go to the beach and to eat great pizza, what to do with the kids, how to enjoy free and cheap activities, and where to savor Brooklyn’s famous cuisines. Visit cool independent shops, greenmarkets, festivals, and delve into the vibrant new cultural scene at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Barclays Center, and the lively exploding neighborhoods of DUMBO, Williamsburg, and Bushwick. Included in the book are essays and the pithy, sometimes funny comments of sixty cultural, literary, and culinary movers and shakers, culled from exclusive interviews with experts from the James Beard Foundation to the cofounder of the famous Brooklyn Book Festival, as well as MacArthur “genius” award winners, to young entrepreneurs, hipsters, and activists, all of whom have something to say about Brooklyn’s stunning renaissance. Neighborhood profiles are rich in user-friendly information and details, including movies, celebrities, and novels associated with each neighborhood. There are also 800 listings of great restaurants, bars, shops, parks, cultural institutions, and historical sites, complete with contact information. Targeting the independent, curious traveler, The Brooklyn Experience includes a dozen “do-it-yourself” tours, including a visit to Woody Allen’s childhood neighborhood, and amazing Revolutionary and Civil War sites. Freudenheim draws clear—and sometimes surprising—connections between old and new Brooklyn. Written by an author with an astounding knowledge of all Brooklyn has to offer, The Brooklyn Experience will guide both first-time and repeat visitors, and will be a fun resource for Brooklynites who enjoy exploring their own hometown.




The Big Book of Maker Skills


Book Description

This ultimate guide for tech makers covers everything from hand tools to robots plus essential techniques for completing almost any DIY project. Makers, get ready: This is your must-have guide to taking your DIY projects to the next level. Legendary fabricator and alternative engineer Chris Hackett teams up with the editors of Popular Science to offer detailed instruction on everything from basic wood- and metalworking skills to 3D printing and laser-cutting wizardry. Hackett also explains the entrepreneurial and crowd-sourcing tactics needed to transform your back-of-the-envelope idea into a gleaming finished product. In The Big Book of Maker Skills, readers learn tried-and-true techniques from the shop classes of yore—how to use a metal lathe, or pick the perfect drill bit or saw—and get introduced to a whole new world of modern manufacturing technologies, like using CAD software, printing circuits, and more. Step-by-step illustrations, helpful diagrams, and exceptional photography make this book an easy-to-follow guide to getting your project done.




The New Brooklyn


Book Description

Featured in The New York Times Book Review Only a few decades ago, the Brooklyn stereotype well known to Americans was typified by television programs such as “The Honeymooners” and “Welcome Back, Kotter”—comedies about working-class sensibilities, deprivation, and struggles. Today, the borough across the East River from Manhattan is home to trendsetters, celebrities, and enough “1 percenters” to draw the Occupy Wall Street protests across the Brooklyn Bridge. “Tres Brooklyn,” has become a compliment among gourmands in Parisian restaurants. In The New Brooklyn, Kay Hymowitz chronicles the dramatic transformation of the once crumbling borough. Devoting separate chapters to Park Slope, Williamsburg, Bed Stuy and the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Hymowitz identifies the government policies and young, educated white and black middle class enclaves responsible for creating thousands of new businesses, safe and lively streets, and one of the most desirable urban environments in the world. Exploring Brownsville, the growing Chinatown of Sunset Park, and Caribbean Canarsie, Hymowitz also wrestles with the question of whether the borough’s new wealth can lift up long disadvantaged minorities, and the current generation of immigrants, many of whom will need more skills than their predecessors to thrive in a postindustrial economy. The New Brooklyn’s portraits of dramatic urban transformation, and its sometimes controversial effects, offers prescriptions relevant to “phoenix” cities coming back to life across the United States and beyond its borders.




Southern Makers


Book Description

In this follow-up to our bestselling Brooklyn Makers, photographer Jennifer Causey returns to her Southern roots to introduce us to a group of artisans with a long tradition of craftsmanship and a wonderfully vibrant cultural history. In communities across the South, amidst breathtaking country landscapes and bustling city neighborhoods, a thriving creative revival is underway. In Southern Makers, Causey captures the spirit of this movement by documenting twenty-five of the area's most celebrated craftspeople. This eclectic mix of established and up-and-coming makers includes bakers, textile artists, denim designers, jewelers, woodworkers, brewers, farmers, and more. Causey's photographs are suffused with Southern charm as she explores the artisans' spaces, from restored homes and old factories to repurposed gas stations, general stores, and flowering fields. These lively interviews reveal personal inspirations and motivations, along with heartfelt reflections on the place where they live and work.




Bulletin


Book Description




Brooklyn!


Book Description

Lavishly illustrated with prints, paintings, memorabilia, and objects from The Brooklyn Historical Society's unparalleled collection, Brooklyn! will bring every reader closer to the Brooklyn of legend and fact.