Bushwicked!
Scoping Out the Hipster Ghettos of Bushwick
By Kim Hastreiter
Photographed by Jeffrey Kilmer
Whenever I leave my hometown of Manhattan these days, I am always reminded of what a safe, insular and gentrified bubble New York City has become. Gone are the days of the meat-market tranny hookers, Times Square street hustlers, Hell's Kitchen muggers and Alphabet City's pot-selling bodegas with their cashiers enclosed behind bulletproof plexi for protection. The grit that has been sandpapered out of New York City during the past 15 years has taken with it much of the underground creative community. Gone are the crazy 20-year-old art kids jamming on acid at clubs in the middle of the night, performing and making art, music and trouble. Young artists these days have been forced to take their mischief and wild experimental energy elsewhere as they can't afford to live on the island of Manhattan any more. Hopping across the bridge, curious to sniff around Bushwick the other day, I couldn't help feeling nostalgic. It had no sign out front but was marked by a painting of a deer above the door and was packed inside with hipsters. Around the corner I noticed a tortilla factory blasting music and a storefront selling live chickens and rabbits. (Believe it or not, I remember when you could buy a live chicken on Broome Street and West Broadway). Further down the block, industrial buildings were colorfully tagged, stenciled and painted by artists with names like Judith Supine, Bast, Ripo, Pufferella, Dan Witz, UFO, Dark Cloud, MANMAN, Rubin, ILOVEMYBOO, Gore B, Ollie Dior, Chris Stain, Bloke, C215, Best, and populated with creative young kids who have flocked here to live and make art for the same reason we were all drawn to downtown New York in the old days -- really cheap rent. READ THE WHOLE STORY HERE >> (Above) Row one: Peru Ana Ana Peru, Armor, Skewville, Ripo; Row two: Stickman, Chris Stain, Serf, VOTE We're not as fusty as you think -- PAPERMAG was sniffing around Bushwick back in 2006. |
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++ CLICK ON THE THUMBNAILS TO MEET BUSHWICK'S CUTE COLONIZERS ++
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Hair and makeup: Deva Mahal * Fashion
Coordinators: Diane Drennan-Lewis and Carrie Bodner
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Max wears jeans by Diesel and shoes by Marc by Marc Jacobs.
Skateboard by Habitat. Hair: BEAD HEAD
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