kickassNYC

What could be more unexpected in a bustling city than a… farm? The Queens County Farm Museum is NYC’s “largest remaining tract of undisturbed farmland” that is also the “longest continuously farmed site in New York State.” Explore historic farm buildings, go on a hayride, or feed some goats!

Previously a military base, Fort Totten is now a public park that houses over a hundred historic buildings, including some fortifications constructed during the Civil War. With Urban Park Rangers, you can tour of the abandoned ruins of the Fort Totten battery that are usually unavailable to the public.

Conceived by two readers and artists calling themselves the House of Screwball, the Tarot Society is an art gallery, alternative performance space, and divination room in Brooklyn. They combine special events with Tarot, Astrology, and Palmistry readings in their unique space, as well as appearing at other events around town.

4 Charles Pl, Brooklyn, NY 11221

Gallery hours & walk-in readings: 12-8 Wed – Sat / 12-6 Sunday

Located on the northern shore of Staten Island near the former site of the Freshkills Landfill, the Arthur Kill Graveyard of Boats is a photographer’s wet dream. The land approach is technically off-limits, but Kayak East offers tours of the place where marine vessels go to die.

Featured in the documentary Graves of Arthur Kill (2013).

C-Squat, one of the longest-standing squat houses, has been a part of the fabric of the New York Punk scene since the first squatters set down roots in the 1980s. In the early days, they moved through the burnt out walk-up on ladders. Then they renovated it, setting up a skate ramp, a punk venue, and a permanent homestead on Avenue C.

Now its history and the history of other New York squat houses is preserved in the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MoRUS), a living archive located on the ground floor of 155 Avenue C.

Catland aims to be THE destination for Brooklyn witches, mystics, yogis, and otherwise occult-minded. The storefront boutique specializes in talismanic texts, spell supplies, and related esoterica. Spellworkers, diviners, and occult teachers can be consulted in the shop. The connected event space and backyard garden play host to a variety of events, including rituals, workshops, and parties.

987 Flushing Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11206

Free to visit! Prices of events, workshops, and readings vary.

A wild feline community lives on Roosevelt Island alongside abandoned smallpox hospitals and new developments on Roosevelt Island. Since 2005, a group of volunteers called the Island Cats has been helping maintain the cat sanctuary by maintaining the four existing cat colonies, providing food and medical attention, working with ASPCA to spay and neuter cats, and try to find homes for the adoptable animals.

The largest tax-funded cemetary in the world. More than one million are buried on the island, some by mass burial. Though the majority of the island’s “inhabitants” are anonymous, the Hart Island Project has worked to identify the dead, and some famous residents include Leo Birinski, Dawn Powell, and Bobby Driscoll. It has had a long history as a site for a workhouse, a hospital, prisons, a Civil War internment camp, a reformat, and a Nike missile base.

A Harlem schoolyard established in 1980 as a gallery for internationally renowned street artists.

In May 1989, Keith Haring created a mural called “Once Upon a Time” in the bathroom of the The Center as part of its “Center Show” that celebrated the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. It was his last major work before his death at 31 years old, from AIDS-related complications, and explores the heyday of gay cruising and bathroom sex before the AIDS crisis. As Keith Haring’s work have sold for millions of dollars, it is very possibly the most valuable bathroom in America.