Located on the third floor of Fantasma Magic Shop, this one-room museum houses the second largest collection of Houdini artifacts in the country.
A tiny rainforest hidden away from the bustling streets of Manhattan inside an office building.
In a city of skyscrapers, Walter De Maria has created an “interior sculpture” in the second floor of a SoHo storefront that consists of 280,000 pounds of Manhattan soil lying in a 3,600-square-foot room. It is exactly what the name suggests.
Gowanus Canal has long had a reputation for being one of the most polluted bodies of water in the United States. In 2010, it was even labeled a Superfund site. In spite (or because) of this, Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club is offering self-guided canoe tours with the goal of educating people about its history as a busy cargo transportation hub, and its future with environmental cleanup efforts.
A narrow little island in the middle of the East River. In the 1800s, the city bought the island to create a “city of asylums” in what was an attempt to create a more humane space for prisoners and the mentally ill. The island housed several hospitals, mental institutions, and prisons, and one penitentiary in particular became steeped in scandal (think uprisings, nude men swimming for their freedom, and boss gangsters running the joint). Celebrity prisoners there included Mae West and Emma Goldman. Nellie Bly also visited one of the mental institutions undercover, and wrote a stirring expose about the mistreatment of the “mentally ill” housed there (along with the actually mentally ill, many of the patients were women who were committed by their husbands for being insubordinate). There are still remains of the smallpox hospital, lunatic asylum, and library.
A non-profit organization dedicated to advancing field research and preserving the explorer’s instinct. The Club has famous “Firsts” members, including firsts to the North and South Poles, to the top of Mount Everest, to the ocean’s deepest point, and to the moon’s surface.
Curated by Nelson Molina, a sanitation worker, over a period of 30 years, “Treasures in the Trash Musem” is a secret museum on the second floor of the MANEAST11 garbage truck garage. It is unavailable to the public, but can be seen by scheduling a visit with the NYC Department of Sanitation.
Non-profit organization dedicated to preserving magic and its allied arts. Maintains and develops “the most expansive collection of conjuring related material in the world.” Features exhibits and libraries, and runs various projects.
Former ice warehouse-turned anything-goes performance space. Showcases dance, circus, theater, and cabaret performances with events like “Polesque,” “House of Love,” and “Deep House Yoga”.
Cemetary in Brooklyn that houses some pretty famous dead people: Jean-Michel Basquiat, William Poole (aka “Bill the Butcher,” portrayed by Daniel Day Lewis in Gangs of New York), and William Magear “Boss” Tweed, just to name a few. Battle Hill, the highest point in Brooklyn, is inside, and it was the site of some action during the Battle of Brooklyn. Some escaped monk parakeets have made their home in the spires of the entrance gate.