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    Categories: Outings

Take this insider’s bike tour for a behind-the-scenes look at some of Brooklyn’s coolest places

Tour the borough with a gaggle of smart insiders (photos by Earl Maldoun)

Hey Brokesters! Your humble events editor here — the one who brings you burlesquers and dance parties and endless free comedy shows every week. Now I want to bring you something else: on a bike ride.

For years I’ve been chronicling Brooklyn’s cultural and artistic life, both online and in a book. Now I’m taking the idea IRL, bringing people to awesome spots to see what goes on behind the scenes and hear from the people making all the magic. I’m working with my pal Jonah, tour-guide progeny and native New Yorker, and we’re basically curating a day full of awesome that includes stops at a Civil War–era warehouse turned art collective and a store for superheroes. (Plus there are snacks!)

Here are some of the places we’ll go:

• Gowanus Ballroom: A onetime cannonball factory and working metal shop where artists are currently building gigantic sculptures to be installed in NYC parks

• Twig Terrariums: A shop where two bad-ass ladies build tiny green worlds that look sweet and innocent but are filled with tiny scenes of sex, death, and destruction

• Pioneer Works: An epic multidisciplinary arts center in a massive former iron foundry (protip: last time we were there we spotted Dustin Yellin giving Ariana Huffington a li’l tour)

Get an inside look at the weird world of the Morbid Anatomy Museum.

We’ll also go on a private tour of the Morbid Anatomy Museum, through a new art show at Hot Wood Arts, and on and on. You’ll get free admissions, discounts on merch, and quirky souvenirs all day. Plus you’ll get to meet fascinating folks and spend the day biking around in the sun.

So come ride with us! The tours start at 2pm (so you don’t have to wake up early), and there’s even a Brokelyn discount: enter code “brokestersbike” for $30 tix (a $5 savings!). We’ve got tours scheduled on April 30, May 1 and May 8. See you on the streets!

[Note: This event is brought to you by Brooklyn Spaces and is not an official Brokelyn event, but we’ll probably go on it too because Oriana is great.]

Oriana Leckert :Oriana is a writer, editor, and cultural hipstorian [sic] who is kind of obsessed with Brooklyn. She is the author of "Brooklyn Spaces: 50 Hubs of Culture & Creativity" (Monacelli, 2015) and creatrix of the website of the same name. She is the events editor for both Brokelyn and Greenpointers, and her writing has appeared on Slate, Atlas Obscura, New York Post, Matador, Hyperallergic, Gothamist, Curbed, Brooklyn Magazine, Brooklyn Based, and more. Follow her at @orianabklyn.