#23: Powerhouse on 8th

Powerhouse's Park Slope outpost

The Shop: Powerhouse on 8th

Park Slope, Brooklyn: 1111 8th Avenue

Powerhouse on 8th is one of two satellite locations for Powerhouse’s growing cultural empire, which includes their publishing company Powerhouse books, their DUMBO Flagship (see my review here), and an Industry City outpost. Powerhouse on 8th has cornered the market on adorable. A cute storefront across the street from the effortlessly charming Ladybird cafe, this store is certainly curated for an audience of Park Slope parents. Sleek volumes of new and highly giftable books give way to a hearty kids section in the back adorned with original art from children’s authors such as Feminist Baby’s Loryn Brantz. Falling out of the target audience of this location, I was somewhat underwhelmed with the choices available to me, but being on this stretch of 8th ave filled me with nostalgia for my former days teaching and performing with the Story Pirates at nearby PS 107!

What I Got:

Robert Moses: The Master Builder of New York City

Robert Moses is easily the most controversial figure in New York City history, an ambitious and power hungry mastermind whose projects shaped our city into what it is today (at the expense of bulldozed communities of poor immigrants and people of color). You can pretty much drop Moses’ name into any argument about why NYC sucks, and you’ll be at least half right, especially on biking subreddits. Robert Caro’s definitive biography of Moses The Power Broker is well over 1,000 pages, and as Kimberly “Sweet Brown” Wilkins once said, “Ain’t nobody got time for that.” Enter French comics duo Pierre Christin and Oliver Balez’s slim and extremely stylish take on Caro. The gorgeousness of the illustrations cannot be understated-- I’m especially cherishing Balez’s renderings of Moses projects near and dear to my heart such as Jacob Riis beach and Astoria Park.

Alibabette Editions Notebook

This pocket sized notebook was described by my girlfriend as “what is this notebook? This is very cool. It is too cute for you, you usually have boring notebooks.”