Design
Brooklyn, All Over the Maps
A new exhibition explores the borough's complexities by juxtaposing new artworks and historic maps.
Logan Square: the "Brooklyn" of Chicago. Oakland: the "Brooklyn" of San Francisco.
NYC's 71-square-mile borough to the east has become such a strong cultural metaphor, so easily abstracted to explain other cities, that one can lose sight of the things that make it Brooklyn, not "Brooklyn." Its tremendous demographic diversity, for example. Its politics. Its pre-colonial history. It's Casper-the-Friendly-Ghost-shaped outline.