THE POWERHOUSE ARENA — a laboratory for creative thought.
Home to world-renowned art book publisher powerHouse Books, the Arena is a gallery, boutique, book store, performance, and events space located at 37 Main Street, in New York City’s scenic DUMBO neighborhood. With soaring 24-foot ceilings on the 5,000 square foot ground floor (with over 175 linear-feet of glass frontage and amphitheater-style seating), the powerHouse Arena showcases a series of landmark exhibitions, performances, and controlled mayhem fusing the worlds of art, photography, design, fashion, pop culture, advertising, music, dance, film, and television into a glorious whirlwind of captivating spectacle. One of twelve places to see in The New York Times’ 36 Hours: Photography in NYC!
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“The powerHouse Arena is quickly becoming one of the best spots to hear authors read their work.”
— Time Out New York
“The powerHouse Arena has all the books you want, and none of the ones you don’t. It’s Great!”
— DC Pierson – Author of The Boy Who Couldn’t Sleep and Never Had To
“powerHouse events are all-out parties rather than staid readings. Attention is paid to pairing the right music with the right book-performers from Kool DJ Red Alert to the MisShapes have played book parties-and an open bar is almost always part of the equation.”
— Publishers Weekly
“If you are looking for great kids’ books, powerHouse Arena has done all of the work for you. They have assembled such a fun collection of books that you can not go wrong. Beautiful classics, new discoveries, unexpected treasures. Go there now.”
— Jon Scieszka – Author of The Stinky Cheese Man
“powerHouse Arena is one of the few places in the city where writers and readers can have a dialog in what has to be the most impressive reading space any indie bookstore offers. It’s a great reminder why independent bookstores are so necessary, and what their function is in a democracy; it gives all of us an opportunity, to openly discuss, in public, face to face questions of the day. The fact that they serve alcohol is, of course, no minor benefit.”
— Joe Meno – Author of The Great Perhaps
Upcoming Events:
THE POWERHOUSE ARENA [Dumbo]
Twenty-five year old Abigail Tarttelin, already a cult literary figure in London, celebrates her latest, a dramatic investigation of the complexities of sexuality.
THE POWERHOUSE ARENA [Dumbo]
Do not miss the Great Small Works' Toy Theater Festival Benefit Gala, at Powerhouse Arena, Thursday May 23rd. Featured performers will include toy piano virtuoso Margaret Leng Tan, master puppeteer Basil Twist, and musicians Rima Fand and Sarah Alden among myriad others!
THE POWERHOUSE ARENA [Dumbo]
The host of Moth’s StorySLAM and author of Loser Goes First launches his latest.
THE POWERHOUSE ARENA [Dumbo]
The 2013 Pulitzers made literary history when Random House editor David Ebershoff's authors (yes, two of them) won the prestigious award. Join Adam Johnson (The Orphan Master's Son), winner of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, and Frederik Logevall (Embers of War), winner of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction, for a moderated discussion with David Ebershoff.
THE POWERHOUSE ARENA [Dumbo]
Stephen Rodrick presents this moving blend of memoir and reportage about his father, a Navy pilot, in an evening hosted by Men’s Journal and Rolling Stone.
THE POWERHOUSE ARENA [Dumbo]
Prize-winning poet Sophie Cabot Black shares her latest collection.
THE POWERHOUSE ARENA [Dumbo]
Caldecott Honoree John Rocco returns to our space for to share his newest picture book: a story of a boy a boy and his hair.
THE POWERHOUSE ARENA [Dumbo]
In her acclaimed debut, Elliott Holt illuminates the long-lasting sting of abandonment and the measures we take to bring back those we’ve lost.
THE POWERHOUSE ARENA [Dumbo]
Pitchfork staffers Jenn Pelly and Carrie Battan will DJ this book party to celebrate cult favorite Tao Lin’s latest novel. Insider secret: the galley came with a bottle of prescription pills. (Candy, of course...)
THE POWERHOUSE ARENA [Dumbo]
Iconic private eye Easy Rawlins was last seen careening to his death. Walter Mosley launches the twelfth installment of his atmospheric mystery series.
THE POWERHOUSE ARENA [Dumbo]
Lionel Shriver’s unflinching prose has won her readers the world over. Her latest novel is signature Shriver—a bold, absorbing, and ultimately devastating story of obesity and guilt. A.M. Homes joins Shriver in conversation.
THE POWERHOUSE ARENA [Dumbo]
We celebrate the launch of E.B. Hudspeth’s The Resurrectionist: The Lost Works of Dr. Spencer Black with a discussion, signing, and exhibition. CNN.com’s Aaron Sagers will moderate.
THE POWERHOUSE ARENA [Dumbo]
Set in post-revolutionary Iran and spanning three generations of a family washed by the tides of history, Sahar Delijani’s debut marks the arrival of a voice to watch.
THE POWERHOUSE ARENA [Dumbo]
The Olympic City is an ongoing photography project that looks at the legacy of the Olympic Games in former host cities around the world. Since 2008, photographers Jon Pack and Gary Hustwit have sought out the successes and failures, the remnants and ghosts of the Olympic spectacle.



























