2026 Theses Master's

Contested Undergrounds: Queer Nightlife and Gentrification in Bushwick, Brooklyn

Marcelli, Luca

This thesis examines how queer underground nightlife shapes urban change and gentrification in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Drawing on research that links gentrification to real estate markets, neoliberal urbanization, and city planning (Glass 1964; Smith 1996; Slater 2009; Stein 2019), as well as studies of how artistic scenes expand and transform cities over time (Zukin 1982; Zukin & Braslow 2011; Valli 2016, 2022), I argue that the aesthetic worlds cultivated within queer nightlife spaces play a significant role in shaping urban land values and driving cycles of gentrification in Brooklyn.

Using qualitative methods, including participant observation, auto-ethnography, and interviews with queer and trans artists, nightlife workers, and longtime residents, the project traces how experiences of Brooklyn’s underground nightlife extend beyond the dance floor through social media, cultural narratives, and everyday encounters in the neighborhood. In this sense, the “underground” is not just a nightlife scene, but also a broader aesthetic and spatial condition shaped by the meeting of postindustrial landscapes, legacies of urban inequality, and increasingly commodified forms of queer and trans culture. Ultimately, this thesis shows that queer nightlife is not simply a backdrop to gentrification, but an active force reshaping how urban space is understood, experienced, and transformed.