ALTHOUGH DUMBO, THAT PRECIOUS WEDGE down under the Manhattan Bridge overpass in Brooklyn, has seen the exodus of many of its pioneering artists and galleries due to skyrocketing rents, it is still home to a number of top notch galleries, performance spaces, shops and restaurants. If you haven't yet made a visit, now is the time to go.

Power Move: This week marks the celebration of powerHouse Books' recent move from Manhattan. The inaugural exhibition, "No Sleep 'til Brooklyn: A powerHouse Hip Hop Retrospective," opens Thursday, October 12, 7 - 10:00 pm. The opening night party is sure to rock the block, with Power 105.1's Kool DJ Red Alert and additional music by DJ Just Blaze. This event will benefit the VH1 Save The Music Foundation's work to restore instrumental music programs in NYC public schools. Tickets may be purchased by phone: 212-604-9074 x100.

The 30-year retrospective of Hip Hop culture, featuring photographs and art by major figures in the movement, is open to the public October 13 - November 19. Check the powerHouse website for details on this as well as a host of Hip Hop Honors Week special events.

Art Under the Bridge Festival: DUMBO's 10th annual art fest runs from October 13 to 15. The three-day event, which spans a 30-block area, features artist studio tours, site specific art projects, and Video_DUMBO, a showcase for video artists from the Greater New York Area. On Saturday, Oct. 14, monks from the Dorje Ling Buddhist Center in DUMBO will give their blessing to the event at noon, in the Empire Fulton Ferry State Park. Check the website for events, gallery locations, restaurants and shops, all enough to entice visitors to the Brooklyn waterfront..

111 Front Street Galleries:
Wessel + O'Connor Fine Art, where new work by the famously transgressive fashion photographer Steven Klein is on display. Known for shoots with Madonna and Brad Pitt that have altered the perception of celebrity photography, Klein's highly charged imagery has been seen in American Vogue, W Magazine, Italian and French Vogue, and on every cover of L'Uomo Vogue. The current show is on through November 4.

The exhibition "Travels Without Maps: Photographs from China's Western Frontiers," by Raul Gutierrez, continues at the Nelson Hancock Gallery through October 28.

At Safe-T-Gallery, an exhibition of large-scale black-and-white photographs of Maine Trees, by Gary Green and Chloroplasmic Colonnade, an installation of living and inorganic elements by Noah Baen, continue through October 14.

Sail Away: If you cross the water to DUMBO, consider splurging on a water taxi for the trip back to Manhattan. For a mere $10, you can enjoy an hour-long harbor cruise that skims the Brooklyn waterfront and the south side of Governor's Island. The boat makes several stops, including Red Hook, World Financial Center, Christopher Street and West 44nd Street. Along the way, the captain adroitly poses his craft so passengers on both sides of the aisle can get perfect pix of the Statue of Liberty.

Photo, top: Art Under the Bridge 2005, © 2006 Paul Vivier
Photo, below: Girl Talk, Brooklyn, NY, © 2006 Delphine Fawundu-Buford, courtesy powerHouse Books.