Through the impressive arched windows of BAM’s Peter Jay Sharp building, high schoolers carefully made chess moves, played ping pong and ate pizza. The free after-school program, TeenSpace, opened for its second year on Sept. 17.
Created by the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 2025, TeenSpace is a free monthly after-school program for high school students in Brooklyn. On Thursdays, the space opens to offer different art experiences and features food, games, karaoke, raffles, a live DJ, themed events and cafe-style seating.
The space offers teens a safe place to decompress, create and simply be themselves, according to Ava Kinsey, the director of education at BAM.
“I think all spaces in Brooklyn are becoming few and far between, especially for those who need respite, or need a social element added to their day,” Kinsey said. “We're losing all those spaces. Every place is getting grabbed up by the larger institutions around us, and so I think a space like this is really important.”
Third spaces are places outside of the home (first place) and work or school (second place), that promote socialization, community building and relaxation, according to the National Library of Medicine. These sites include parks, libraries, shops and malls, coffee shops, recreation centers, religious sites and restaurants.
“There aren't that many places like this,” said 15-year-old Nicholas Lamb. “Especially not in this area where it’s a lot of businesses.”
According to Lamb, TeenSpace is one of the only places outside of school he can go to socialize with people his age without paying.
The program started last February after Tamara McCaw, president of BAM, noticed a need for more third spaces in Downtown Brooklyn while attending a community board meeting.
“Teens' lives are very structured," McCaw said. “So the importance of third spaces, the space in between, is the space where young people can have to fully express themselves.”
Despite their importance for overall wellbeing, third spaces can be exclusive because of age restrictions, financial barriers and locational accessibility, according to Maimuna Fardous, writer for the New York City Public Advocate.
Some Brooklyn commercial spaces placed even more barriers upon young people through enforced age restrictions, including the Atlantic Center Mall in Downtown Brooklyn which prohibits minors from entering the mall without a chaperone.
“Spaces defend their decisions for banning youth from entering because of disruptive behavior or potential theft,” said Fardous. “However, that only reinforces existing patterns of over-criminalization that Black, brown and queer teens are already exposed to.”
According to McCaw, TeenSpace is a step towards institutions providing safe havens for young people when the public space fails to create safe environments for them.
“Cultural spaces have a responsibility because we actually have the assets of space to think about how we share and make them available to the communities that need them,” McCaw said.
According to stop-and-frisk data released by the NYPD, people aged 18-24 make up 35 percent of all stops from 2003-2024. People aged 15-17 are stopped at a higher rate than adults aged 25-34.
Young people of color are targeted the most when compared to other demographics, the New York City Public Advocate reported.
“They [teens] are desperately trying to find the places where they can belong, where they're not being screened in some way, observed, and then having to be managed,” McCaw said. “That's something all humans deserve.”
