Making Rent in BedStuy, Brandon Harris
Making Rent in BedStuy, Brandon Harris
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Making Rent in Bed-Stuy
A Memoir of Trying to Make It in New York City

Author: Brandon Harris

Narrator: Brandon Massey

Unabridged: 8 hr 34 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperAudio

Published: 06/06/2017


Synopsis

A young African American millennial filmmaker’s funny, sometimes painful, true-life coming-of-age story of trying to make it in New York City—a chronicle of poverty and wealth, creativity and commerce, struggle and insecurity, and the economic and cultural forces intertwined with ""the serious, life-threatening process"" of gentrification.Making Rent in Bed-Stuy explores the history and sociocultural importance of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn’s largest historically black community, through the lens of a coming-of-age young American negro artist living at the dawn of an era in which urban class warfare is politely referred to as gentrification. Bookended by accounts of two different breakups, from a roommate and a lover, both who come from the white American elite, the book oscillates between chapters of urban bildungsroman and a historical examination of some of Bed-Stuy’s most salient aesthetic and political legacies.Filled with personal stories and a vibrant cast of iconoclastic characters— friends and acquaintances such as Spike Lee; Lena Dunham; and Paul MacCleod, who made a living charging $5 for a tour of his extensive Elvis collection—Making Rent in Bed-Stuy poignantly captures what happens when youthful idealism clashes head-on with adult reality.Melding in-depth reportage and personal narrative that investigates the disappointments and ironies of the Obama era, the book describes Brandon Harris’s radicalization, and the things he lost, and gained, along the way.

About Brandon Harris

Brandon Harris, originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, has worked in the world of American independent film as a critic and programmer, producer and director, screenwriter and educator. His writings about cinema, politics, culture, and the intersections between them have appeared in The New Yorker, The New Republic, Guardian, VICE, Daily Beast, Variety, n+1, New Inquiry, Brooklyn Rail, In These Times, Hammer to Nail, and Filmmaker magazine, where he is a contributing editor.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Shelley

I liked large chunks of this book. The author is a good writer and vividly evokes the scenes he describes. I could imagine a screenplay made of this book. He has a good concept, with each chapter focused on each of the different apartments he had in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of NYC. The bo......more

Goodreads review by Abram

Great book, a deeply personal, thoroughly researched, and profoundly compelling look at the recolonization of our urban centers with somewhat long diversions into familiar and deep cuts of independent film. The diversion about the founder of Graceland 2 was kind of long, but I'll still give it five......more

Goodreads review by Gina

There's no way to make gentrification AND black class anxiety not a touchy subject. Despite Obama's presidency, the black middle class rarely enters popular consciousness as a cohesive entity in the same way the white middle class does every election cycle. But because he's a (light-skinned) starvin......more

Goodreads review by Gracie

Wonderful, interesting memoir combining the gentrification of Brooklyn with experiences as a POC in the film industry.......more

Goodreads review by Ari

I truly appreciate what the author was trying to do here but it just doesn't work in this format. I think it could have been stronger if he had focused solely on Bed-Stuy and his time there instead of making it a memoir. Or perhaps if he had just cut out this random chapter about his time at Gracela......more