Making rent in Bed-Stuy
Subtitle: a memoir of trying to make it in New York City
By: Brandon Harris
Edition: First edition.
Publisher: Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2017
Language: eng
Number of pages: 307
ISBN-13: 9780062415646
Copyright date: 2017
Subjects: Economic conditions; Generation Y; Social conditions; Motion picture producers and directors; African Americans; Biography
Description: Humorous memoir by a young filmmaker about his experience living in the historically black neighborhood, Bedford Stuyvesant, while it undergoes 'the serious, life-threatening process' of gentrification and the economic and cultural forces at play.

"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." -- Publisher's description
Table of contents: title: 2500 Red Bank Road; title: 166 Throop Avenue; title: 227-241 Taaffe Place; title: 551 Kosciuszko Street; title: 158 Buffalo Avenue; title: 730 Dekalb Avenue; title: South Elliot Place; title: 200 Gholson Avenue; title: 5920 Rhode Island Avenue; title: 434 Green Avenue; title: 485 Lexington Avenue.