Making Rent in Bed-Stuy: A Memoir of Trying to Make It in New York City

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.

What does it cost to make art—and a home—when the ground is shifting beneath your feet?

• A Portrait of Gentrification: Go beyond the headlines to see the "serious, life-threatening process" of gentrification through the eyes of a young artist trying to find his place in a rapidly changing Bed-Stuy.
• The Black Experience: An unflinching look at the complexities of being a young, creative African American man navigating the worlds of art, poverty, and elite white spaces during the Obama era.
• Friendship and Class: A poignant and painful account of a formative friendship with a wealthy white roommate, and the breakup that reveals the unbridgeable gaps of privilege and perspective.
• Brooklyn Social History: Weaves together a deeply personal story with a rich historical examination of Bedford-Stuyvesant, featuring figures from Spike Lee to Jay-Z.

Fresh out of college, Brandon Harris needs an affordable place to live—a search that leads him to the neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant. Making Rent in Bed-Stuy explores the history and cultural importance of Brooklyn’s largest historically black community as it illuminates the experiences of one young man at the dawn of an era in which urban class warfare is politely referred to as gentrification. Bookended by two different breakups, a roommate and a lover, both from the white American elite, the memoir interweaves Harris’s story with a serious look at some of Bed-Stuy’s most salient legacies. 

From the childhood of Jay-Z to the disappointing late career of Spike Lee, Making Rent in Bed-Stuy takes account of the famous heart of black Brooklyn’s cultural scene. Recounting Harris’s own encounters with figures as far-flung as Lena Dunham, doyenne of the Brooklyn zeitgeist who would never take the J train into Bed-Stuy to catch a house party, to Paul MacLeod, a gun-toting Mississippi man who makes 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.

Blending in-depth reportage and personal narrative, Making Rent in Bed-Stuy investigates the disappointments and ironies of millennial life, revealing Harris’s radicalization and the things he lost, and gained, along the way.

“Brandon Harris’s first book is a wide-ranging meditation on race, poverty, bohemia, and film history. It’s the introduction to American letters of a brilliant, funny, antic voice-and a rebuke, in a form newly discovered, to the people James Baldwin once called our ‘morally bankrupt and desperately dishonest countrymen.’” - Keith Gessen, a founding editor of n+1 and the author of All the Sad Young Literary Men

“Making Rent in Bed-Stuy from Amistad should be required reading for every single young person living in a gentrifying neighborhood.” - Vogue

“Fascinating… This memoir provides hard-won insights into the divided loyalties of middle-class African-Americans, and a convincing description of a 21st-century New York City where only the rich can thrive.” - Publishers Weekly

“A thought-provoking examination of the millennial black experience in the first decade of the 21st century.” - Kirkus Reviews

“There were passages that made me burst out laughing, paragraphs that made me want to scream, and pages that made me want to take Brandon by the collar and simply shake him to his senses. Clever and powerful. Everybody interested in discovering how Millennials are living will find Making Rent in Bed-Stuy fascinating.” - Julianne Malveaux, economist and author of Are We Better Off? Race, Obama, and Public Policy Julianne Malveaux, economist and author of Are We Better Off? Race, Obama, and Public Policy Julianne Malveaux, economist and author of Are We Better Off? Race, Obama, and Public Policy Julianne Malveaux, economist and author of Are We Better Off? Race, Obama, and Public Policy

“A searing debut memoir…With its stinging truths and inventive language, Making Rent in Bed-Stuy stands as a monument to what is lost when New York’s low-rent underdog outer borough becomes just another county of kings.” - New York Times Book Review

“A melancholic, lyrical new memoir… Harris’s memoir has a pleasing specificity.” - The New Yorker

“[Harris’s] wide-ranging meditation on race and class, film and literature, black history and crime reportage carves out its own space in American letters.” - Los Angeles Review of Books