A leftist hub on Atlantic Avenue will shutter due to out-of-control debts and its organizers are blaming gentrification.
The Brecht Forum served as a gathering place for left-wing activists of all stripes for the past 39 years, but was a new arrival in Boerum Hill, between Bond and Hoyt streets, where it moved in November to seek refuge from soaring rents in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village. The venue’s rent across the East River rose to as much as $9,000 a month, according to the executive director, but Brooklyn proved not to be the economic safe haven the anti-capitalist rabble-rousers were struggling to find.
“We too were hopeful for our new beginning, but it has become clear that in a rapidly gentrifying city, we have been living on borrowed time, and that despite the strong support of our community, this configuration of our project is un-sustainable,” the venue’s board of directors wrote in an e-mail announcing the closure.
The venue hosted the likes of prolific pamphleteer Noam Chomsky and Occupy Wall Street protesters before the organization’s former landlord sued the group for back rent in February and the staff, which was already diminished from three full-time workers to one, realized the arc of history was bending towards closure.
“We just couldn’t make ends meet like so many other small organizations and small businesses throughout the city,” executive director Matt Birkhold said. “There were no intellectual or ideology disagreements — we just couldn’t deal with the financial burdens.”
The Forum, named after famed communist playwright Bertolt Brecht, was founded in 1975 by a group of Marxist civil rights and community activists, according to the institution’s website.
The space was crucial for people who wanted to talk about the burning issues of our time, such as social justice and socialism, according to Birkhold.
“What I will miss the most is the ability to feel like I contribute to a space in which people can work through very important political questions,” he said.
The outfit will cease to legally exist on May 8, but its spirit will live on, Birkhold said.
The venue will host a farewell discussion about what it could have done differently and what activists should do next tonight.
“Resisting and Moving Forward” at the Brecht Forum [388 Atlantic Ave. between Bond & Hoyt streets in Boerum Hill, (212) 242–4201, www.brechtforum.org]. April 15 at 7:30 pm. Free.
