Guest Blog: Darren Pritchard on RENT PARTYDecember 14, 2017Rent Parties: the originals, back in Harlem in New York City in the 1920s and 1930s, were thrown by African-American, working-class folks - railway workers, maids, elevator operators and more - struggling with rents kept artificially high because of their race, and wages kept artificially low - because of their race.