Eric Sirota is a Best of the Net nominated poet, rapper, and public interest housing lawyer based in Chicago. His first chapbook, Holy Days, was published by FreezeRay Poetry in 2017, and his second, Giveth & Taketh, by Wild Pressed Books in 2020. His work has been featured by Button Poetry, Entropy, Barren Magazine and elsewhere. You can’t miss him. He’s the tallest Jew for miles.
Eric Sirota’s The Rent EATS First snaps at capitalist systems and the so-called “American Dream” with honest anger and sharp satire.
With a captivating blend of serious urgency and sarcastic wit, The Rent EATS First moves through personal stories and cultural moments to develop a broad picture of systemic inequality. Sirota interweaves his personal experiences as a public interest lawyer, representing low income tenants, with biting critique on the broader social and governmental systems that breed disparities. This collection reminds us that the political is emotional as Sirota shares personal struggles with mental health, self-image, and relationships in the face of social crisis.
Through dynamic and poignant form, Sirota conveys the chaos of an ineffectual, discriminatory system. An earnest look at the difficulties of fighting a system from within, The Rent EATS First is a collection that needs to be read.
The Rent Eats First is a courthouse diorama with unfettered self-awareness—what if foreclosure comes for more than just the home? We are told “the only difference between a sword and a plowshare is what you’re cutting.” Sirota inhabits several voices, each a blade—where are we aimed, what is aimed at us?
—Junious ‘Jay’ Ward, Composition
In The Rent Eats First, everyone must stand trial. Sins do not discriminate; even god must atone. Sirota balances commentary on housing law and political unrest with comedy. The Rent Eats First is a demonstration against landlords, property value, and the legal system.
—jason b. crawford, Year of the Unicorn Kidz
Buy NowAll rise for The Rent Eats First. Sirota breaks down the language of law and reforges it into a revolutionary manifesto. Satirical and absurd, Sirota’s poems are blades. Every page, he sharpens a new one and hands it to you. If these poems don’t get you psyched to smash capitalism, I don’t know what will.
—Zach Goldberg, I’d Rather Be Destroyed
