Reality Television Tunes Into Harlem

Several new cable shows give viewers a glimpse of Harlem life.

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By Anita Abedian

The screams of four teenage girls startle tattoo artist Richard “Dick” Duncan as he steps from his shop onto Lenox Avenue. Clearly excited by the sight of the reality TV star, the girls giggle and gaze at him before charging down the steps into Black Ink Tattoo Studio.

“It’s too bad they didn’t capture that on camera,” Duncan says.

Duncan, who goes by his street name O’S**t, is one of six cast members currently filming VH1’s “Black Ink Crew,” a reality show centered on the personal lives and day-to-day business of this Harlem tattoo shop. The show, shooting its third season, is one of several recently launched reality shows set in Harlem. The Oprah Winfrey Network’s newest docu-series “Love in the City” and FYI Network’s “B.O.R.N. to Style,” two other Harlem-based shows, also premiered this year.

Though Duncan, 30, is enjoying a night off from shooting, he and another artist, Angel Luis Quinonez, joke about the network missing entertaining footage.

Quinonez, 41, part of the Black Ink staff for two years, has noticed that typical Friday nights at the shop, once packed with close friends, staff and regular clientele, now also include fans of the show.

“People are coming by the shop everyday,” says Quinonez, sketching a customer’s tattoo design on a lightbox. “I get more clients because of exposure from the show.”

Duncan has also noticed an increase in business, especially among international tourists.  “I got cats coming in from Denmark and all over to get tattooed by me because they’ve seen the show or heard about it,” says the Bronx native. “Some folks come in off the street just to hang out or get a picture.”

Richard Duncan, from "Black Ink Crew," takes a break behind the shop.

Richard Duncan, from “Black Ink Crew,” takes a break behind the shop.

“It has definitely been rising, this business in Harlem,” says Jonathan Bodrick, owner of B.O.R.N. (Borrowed Old Refurbished New), a boutique on 125th Street between Lenox and Fifth Avenues.

The vintage clothing and accessory shop, sandwiched between Pee Dee Steakhouse and a vacant commercial space, is the backdrop to the 14-episode series documenting the makeovers and style transformations he and his six-member staff give would-be fashionistas.

Bodrick, one of the stars of “B.O.R.N. to Style,” has noticed more public attention to his store – which opened over nine years ago – since the show first aired July 15. He sees nods of approval from the neighborhood, too.

JJ Langan, Terry Artis and Jonathan Bodrick, cast members of "B.O.R.N. to Style," inside Bodrick's boutique.

JJ Langan, Terry Artis and Jonathan Bodrick, cast members of “B.O.R.N. to Style,” inside Bodrick’s boutique.

“Harlem embraced me from the beginning,” says Bodrick. “Just recently, a lady came off a bus right here by the shop, ran towards me out of breath, and said she just wanted to give me a hug and thank me for being an inspiration.”

But other residents have mixed feelings about Harlem’s reality TV moment.

“I don’t like it so much,” says Amanda Payton, 61, who lives next door to Black Ink Tattoo. She sits on her stoop nearly every day, but the film crew sometimes asks her to move. When Payton refuses, she may make it into a shot.

“My kids will tell me, ‘Did you know you were on TV?’ They get all excited that I live right by Black Ink and I’m cool with everyone in the shop,” Payton says.

“The producers of these shows got to stay true to reality and keep it authentic,” says Richard Jackson, a 28-year-old club promoter who lives above Bodrick’s boutique. Discovering that a show was being filmed directly below his studio apartment both surprised and confused him.

“At first, I didn’t get why they were filming outside this small shop, but I have no problem with it,” he says.  Jackson, who is gay, sees opportunity for a show like “B.O.R.N. to Style” to bring attention to Harlem’s LGBT community, since many of the show’s cast members are also gay.

“A show like this sheds light on a different lifestyle, the colors and lives of our community,” says Jackson. He smiles at the thought of making his own reality TV appearance. “I want to see if they get me on the show walking in my building one of these days.”

David M. Bodrick Jr., an executive producer on “B.O.R.N. to Style” – and Jonathan Bodrick’s older brother – says the Harlem backdrop is just part of the show’s appeal.  His brother’s boutique remains one of the few throwbacks, reflecting what smaller stores on 125th Street used to look like, he points out, but the talent and people are at the forefront.

“We love Harlem, and the landscape is beautiful,” says David Bodrick. “But the show is much bigger than Harlem. It reflects all kinds of people in New York.”

While “B.O.R.N. to Style” resumes on Oct.7, OWN Network’s “Love in the City” has finished its first season following the lives of four Harlem women, capturing their romances and relationships, successes and struggles in a docu-series modeled after “Sex in the City.”

Unscripted television programming is not new to uptown Manhattan.  MTV’s now-canceled reality show “Washington Heights” took viewers into the lives of young people in the largely Dominican neighborhood in 2013 and BET’s “Harlem Heights” briefly introduced the first Harlem-centered reality show in 2009 with only 10 episodes.

Why this sudden spotlight on Harlem?

“It’s just a fabulous place to film reality,” says Paul Levinson, professor of communications and media studies at Fordham University.

“While most reality shows have only fundamentally reflected white, suburban America, here is Harlem, which has the attraction of being rich in culture and reflective of a hugely diverse population of New York City that has been absent from reality TV programming,” he says.

On a recent Saturday afternoon, Tara Sadlak, 28, and her friend Chris Cardillo – both from Old Bridge, New Jersey – come to Black Ink to get tattoos.

“There’s a reality show being filmed here?” Her eyes widen as she scans the shop’s colorful, art-filled walls. “We just came by on a whim,” she says, holding up the bar napkin on which she’s sketched her tattoo idea. “I used Google to find a shop somewhere in the city.”

As she sat on the leather sofa and browsed Duncan’s portfolio, she said, “Hey, I’m glad we chose Harlem!”

Chris Cardillo and Tara Sadlak celebrate their new tattoos outside Black Ink Tattoo Studio.

Chris Cardillo and Tara Sadlak celebrate their new tattoos outside Black Ink Tattoo Studio.

 

(Photos by Anita Abedian)

 

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2 comments on “Reality Television Tunes Into Harlem

  1. Great Anita this is very interesting and eye opening article. I am looking forward to more articles from you. You are very talented writer. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK.

  2. I was immediately captivated by the first sentence. It compelled me to continue reading.

    I also like how there is input from everyone, not just the stars, but also the folks in the community as well a professor. It illustrates how the filming impacts the community as a whole.

    Reading this is comparable to watching it on video; without even thinking I was able to visualize everything that’s going on.

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