Christoph Maasch, Paul Beatty, Klaus Walter | click here to enlarge

The Fall of the Wall from an American Perspective: DJ Darky Goes Berlin
September 28, 2009. On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the wall, the U.S. Consulate General Frankfurt featured a reading by American poet, performance artist, and novelist Paul Beatty at the Romanfabrik on September 28.  Paul Beatty’s latest book “Slumberland” describes the experiences of disk jockey DJ Darky from Los Angeles in cold war Berlin and gives fascinating insights into the heady times when the wall was falling.  German actor Christoph Maasch read from the German translation, published by Blumenbar.  Klaus Walter from ByteFM moderated the reading and subsequent Q&A session, during which Mr. Beatty shared his thoughts about German and American culture, music, race relations and love with the enthusiastic audience that stayed until long after the reading to chat with the writer. Photo Gallery

Paul Beatty's work has been compared to the biting prose of Thomas Pynchon and Kurt Vonnegut as he takes us for a fast ride through America's cultural mosaic. His two books of poetry and his novels Tuff (2000) and The White Boy Shuffle (1996) draw from popular culture references ranging from hip-hop and jazz to comic books, kung-fu films, and basketball obsessions. Poet, performance artist, and novelist Beatty was born in 1962 in West Lost Angeles, he received an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Brooklyn College and an M.A. in Psychology from Boston University. Paul Beatty lives and works in New York.