In this episode, I'm joined by Martyra Peng, a long-time Berlin resident. We discuss the impact of gentrification on Berlin and how it is affecting the creative and subculture scene. We discuss the creative class's double-edged nature and the social exclusion of many parts of Berlin society, including migrant communities, and the violence against the LGBTQ community and sex workers.

Link to Martyra’s work: https://www.martyrapeng.com/

More about Martyra: 

Martyra Peng is one of the most versatile writers in contemporary literature. Her work under changing pseudonyms consists of travel literature, 400 columns, numerous reportages, a highly acclaimed political non-fiction book, blogs, poems, photography and digital art.  Her blog "Hooker Republic" was the eponym for the celebrated play "Lulu - the Hooker Republic" by Volker Lösch at the Berlin Schaubühne. Her open letter to the German government "J'accuse" also found its way into the novel "Bricks & Mortar" by Clemens Meyer.

Until the 1st Corona Lockdown, she mostly travelled abroad to create distance from Germany. Most recently, she published the non-fiction book "Sexwork 3.0 - and how we prevent forced prostitution".

Her autofictional novel "Bread" is the world of a consequent struggle for advancement in a capitalist environment, where the rebellious outsider Nadine is sorted out as dysfunctional when she shakes the existential foundations of a broken system.

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