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Scene in Berlin: The Insider

June 5, 2014

Get inside Berlin. In a monthly series, DW presents the up-close look at what makes this city rock. Guest columnist Jan Kage is a nightowl who has shaped Berlin's art and music scenes for a decade and a half.

Jan Kage
Image: Stefan Ruhmke

Jan "Yaneq" Kage is a Berliner that can't be put in a box because he's done pretty much everything that's remotely related to music, media and the arts.

He also promotes artists in his art space Schau Fenster, for example, and for the past 10 years, he has been organizing a regular club night series, Party Arty, to celebrate the arts.

Kage has also published a number of books on the culture of hiphop and writes for German publications like De:Bug, die tageszeitung, Intro, Berliner Zeitung and others. He's also published his own collection of anecdotes - appropriately titled "Yaneqdoten" (fantome Verlag, 2012) -, as well as short stories in various anthologies.

In 2004, he played a leading role in the movie "Status Yo!" on Berlin's underground hiphop scene. For the past four years, he's been hosting and producing the weekly show Radio Arty on 100.6 FluxFM, in which he talks with artists and curators about their work.

Jan Kage has also contributed to radio stations like Deutschlandfunk, SWR, Fritz, BBC, Jam FM and others. In cooperation with Kunst magazine, he's been staging the monthly Collectors Talk since 2010, which are also available in print form. In 2012 and 2013 Kage hosted the Youtube channel eNtR Berlin.

He has a university diploma in political science and sociology, but learned a lot of what he knows in clubs. In Berlin, Jan Kage is an insider.


 

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