LEAH NASH PHOTOGRAPHY

BERLIN: Berlin Nights | 20 Years after the Fall

Like New York City in the 1980's, rents are cheap, graffiti is everywhere and the air crackles with a creativity that comes only from a city in transition. Once oppressed by Communism, Berlin, one of Europe's largest capitals, is now teaming with an artistic, sexual, and personal freedom that has brought in an influx of performers, musicians and artists to the city that never sleeps.

Michael Pollizatto gets ready for a drag performance where he sings original and cover songs.
   
Wall at Ficken 3000 (English translation: Fucking 3000).
   
After a show the group Sister Mantos change after performing at Raumerweiterungshalle, a collapsible and movable venue that changes places around the city. Berlin is known for the inventive use of the most unlikely spaces, as years of squats, raves and illegal parties have made their mark and sites like swimming pools and even old subway tunnels have been turned into entertainment venues.
     
  
Trannie Pop Diva CJ and the Dolls takes the U-Bahn to a gig in the wee hours of the night. CJ is an American visiting for a month and says he plans to move to Berlin on an artist visa.
   
Even beyond the gay scene in Berlin is the queer scene, comprised of people who choose not to be defined by gender or sexual orientation. This includes many transgendered and transsexuals and Reverso who performs a gender bending show at the King Kong Club.
   
Most bars in Berlin give their closing times as ‘open end’, which usually means 3am during the week and 5am on weekends. However, there are a handful of bars that never close, giving new meaning to the term 24/7. Here Mad Kate shows off her dance moves.
     
  
Two boys make out at a gay club in Berlin. It is estimated that 500,000 gays and lesbians call the city home, making Berlin second only to Amsterdam as Europe’s gay capitol and Klaus Wowereit, mayor of Berlin since 2001 is openly gay.
   
Nearly two decades after the wall tumbled down the center of gravity has shifted to the once desolate boroughs of the East. The Kreuzberg District, which currently dominates Berlin’s entertainment scene, is also home to Checkpoint Charlie a symbol of the Cold War and the most well known Berlin Wall crossing point between East and West Germany.
  
In Berlin, where alcohol can be drank openly on the streets, it is common for late-night revelers to smash empty bottles on the ground, in clubs and in the subway, and broken glass often litters the sidewalks on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Here the female art and performance group Häppi Töle put on a show called, "the last supper" which involved smashing an entire table of dishes during a staged meal.
     
  
At the bar Schokoladen Maria Psycho hosts a weekly party with DJ’s and performance art. His performance included wearing a Luche Libra Mask and then later appearing in underwear and a handmade nose.
   
Ari Fish sells Peggy Noland's fashions at the Poopsy Club in Berlin. The never ending night life make it the current European hot spot for the young creative class.
   
Cabaret is closely associated with Berlin and there are now plenty of shows that revive this theatrical revue that was banned in Germany by the Nazis in 1935. Here Rodrigo gets ready to perform.
     
  
Petra Flurr performs at Schwutz (German slang for faggot). The hedonism and tolerance of the 1920's is back and anything goes in Berlin with an active sex-club scene and a yearly fetish Festival called Folsom Europe filled with rubber masks, leather, straps, whips and chains.
   
A man plays ping-pong at Yaam, a reggae club, with the Berlin Wall in the background. Snaking along the city the 28-mile-long wall stood as a border between East and West Berlin from 1961 to 1989. That all changed on November 2, 1989. Now, 20 years later less than a mile of the Wall is left which tourists use as a backdrop for souvenir photos.
   
A couple rides the subway home, which runs all night on weekends.