William Melvin Kelley: A Different Drummer

On an afternoon in June of 1957, the Black farmer Tucker Caliban sprinkles salt on his fields, burns down his house and leaves for the north. His act initiates the exodus of the entire African-American population of the southern state. In his novel A Different Drummer, William Melvin Kelley describes the effects of the fictitious nonviolent rebellion from the perspective of the stunned white population. On the occasion of the long overdue first German translation by Dirk van Gunsteren, the cultural scientist and author Diedrich Diederichsen presents this modern classic in conversation with the moderator Jana Pareigis and the actor Fabian Hinrichs. Hinrichs reads excerpts from the novel, which still possesses disconcerting relevance more than 50 years after its original publication.

In cooperation with Hoffmann und Campe Verlag