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Patricia
Lee Smith (born December 30, 1946)[5]
is an American singer-songwriter, poet, and visual artist who became an
influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975
debut album Horses.[1]
Queer Places:
Deptford Township High School, 575 Fox Run Rd, Deptford Township, NJ 08096, Stati Uniti
Rowan University, 201 Mullica Hill Rd, Glassboro, NJ 08028, Stati Uniti
Hotel Chelsea, 222 W 23rd St, New York, NY 10011, Stati Uniti
Patricia
Lee Smith (born December 30, 1946)[5]
is an American singer-songwriter, poet, and visual artist who became an
influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975
debut album Horses.[1]
In 1967, she left Glassboro State College (now Rowan University) and moved to Manhattan. She met photographer Robert Mapplethorpe there while working at a bookstore with friend and poet Janet Hamill. She and Mapplethorpe had an intense romantic relationship, which was tumultuous as the pair struggled with times of poverty, and Mapplethorpe with his own sexuality. Smith considers Mapplethorpe to be one of the most important people in her life, and in her book Just Kids refers to him as "the artist of my life." Mapplethorpe's photographs of her became the covers for the Patti Smith Group albums, and they remained friends until Mapplethorpe's death in 1989.[17] Her book and album The Coral Sea would be an homage to the life of Mapplethorpe and Just Kids would tell the story of their relationship. She would also write essays for several of Mapplethorpe's books, starting from one, at his request, for his posthumous Flowers.[18]
She went to Paris with her sister in 1969, and started busking and doing performance art.[14] When Smith returned to Manhattan, she lived in the Hotel Chelsea with Mapplethorpe; they frequented Max's Kansas City and CBGB. Smith provided the spoken word soundtrack for Sandy Daley's art film Robert Having His Nipple Pierced, starring Mapplethorpe. The same year Smith appeared with Wayne County in Jackie Curtis's play Femme Fatale. Afterward, she also starred in Tony Ingrassia's play Island. As a member of the St. Mark's Poetry Project, she spent the early 1970s painting, writing, and performing. In 1971 she performed – for one night only – in Cowboy Mouth,[19] a play that she co-wrote with Sam Shepard. (The published play's notes call for "a man who looks like a coyote and a woman who looks like a crow".) She wrote several poems, "for sam shepard"[20] and "Sam Shepard: 9 Random Years (7 + 2)"[21] about her relationship with Shepard.
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Hotel Chelsea, New York City
Called the "punk poet laureate," Smith fused rock and poetry in her work. Her most widely known song is "Because the Night," which was co-written with Bruce Springsteen. It reached number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1978[1] and number five in the U.K. In 2005, Smith was named a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture.[6] In 2007, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.[7]
Smith's book, Just Kids, a memoir of her time in 1970s Manhattan and her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe, was published in 2010; it later won the National Book Award for Nonfiction.[8][46] In 2018 a new edition with many added photographs and illustrations was published. She also headlined a benefit concert headed by bandmate Tony Shanahan, for The Court Tavern of New Brunswick.[47] Smith's set included "Gloria", "Because the Night" and "People Have the Power." She has a brief cameo in Jean-Luc Godard's 2010 Film Socialisme, which was first screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.[48]
My published books:
