Patti Smith wasn't seeking fame when she landed in Manhattan in 1969. She was a fan of the greats of the day - like Dylan, Mapplethorpe, Pollock, Ginsberg - who she followed and emulated, hoping to find her own creative space next to those she most admired.
She got a room with Mapplethorpe at the Chelsea in 1969, where she says, “Everyone had something to offer and nobody seemed to have much money. Even the successful seemed to have just enough to live like extravagant bums.” She fit right in.
Today, Patti Smith is an iconic poet and punk rocker who became one of the greats she once admired.
Last year, she spent an hour with Colin while she was in town for a Mark Twain House "Mark My Words" event held at Immanuel Congregational Church in Hartford. She looked back over her life as an artist, a lover of Mapplethorpe, a wife and mother, and as a person she says is a better friend in the abstract than in reality. And, she's really funny.
GUEST:
- Patti Smith - Singer/Songwriter, poet, and visual artist. She's released almost a dozen albums and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007. She won a National Book Award for her memoir, Just Kids. Her second memoir is M Train
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Colin McEnroe & Chion Wolf contributed to this show, which originally aired on November 10, 2016.
