I arrived at the Back Bay Events Theatre in time to still get a seat; one advantage of being a singleton. Some people dressed in her iconic black and white, others dressed in their casual finest and most came as they were. The first order of business was receiving your book; signed or unsigned - to be signed later. I, of course, chose unsigned to be signed post-event. This was not my first Smith Rodeo! Although it was new for them to say, more than once, that she "would not be photographed, do personalizations, nor sign anything other than M Train"!
A seat in the lower half of the theater on the right side near the aisle was free. The woman in the aisle seat and I engaged in conversation. She was born in SF, which came up when I mentioned where I last saw Patti. She now lives in Cambridge, but had spent decades in Santa Fe and still owns a home there. She is an archeologist by training, but currently the Director of Publishing for the Peabody Museum. We discussed many things; music, books, art, cities and discovered we had many people in common. The favorite photograph in her office is of Owen Lattimore (my step-grandfather) shaving outside his tent in Mongolia. She used it in a book she published and offered to send me a copy of the photo.
Finally some music plays and out comes a female representative from the Mayor's Office to read the below proclamation! Each time she arrives at an AND, the crowd wildly cheers, until well after the following WHEREAS and into the next clause. The reasoning and curation behind the list of Ms. Smith's accomplishments are well worn stones in these fans fingers, but we cheer on 'til the end!
Then Patti arrives! She is girlish with her embarrassment and pride. She holds the proclamation above her head and all but twirls. And yes, she's wearing layers of black and white, with black jeans and boots on bottom. Hair natural grey, not dyed the recent brown, for this book tour. When she finally speaks she announces that she came early to Boston and spent the day in JP with her friend Patti Hudson who "owns Monumental Cupcakes", so "I'm sharing the day ~ for two Patti's"! She continued by saying that her dear friend Michael Stipe (REM), texted her from Paris too, with the news of it being Patti Smith Day in Boston, and this thrilled her.
The podium the Harvard Book Store (with a placard of the cover of her book on it) is set up to the left hand side of the stage with a mic. Patti, has however, decided to wear a mic and spends almost the entire hour in the center of the stage. Well not entirely. She apologizes several times for not being able to stand still. She says she's always been that way, along with the rest of the boys in her grade school. Unable to stop fidgeting, "They'd probably give me a pill today," but "I've always had extra energy." Thank god for that, as we've all benefitted by what that energy has allowed her to produce in so many mediums.
She says she'll read for a little, then we'll have a discussion, and then she'll read some more and then she'll answer questions. Her book is full of yellow post-it notes and she needs to use reading glasses. But before she starts to read she says she's been asked about which train the M Train is...Tokyo, Brooklyn,.... She says it's the Mind Train.....she just wanted to see where the writing and memories would take her.
Patti begins to read. She reads from the chapters that take place in Cafe Ino, her local NYC neighborhood cafe where she writes daily and the Arcade Bar in Detroit where she and her husband spent hours before they were "noticed" by the world. The singular and strong thread that runs through her writing in the Cafe is captivating. The longing and belonging concert of she and her husband in the bar is heartbreaking. Having read Just Kids (Mapplethorpe and her infancy in art days) and being intimately familiar with them (yes, especially the Sam Shepard/Cowboy Mouth days), this revealing of her present life in NY and her past life with Fred Sonic Smith is a revelation to me. She was extremely private and protective of their marriage, except for the glimpses of their "one mind", as she put it last night, in songs. Her ranting and riffing between chapters is something I was familiar with from seeing her interviewed before. She is very alive and connected...which has earned her the title of "shaman" in some circles. Patti remained unfazed when a mouse started scurrying through the audience and bringing people screaming to their feet. She made a joke about being allergic to mice and added, "I'm from New York. There was a dead rat on my stoop the other day that was bigger than Cairo (her Abyssinian cat, name for the color of the pyramids), "Get over it!"
When it came the questions from the audience it was painful. One of the first young women asked her if she used a stylist?! She said emphatically "No, in fact I've been kicked out of a few photo shoots for not using one." I don't want to misquote her, but basically she said her style needed no improvement...it was already perfected. Another young woman (and the two questioning lines were exclusively young people (20-30 somethings), told Patti she was an English teacher and headed a Punk Rock band and she asked Patti about how she got respect and how far she thinks things have come for women. The phrasing of the question was oddly entitled and Patti read her the riot act. "When I started out they told me to "get back in the kitchen", and I said, "Fuck You." She went onto say that there are many bigger social injustices these days (and cited gun violence and human rights), that need to be addressed. That it's good to "fight the good fight", but one must fight! The woman beside me said, "Ouch!".
The tenor of the questions shifted after that to those of identity and art, again, young people searching. Many questions about crossroads, choosing mediums, and conflicts of life paths. When asked point blank how she identified herself, Patti answered, "As a writer," but then she qualified it in a way that was almost exactly the way Annie Leibovitz answered it during a Q&A with her book Pilgrimages: "When I was 8 years old I read Little Women and I wanted to be Jo." Louisa May Alcott, Patti Smith and Annie Leibovitz.....all iconoclastic mavericks. (I was called those two words the first months I moved to NYC in the 80's and had to look them up...but that's another story). Now to hear the Queen of Poetry Rock (as I call her) say she wanted to be Jo March made perfect sense to me. I had a similar reaction when I read the book, at a much later age than 8.
What's interesting to about both Leibovitz and Smith is that they both started to produce pilgrimages of the private lives after their spouses died. For Leibovitz it was Susan Sontag. For Smith it was both Mapplethorpe and Fred Sonic Smith. Both from a sense of responsibility to their subjects and themselves, and although Patti didn't mention it (but Annie, did), to their children.
Over the course of the remaining questions, she never went back to reading chapters, but did point to book cover placard and said the title several times, in the voice of a late night tv ad salesperson. However she did spit (usual), burb (a first for me), swear (usual), and bring down the house with laughter (her weapon of wit)!
The grand finale was her singing the song Because The Night that she and her "boyfriend", as she still prefers to refer to Fred, wrote http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/pattismith/becausethenight.html. She started and the crowd joined in. Her distinct voice, and tone were so wonderful to hear without any accompaniment.....magic moment. Plus her stamping and clapping, overcomes.
Half the audience took pre-signed books and the other half (my people) didn't. Now was the time to wait on line, replete with stanchions and retractable canvas lines --ala LAX, for the chance to look her in the eye (a difficult feat, since they don't align) and have her sign your book (sans photos, personalization or memoriblia). I was lucky to be near the front of the serpentine line (easily 400 people) and doing anything nefarious (some men, yes they thought the rules didn't apply to them where shamelessly taking photos of her with large (multi lens) and small (phone) cameras -- they were summarily taken to task). When I rounded the bend, proved there was nothing in my book but its contents (pun intended) I was allowed to approach Patti. As I neared, I spoke up:
" Hi Patti. Last time I saw you was in SF to sign work of your collected poems to my daughter Lenora. She's now 17, getting ready for college and considers it an heirloom."
Patti looked up from signing my book, "Bless you and bless your daughter."
"And also you....", I said.
She smiled in return.
Now if I'd been in line for question to her there would have been two: What was it like to meet and perform for Pope Francis and will she ever write about her Mother's support of her as a young artist?
I can imagine the answers, but I'd love to know them for real.
Off to visit Mass MoCa and look at colleges with my kids....
