Patti Smith
Patti Smith: Poet and Trailblazer
Among her many monikers, Patti Smith has most often been called the “godmother of punk.” Despite resisting the label, she has had a wide-ranging influence on punk, post-punk, alternative, and mainstream rock artists including U2, The Smiths, REM, Garbage, Sleater-Kinney, Bruce Springsteen, and Madonna. Her seminal first album, Horses, was released in 1975 and began a career that would lead to her induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Patti Smith group up largely in New Jersey and received a very religious upbringing. After college, she moved to Manhattan where she met and fell in love with the famous photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. She became heavily involved in poetry writing, performance art, and painting. With Mapplethorpe, they were frequent visitors of the now-legendary CBGB and …show more content…
When asked her view on feminism, she told British newspaper The Independent that, "…people always talk to me about feminism and women's rights, but I have a son too - I believe in human rights.” However, she does explain her struggles as a female musician. In her memoir, she noted that it was hard to find musician willing to work with a female lead. Smith responded to this by detaching herself from her gender and refusing to let her gender define her. In a PBS interview she explains her hopes: “I really look for to a time where we don't have to - where I don't have to pick up a book and read that this person is a - a gay poet, a black artist, a female artist. You know, I think if - if people's work is heightened to where it should be, if a person has a calling and really truly articulates that calling, there - there needs to be no label, no matter what that particular calling is. And I look forward to a time when people are - relate to each other in terms of their -the - how they exemplify themselves, how they carry themselves as a human
Among her many monikers, Patti Smith has most often been called the “godmother of punk.” Despite resisting the label, she has had a wide-ranging influence on punk, post-punk, alternative, and mainstream rock artists including U2, The Smiths, REM, Garbage, Sleater-Kinney, Bruce Springsteen, and Madonna. Her seminal first album, Horses, was released in 1975 and began a career that would lead to her induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Patti Smith group up largely in New Jersey and received a very religious upbringing. After college, she moved to Manhattan where she met and fell in love with the famous photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. She became heavily involved in poetry writing, performance art, and painting. With Mapplethorpe, they were frequent visitors of the now-legendary CBGB and …show more content…
When asked her view on feminism, she told British newspaper The Independent that, "…people always talk to me about feminism and women's rights, but I have a son too - I believe in human rights.” However, she does explain her struggles as a female musician. In her memoir, she noted that it was hard to find musician willing to work with a female lead. Smith responded to this by detaching herself from her gender and refusing to let her gender define her. In a PBS interview she explains her hopes: “I really look for to a time where we don't have to - where I don't have to pick up a book and read that this person is a - a gay poet, a black artist, a female artist. You know, I think if - if people's work is heightened to where it should be, if a person has a calling and really truly articulates that calling, there - there needs to be no label, no matter what that particular calling is. And I look forward to a time when people are - relate to each other in terms of their -the - how they exemplify themselves, how they carry themselves as a human