Amazing night with Patti Smith and her band Jackson Smith and Jesse Paris Smith honoring Fred Sonic Smith on September 14, 2017.

Patti Smith and their two children, Jackson and Jesse Paris, rocked the house with her band (Lenny Kaye, Tony Shanahan and Jesse’s friend Rebecca Foon) in honor of the late Fred “Sonic” Smith’s memory.

Smith also paid tribute to Grant Hart of Husker Dü (“Peaceable Kingdom”) and playwright Sam Shepard (“Pissing in the River”). It was a thrilling late summer night’s performance that finished with an appearance by Michael Stipe of R.E.M.

PATTI SMITH

Patti Smith, born in Chicago and raised in South Jersey, migrated to New York in 1967. In 1975 Patti Smith’s first recording, Horses, was inducted into the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress in 2010 by The Library of Congress by the National Recording Preservation Board. Her subsequent albums are Radio Ethiopia, Easter, and Wave, Dream of Life, Gone Again, Peace and Noise, Gung Ho, trampin, Land, twelve,Banga. Outside Society, and Horses/Horses.  She is a four time Grammy nominee, most recently nominated for a 2017 Grammy for the spoken word recording of her latest book M Train, and a Golden Globe nominee for the song Mercy Is from the film Noah.

Author of the acclaimed memoir, Just Kids, which chronicled her friendship and journey in art with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, Patti Smith was awarded the 2010 National Book Award.  Her other books include Witt, Babel, Coral Sea, Woolgathering, Auguries of Innocence, Collected Lyrics, and the 2015 publication of M Train.

Patti Smith’s art has been exhibited at galleries and museums worldwide. Represented by the Robert Miller Gallery in New York since 1978, her exhibitions include Strange Messenger, Land 250, Camera Solo, and most recently “18 Stations”.  Steven Sebring’s 2008 documentary, dream of life: the movie, was acknowledged internationally and received an Emmy nomination.

As well as a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, Patti Smith also holds the honor of  “Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres from the French Ministry of Culture, and has been awarded honorary doctorates from Rowan State University, Pratt Institute of Art, and the School of Art Institute Chicago.  Patti Smith was honored by ASCAP with the Founders Award, representing lifetime achievement, and the recipient of Sweden’s Polar Award that is an international acknowledgement for significant achievements in music.

February 7, 2013, Smith was awarded the Katharine Hepburn Medal from Bryn Mawr College, which recognizes women whose lives, work and contributions embody the same drive and accomplishments as the four-time winning actress.  On May 18, 2014, Barnard College Board of Trustees will present Patti Smith with their Medal of Distinction that honors individuals who have demonstrated a commitment to excellence in their communities, and their careers. On November 1, 2014 Patti accepted the Chicago Tribune Literary Award.

September 2016 Patti Smith delivered the keynote address at Yale’s Windham-Campbell Literature Prize ceremony, in which she delivered a lecture titled “Devotion” which will be published by Yale University Press in 2017 as part of the prize’s “Why Write” series.  In November 2016 she was awarded the Burke Medal for Outstanding Contribution to the Arts in Trinity College, Dublin.

2017 Events feature: February 8–June 4, 2017 at the Dulwich Picture Gallery featuring Patti Smith Photographs in Vanessa Bell 1879-1961 exhibit.  May 5thexhibit Higher Learning in Parma, Italy, where Patti Smith will receive the prestigious Laurea Honoris Causa.  April 2017 Australian tour with her band.

Patti Smith continues to write, perform readings, work on artistic projects, and lends support for human right issues. Current tour dates and other information is posted on pattismith.net