Patti Graduates

Patti Smith received an honorary degree from Brooklyn's famed Pratt Institute, at which she gave the commencement address (transcript here):



She followed it up with two poem/songs with her longtime musical partner, guitarist Lenny Kaye:





This dovetails with her renaissance (again!) as her autobiographical book, centered on her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe from when she first arrived in NYC in 1967 through his death from AIDS in 1986, is a vivid and illuminating portrait of both those "interesting" times and her birth as an artist. Just Kids.

Speaking for the kids, never having lost the connection to youth, inspiration, reinvention, art.