So it’s always kind of tricky knowing how to address International Women’s Day as a man. Thankfully, the Guardian partly solved it for me, highlighting Patti Smith as one of their Top 100 Women.
If you listen to rock’n'roll, you’ll know that she was one of the most influential and important artists of the seventies.
If you read, you owe it to yourself to run (RUN!) and buy her memoir Just Kids of her life with Robert Mappleforth in New York in the late 60s/early 70s. It reduced me to tears and won a much deserved National Book award.
She continues to write, record, perform and campaign for social justice with equal amounts of utter commitment and passion. She’s the kind of heroine I’d like not only my daughter but my son to have. Though they will, of course, have to find their own.
Here she is on the Late Show in 2007:
March 8th, 2011 at 5:31 pm
[...] Dad Who Writes on Patti Smith [...]
March 9th, 2011 at 9:52 am
She is an amazing woman. I didn’t know she’d written a book. Definitely one to add to my list.
March 9th, 2011 at 7:32 pm
I didn’t know about her book either. Thanks for the heads up