Smith's bohemian rhapsody

last updated 8 January 2015

Patti Smith pities today’s young, starving artists, says Christopher Bollen in Interview. When the 63-year-old poet and musician first came to New York City, she embraced the poverty and squalor. “I came from a struggling family. My father was on strike from the factory a lot. My mother did ironing and waitressing. There wasn’t always plenty to eat. So struggling was part of my heritage. I also read the biographies of struggling artists. I respected Baudelaire, who was starving. Rimbaud almost starved to death. Struggling and starving were the privileges of being an artist.” It’s a privilege denied the artists following in her footsteps. “When I came to New York in the late ’60s, you could find an apartment for $50 or $60 a month. You could get a job in a bookstore or be a waitress and still live as an artist. That’s been rendered impossible. The Bloomberg administration has reinvented the city as the hip new suburbia. A place to get great meals. Little parks that make no sense. It’s safe for tourists. I liked it when it was safer for artists. One day, all the people who have driven out the artists and have only these fancy condos are going to turn around and say, ‘Why do I live here? There’s nothing happening!’”