During a discussion with writer Jonathan Lethem at Cooper Union in 2010, Patti Smith was asked if it was possible for young artists to make it in New York City the same way she did. Smith responded, “New York has closed itself off to the young and the struggling. But there are other cities. Detroit. Poughkeepsie. New York City has been taken away from you. So my advice is: Find a new city.”
Her response summarizes various thoughts I had while reading the first half of Just Kids, especially as I finished “Hotel Chelsea.” Because of the many artists who found success while in New York City like Smith, Mapplethorpe, and others mentioned in this book, a mythology and narrative surrounds it. New York is the place to “make it,” to become the person you were always meant to be. However, the city Smith describes is not the same city that exists today (even if the names of the neighborhoods are the same.)
Although moving to New York is a fundamental part of Smith’s journey, it is the community she finds that inspires her to write poetry and later pair that poetry with Rock n’ Roll. She’s encouraged by this community to express herself through visual art, writing, music, clothing; she is surrounded by people who allow her to be limitless. As I read, I started to believe that Patti Smith is not just punk because of music she creates; it is her willingness to try new things and her DIY (do it yourself) ethic that is punk; it is the idea that you do not have to be a genius or prodigy at something (anything) to try it, use it, or create with it that is punk. Smith writes a play during a sleepless night even though she never had before; she picks up a guitar and teaches herself chords. And it is Smith’s Chelsea community that encourages and fosters this innovation, free expression, and DIY mentality.
There are new cities where creative communities can be built; one does not have to be dependent on what was created by others when something new can be forged. There are people all over the country, some in the most surprising places, who are playing in bands, creating music venues, putting on zine fests, and making art. Here in Philadelphia I am lucky enough to know people who put on plays in living rooms, play punk music in basements, screen print beautiful designs in their homes, and write comics in coffee shops.
I don’t believe Smith’s response is meant to discourage young artists, but rather encourage them to find and shape their own spaces. New York may be filled with exciting people, places and things and it may not be impossible. But there are other cities and the people in those cities are doing something very similar to Smith and her friends in Chelsea: teaching, collaborating, and exploring with one another.
I agree with your point about the community that Smith finds as being important in inspiring her, and she was lucky to have people to wholeheartedly support her. This reminds me of something I read not too long ago, that it’s not the quality of the education that differs between a large, well-known university and a small, not as famous college. Rather, it’s the people you meet, so in this sense it relates to the idea of community being relatively important in our social lives and careers. Sometimes it is just fate that leads you to a certain place and to meet certain people, as it seemed to be with Smith meeting Mapplethorpe. I think when Smith said to “find a new city,” she hoped that people would find a more supportive community to encourage and inspire them, much like the community she found in New York did, especially after she met Mapplethorpe, who shared similar interests and goals with her. Even so, I think it is partially fate and luck, because someone could go to New York and happen to meet a group of people willing to help support that person in his or her endeavors, whereas someone could go to various cities and never really find a true community to fit in or feel comfortable in. I also think that Smith’s personality really helped her to succeed, as she was quite confident in her abilities early on in her life, and she knew what she was going to be: an artist. She was also pretty determined, never giving up as she roamed around finding various jobs to provide some sort of sustenance for her and Mapplethorpe as well as pushing through with her goal to become an artist. In this way, she is quite an admirable person, as I myself don’t know if I could do what she did, if I could believe in myself to that extent.
I was familiar with the Hotel Chelsea before reading Just Kids, but Smith’s description of the people and the culture there really brought it to life. Here was a community of artists, finally, that could support each other and inspire one another to create. She talks about the poets and musicians that gather at the Hotel and the restaurant adjacent to it. She considers Allen Ginsberg and other great Chelsea residents to be her professors. Artists living at the Chelsea serve as teachers, critics and supporters of one another’s art—Sandy Daley, the artist living next door to Robert and Patti is the one who first takes them to Max’s Kansas City in the hopes of introducing Robert to the Warhol crowd, and serves as a mentor to Robert. I sometimes wish that places like this still exist; maybe they do, but I haven’t heard of them.
I often wonder if such a supportive and well-known art community will ever exist again. To me, it seems like such an environment was a product of the time period, that the 1960s and 70s were the “right” time for all of these people to come together and share their creations, even in places outside of New York. I recently watched Martin Scorsese’s documentary about George Harrison and at one point, Pattie Boyd talks about how involved artists were in each other’s work. If the Rolling Stones were recording somewhere in London, they would stop by and listen. If a famous painter was working in a studio, they would go and watch. Maybe occurrences like these still go on today, but it seems as if it’s changed.
I’m not sure if we’ll see anything like the Chelsea again, but I do hope that there can be spaces out there for communities of artists—if not in New York, then elsewhere.