Patti Smith Announces a Special Virtual Performance With Music and Reading

Patti Smith. Photo by Erik Pendzich/Shutterstock (10433020be)

Legendary American singer-songwriter Patti Smith found a way to connect with her fans despite the coronavirus pandemic. Smith will be hosting a special virtual performance, which will see her reading excerpts from her 2019’s memoir Year of the Monkey and playing several songs.

The event, titled An Evening of Words & Music With Patti Smith, is set to take place at Brooklyn’s Murmrr Theatre and will be broadcast worldwide on September 4th. Filmmaker Matthew Schroeder will be behind the camera, while Smith’s longtime bandmate Tony Shanahan will join her for the music part of the performance.

According to the announcement, this will be Smith’s “only worldwide staged program of 2020.” The fans will be able to watch the performance by buying a $30 ticket, which comes with a copy of Year of the Monkey.

Year of the Monkey was released in September 2019. It follows previously published Patti Smith’s memoirs Just Kids and M Train.

“Taking us from California to the Arizona desert; to a Kentucky farm as the amanuensis of a friend in crisis; to the hospital room of a valued mentor; and by turns to remembered and imagined places, this haunting memoir blends fact and fiction with poetic mastery,” says the statement about the book.

While Smith released three books in the past decade, she wasn’t as active in a music sense. Her last album, titled Bang, was released in 2012. Since then, she’s mostly done guest appearances and didn’t release original music.