Patti Smith | MEMETERIA by Thomas May

September 18, 2019 • 9:41 am Comments Off on Reframing the Image: A Contemporary Lens on Robert Mapplethorpe’s Provocative Art

Reframing the Image: A Contemporary Lens on Robert Mapplethorpe’s Provocative Art

Later this month, Cal Performances will present Triptych — a meditation on the legacy of Robert Mapplethorpe 30 years after his death that was composed by Bryce Dessner to a libretto by korde arrington tuttle. Here’s the article on this hybrid theatrical work I wrote for Cal Performances:

In this age of selfies, promiscuously disseminated Snapchat sexting, and Instagram—the omnipresent reflection of our image-saturated, disposable culture—it almost defies belief that an exhibition of photographs was once the flashpoint for the culture wars that continue to divide America…

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Filed under: art exhibition, Bryce Dessner, Cal Performances, Patti Smith, photography

December 12, 2016 • 5:00 am Comments Off on Patti Smith Covers Dylan at the Nobel Ceremony

Patti Smith Covers Dylan at the Nobel Ceremony

And Bob Dylan’s speech:

Good evening, everyone. I extend my warmest greetings to the members of the Swedish Academy and to all of the other distinguished guests in attendance tonight.

I’m sorry I can’t be with you in person, but please know that I am most definitely with you in spirit and honored to be receiving such a prestigious prize. Being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature is something I never could have imagined or seen coming. From an early age, I’ve been familiar with and reading and absorbing the works of those who were deemed worthy of such a distinction: Kipling, Shaw, Thomas Mann, Pearl Buck, Albert Camus, Hemingway. These giants of literature whose works are taught in the schoolroom, housed in libraries around the world and spoken of in reverent tones have always made a deep impression. That I now join the names on such a list is truly beyond words.

Filed under: Bob Dylan, Patti Smith