Patti Smith: Dodge Poetry Festival
About This Event
Patti Smith, whose work emerged from New York City’s 1970s punk and downtown arts scenes, appears at NJPAC as part of the Dodge Poetry Festival. Her early recordings paired spoken language with lean rock arrangements, and in New York–area appearances at venues such as Town Hall and NJPAC she moves between song and text, favoring direct address and keeping voice and words in the foreground.
About Dodge Poetry Festival
The other Dodge Poetry Festival comes to NJPAC as a live, staged gathering that treats poetry as a public art form, not a private page. Featured performer Patti Smith brings a Rock/Pop sensibility to the program, where spoken language and song share the same room. While the festival’s deepest roots are across the river in New Jersey, it has long functioned as part of the wider New York–area literary circuit, drawing audiences who move easily between boroughs and Newark. The event suggests, quietly, that performance is one way poems stay socially current.
About the Artist
Patti Smith
Patti Smith is a singer, songwriter, poet, and author whose work emerged from New York City’s 1970s punk and downtown arts scenes. Her early recordings set spoken language against lean rock arrangements, and that approach continues to shape her concerts and readings.