Just Kids

Two kindred spirits, two soul-mates find each other in New York City during the summer of love and make a commitment to each other and to art.

After I heard Patti Smith’s tearful acceptance speech for the National Book Award I knew I had to read Just Kids. It is a memoir of the love and friendship between two matched souls that made a commitment to art and to each other. Patti Smith is best known to me as a “the godmother of punk;” a rock n’ roller who helped to usher in a new generation of music. I did not know that along with Robert Mapplethorpe, Patti Smith had dedicated herself to art. They not only were creators of art in almost every medium, but they surrounded themselves with artists. Smith writes of encounters with the likes of Burroughs, Corso, Ginsberg, Sam Shephard, Jimi Hendrix, and Joplin.

After reading Just Kids I understood where the tears during her acceptance speech came from. Together Mapplethorpe and Smith were determined to become famous through art and find their unique voices among a cacophony of sound; however, their success was not without pain and hardship. I was truly touched by the portrait that Smith drew of herself and Mapplethorpe and felt myself wanting to run away to New York City and dedicate myself to art, but as the title suggests perhaps that dream can be attributed to the power and hope that comes from being Just Kids.