The Bowery Shadows: Patti Smith Reading

Patti Smith’s latest book, M Train, opens with the line “It’s not so easy writing about nothing.” Call that poetic license (a license Smith certainly possesses in perpetuity); M Train could more accurately be described as being about everything. Just like the punk poet-priestess’ earlier memoirs Just Kids (soon to be an HBO series), Woolgathering and The Coral Sea, this latest encompasses nothing less than the birth of an artistic soul. Nicholas Sellitto, impresario of the Modern Music Movement, had been meaning to create a Patti Smith event and when he saw she had a new book out, figured it was a good time to take the leap. The Bowery Shadows will follow the pattern of earlier MMM events like William Burroughs: Midnight Exterminations: readings accompanied by music apropos to the poet – in this case, Smith’s poems will be read by Megan Faubel, Ashley Inguanta and Lisa Bugayong (of Obliterati), with the angular saxophone accompaniment of another Obliterati member, Jim Ivy. We feel sure this talented quartet will raise the shadows and ghostly presences that swirl though Smith’s work, along with the populist punk spirit of the Bowery. – Jessica Bryce Young