Patti Smith & Lenny Kaye for The Poetry Project
St. Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery, Lower East Side
February 9th, 2011
In a church service like no other, “Godmother of Punk” Patti Smith brought a couple hundred people to their feet Wednesday night at St. Mark’s Church, fists pumping and voices rising to the 200-year-old ceiling to the tune of “Gloria,” the lead track off her revolutionary punk-rock-meets-poetry album, Horses. Forty years ago today, she and guitarist Lenny Kaye did their first poetry performance in this very spot, with New York legends Andy Warhol, Lou Reed, Sam Shepard, Robert Mapplethorpe and others in the front row of the audience. Last night, those ghosts were palpable in the space simply referred to as “the sanctuary.” Continue reading
