BOOK | Punk queen Patti Smith to hold talk and signing event in Japan

BOOK | Celebrating the Publication of Her Autobiography "Just Kids" and Poetry Collection "Before the World Was Young"

Punk Queen Patti Smith to Hold Talk and Signing Event in Japan

Patti Smith, a leading figure of New York punk and a poet, will visit Japan to commemorate the release of her autobiography "Just Kids" and poetry collection "Before the World Was Young." She will hold talk and signing events on January 20th (Sunday) at 6 PM at Tower Records Shibuya and on January 21st (Monday) at 8 PM at Daikanyama T-Site.

Text by YANAKA Tomomi

Her Fateful Encounter with Photographer Robert Mapplethorpe

Patti Smith, still the queen of punk even past sixty and deeply respected by countless musicians, has had her first autobiography, "Just Kids," and her poetry collection "Before the World Was Young" released simultaneously last December.

"Just Kids," which won the National Book Award for Nonfiction in 2010 and is slated for a film adaptation, vividly portrays Patti Smith's arrival in New York alone at age twenty to pursue her artistic dreams, her fateful encounter with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe—who remained her irreplaceable partner until his death—and her interactions with key figures of the 1960s-70s counterculture, such as William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, all rendered in her fresh prose.

Meanwhile, "Before the World Was Young" collects 28 poems written between the 1980s and 2007. It offers a rich tapestry of verse filled with a tender gaze towards her beloved late husband, siblings, and others dear to her.

These talk and signing events, held ahead of her first solo tour in Japan in a decade since 2003, will take place at Tower Records Shibuya and Daikanyama T-Site. What will she, a veritable living archive of New York punk, have to say? We eagerly await the chance to hear her words.

Patti Smith Talk & Signing Event at Tower Records Shibuya

Date | January 20th (Sunday)

Time | 6:00 PM –

Venue | Tower Records Shibuya B1F "CUTUP STUDIO"

1-22-14 Jinnan, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo

Tel. 03-3496-3661

Patti Smith Talk & Signing Event at Daikanyama T-Site

Date | January 21st (Monday)

Time | 8:00 PM –

Venue | Daikanyama T-Site Building 3, 2F Music Floor

17-5 Sarugaku-cho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo

Tel. 03-3770-2525