Poets & Writers Theater

“And I dreamed of our world, a spinning ball of confusion, heart-wrenching injustices…” Patti Smith reads a poem and performs a cover of Neil Young’s “After the Gold Rush” in this video from the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Smith’s new memoir, Year of the Monkey, is out now from Knopf.

"To me, poetry is one of the highest, most abstract, most fulfilling forms of communication. We've always needed poets." In this recording from 1976, Patti Smith talks to journalist Mick Gold about censorship, her creative habits and inspirations, and recounts her first exposure to the poetry of Arthur Rimbaud. Animated by Patrick Smith, the video is part of PBS Digital Studios' Blank on Blank series.

“Be very patient, even patient with chaos,” Lydia Davis advises writers in this compilation of interviews by Louisiana Channel. Seasoned writers from around the world, including Alaa Al Aswany, Umberto Eco, Richard Ford, Patti Smith, and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, also offer their thoughts on how to keep writing.

​"The snow was dancing like cotton wool in the light of the street lamps. Aimlessly, unable to decide whether it wanted to fall up or down..." The opening lines of Jo Nesbø's most recent novel, Blood on Snow (Knopf, 2015), translated from the Norwegian by Neil Smith, are read in the audio edition by Patti Smith.​

"Every human being has a creative impulse, and we all have the right to exercise this creative impulse." At the 2012 Louisiana Literature Festival, Patti Smith, whose new memoir, M Train, will be released on October 6 by Knopf, talks about creativity and what inspires her to write.

In this 2012 video clip Patti Smith, Phillip Glass, Patti’s band, and Tibetan monks perform Allen Ginsberg’s poem, “Howl,” in honor of a visit from the Dalai Lama.