Smith's Beat bond burnished

Rock poet awarded lifetime tribute

THE POET, ARTIST and musician Patti Smith has been named a Lifetime New Generation Beat Poet Laureate by the US-based National Beat Poetry Foundation, joining Anne Waldman, Johnny Depp and Bob Dylan in an elevated pantheon.

The NBPF, under its founder Deborah Tosun Kilday, supports poets working in the Beat tradition and recognises not just major national and international figures but also pays due credit to Beat Poet Laureates across the individual states.

Tosun Kilday explains: ‘Each year I receive recommendations from all over the United States and the world from different poetry groups, individuals and past and present Beat Poet Laureates.’

Patti Smith, born Patricia Lee Smith in Chicago in 1946, is a performer and creator in multiple fields, as songwriter, poet, painter, author and photographer. She is renowned for her influential role in the punk rock movement, particularly for her debut 1975 album Horses.

Her work is characterised by a fusion of rock and poetry, and she is considered a major figure in the New York City art scene. Smith’s verse, prose and spoken word output all show signs of Beat influence.

When young she displayed an early interest in literature and poetry, and her artistic inclinations were further sparked by encounters with the music of John Coltrane, Little Richard and the Rolling Stones.

Smith, 79, is also a celebrated author, with critically-revered memoirs Just Kids (2010), which won the National Book Award, M Train (2015), and Year of the Monkey (2019). Her writing explores themes of art, love, loss, and the creative process, often drawing on her own life experiences. In 2016, she famously accepted the Nobel Prize for Literature on behalf of her longtime friend Bob Dylan.

Her work has had a profound impact on music, literature, and art and she is widely considered a cultural icon. Her ability to seamlessly blend different art forms has inspired generations of artists. She continues, of course, to write, perform and record.

The NBPF’s 2025 award ceremony will be held on August 30th in Barkhamsted, Connecticut. Will Patti Smith attend the prize ceremony? Comments Tosun Kilday: ‘Presently Patti is on tour overseas and has not confirmed if she will accept the award in person or attend the event, but she has a long history of affiliation and friendships with the original generation of Beat poets as well as some of the present Beat Poet Laureates.’

She further remarks: ‘Our family of Beat Poets and Artists Laureate keeps growing each year as we continue to write and carry on the tradition set by the original Beat Generation, but also to evolve, to write and reflect the times we live in today with our writing and also through our expressions as artists.’

See also: ‘Dylan to accept Beat laureateship?’, November 13th, 2023; ‘Johnny Depp accepts Beat Laureate prize’, September 6, 2022; ‘Book review #8: Why Patti Smith Matters’, August 8th, 2022; ‘Depp scoops prestige Beat award’, August 2nd, 2022