I’m talking about all generations, but we put our faith on our youth. Hitting the vaccine jackpot: Lucky few get leftover COVID-19 shots. I do things because I know they’re right. Patti Smith performs on the Pyramid stage. So I try not to do that, and I try to just be as good of a human being as I can be, that's productive, and stay healthy. It's just like the war in Vietnam; we couldn't get people involved against the war that was so long and so terrible until so many people lost sons, so many people lost brothers. Jesse’s more articulate about these things. Single-handedly inspiring climate activism with two Patti Smith poems under her belt. And 2020, when you think about it is "20/20," and what does "20/20" represent? I don’t have all the language. “Saturday Night Live” returns with new episodes at the end of January with John Krasinski, Dan Levy and Regina King announced as hosts. The best thing that we can do is unite. I’m not going down with the ship, that’s for certain. Terrible fires in Portugal. These are all places that I go to, that I’m seeing such heartbreaking shifts. Beyond that, the news was filled with stories of the horrific wildfires devastating California and the hurricane-ravaged conditions in Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Texas. We were sitting around, and Adam Yauch, who was in the Beastie Boys, asked His Holiness, "What is the number one thing that young people can do for Tibet?" Her songs are strongly driven by the lyrics, and often feature spoken poetry. The health and safety of our audience is our first priority. I have a lot of work to do — a lot of positive work to do. I think it’s very, very important for older generations to support the initiatives of our young. On the mid-October afternoon I spoke with Patti Smith about her involvement with Pathway to Paris, the collective organization of activists and artists working to amplify solutions to the crisis of climate change, it was a humid 87 degrees in New York City. Having Brooks on stage was a way to reach out to the entire country, including his fans in red states. Fifty years ago, Joan Baez was walking with Martin Luther King. About 20 years ago, I think, a group of us were working with the Dalai Lama. Read our interview below to find out Smith's thoughts on what's going on in the world and why she maintains hope for change in 2020. For tips, records, snapshots and stories on Los Angeles music culture, follow Randall Roberts on Twitter and Instagram: @liledit. One, is the support, the activism of our youth, and the other is because it's a necessity. Everywhere we go, there’s the intense heat or intense flooding. They are concerned about the extreme change. Holed up in the English countryside, the producer, musician and visual artist has been busy reinventing Zoom and falling in love with music again. I've met Joan Baez, and she's a wonderful person and I'm a big fan of hers. “The saddest answer is we can’t do anything until more and more people are personally affected”. Pathways to Paris concert featuring Patti Smith, Lucinda Williams, Talib Kweli, Karen O, Eric Burdon and more. This environmental crisis essentially is a human rights issue, and it's just going to affect everybody, but it's going to affect everybody in the world incredibly unequally. Musical fans are invited to a “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” watch party. Here she is again coming to help a young girl who she's never met. Smith then dedicated a poem to the butterflies, which was inscribed on the wall of Casa Azul. This initiative is far more reaching than the concert. Has today’s political climate shifted your priorities? Everything he said has come to pass. Besides the obvious connection of your daughter’s involvement, why Pathway to Paris now? I keep attentive to what is going on — I know exactly what’s going on on the news. The air right now in San Francisco is the most toxic it's ever been in San Francisco's history because of all the fires in Santa Rosa. So, I don't know how much worse it can get except all these dots start connecting, and it takes a toll on human life, on human health, on human resources.Â, That's why for me this event is so inspiring. She released her debut album ‘Horses’ in 1975. I’m not burying my head in the sand, but I am reserving the right to be able to do my work. Singer Randy Parton, Dolly Parton’s brother, dies at 67 of cancer. It's going to seep into the Earth. Mark Beaumont. It's so fatalistic.Â. Country star Dolly Parton says her brother and singing partner Randy Parton has died of cancer. Like those at Standing Rock who stood and fought and fought until they bled, we can't give up. We want a pandemic of positive change. The youth of America has it in their power. I think that this is a subject that has concerned many of us for a long time. It said its lease price made the location unsustainable. All I can say is, focus on the good that you can do. She became the national youth poet laureate at age 16; six years later, she read her poem at Joe Biden’s and Kamala Harris’ historic swearing-in. We can't feel powerless; we can't let ourselves feel helpless. You're preparing the world to end for your children and your children's children. Like he said in Puerto Rico, "Oh, you didn't lose thousands of people, it wasn't so bad." An Evening with Patti Smith and Her Calls for Activism. Music stars bring songs of hope to Biden inauguration, but COVID and Trump cast long shadows. It's really easy if you live in a first world country and you're semi-protected by the infrastructure to think, Oh I'll just have to use my air conditioner an extra couple months of the year, or, That's why flood insurance exists, and not actually change your behaviors and your habits. In the 1970s, radio station WNEW-FM canceled a live music broadcast of the Patti Smith Group after Patti made the … Their potential positive power. Where: Theatre at Ace Hotel, 929 S Broadway. She has been the most active politically. You go beyond America... as a traveler, everywhere I go people talk about this. This became so widespread, it was touching everyone, and then the people rose up and protested.Â, But I don't want to hope for that because, in hoping for that, we are hoping that things will get worse and worse, but they're already worse. Patti Smith — singer, songwriter, and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer — is no stranger to using her music as activism. So it felt beyond appropriate to be talking with Smith, who will be one of many notable musicians participating in a Pathway to Paris concert at Carnegie Hall on November 5 (along with Joan Baez, Michael Stipe, Talib Kweli, Cat Power, and more), about the perils of ignoring our changing environment, what we can all do to help, and how the younger generation must—and will—be the one to enact radical change. That's the one thing that we have and young people have in this present culture. Patti Smith is the embodiment of what a true artist is. We want a pandemic of good. . Mother Nature knows no race, she knows no good or evil, she just exists. In terms of activism, the most beneficial to all mankind is the one that benefits and will protect and help all of mankind, and that's environmental awareness and what we can do to move from antiquated energy sources and going off of fossil fuel and developing renewable energy and transforming our cities. What's your feeling about people who might be disillusioned or disheartened because of the monstrous human being who is now our president? How a 22-year-old L.A. native became Biden’s inauguration poet. It felt like August—in Miami. It's just gonna happen because even if it takes a while, in 2020, there's going to be another election. Basically, try to be even more positive than ever, even in the face of all of this.Â, I remember once when I was working for Ralph Nader, he said, "Pessimism and negativity breed nothing." 12/18/2019 It takes a kind, sensitive, writer, rock and roll legend to call to action for global concern. Just about the best way I can answer is somehow in the midst of everything, stay healthy, stay strong, and don't let anybody beat you down.Â, There is power in truth and numbers and ultimately, there's a lot more of us who either already realize or are beginning to realize or are just on the verge of it that this just isn't a problem that we can ignore.Â. The Standard hotel in West Hollywood on the Sunset Strip is set to close Friday. " There are always ways to feel like it doesn't affect you, but sooner or later, the dots will start connecting, and it's not just affecting your neighbor across, you know, three states. I want people to come and know they're doing. Even though my daughter's concerns are my concerns, she has become the more articulate one. Patti Smith's Art Installation dedicates a poem to activist and environmentalist Greta Thunberg. But we are the people, and the people in the end rule. I did a concert in Cologne and Joan Baez joined me. She took 57,000 photographs of the Detroit scene … I'm not talking about a thousand people, a million people. So somehow, we have to stay optimistic and stay on our own course. 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