Patti Smith Says Artists Should Avoid New York City

Patti Smith, the Godmother of Punk, recently declared that artists should stay away from New York City. At a Q&A at Manhattan’s Cooper Union, Smith told novelist Jonathan Lethem that she no longer believes the city that offered her and other young artists of the ‘60s and ‘70s an area to share their talents is no longer welcoming artists with open arms. As a “down and out” twentysomething, Smith came to New York and was able to “get a cheap apartment and build a whole community of transvestites or artists or writers.” But these days, Smith says, “New York has closed itself off to the young and the struggling. But there are other cities. Detroit. Poughkeepsie… My advice is: Find a new city.”