On New Years Eve, Patti Smith will play a special virtual performance on Piccadilly Circus billboards in London. The livestream will air at exactly midnight which will be broadcasted worldwide at the digital art platform Circa, on their YouTube channel.
This a special performance because Smith will be paying tribute to the UK’s NHS health-care workers that have fallen victim to Covid-19 in their fight to heal those suffering in the pandemic. When discussing her decision to honour health-care workers, Smith stated that it’s just so sad when we lose people who work so hard to rebuild our world.
Patti Smith has been focusing less on her music and more on activism since her last album release Banga in 2012. The majority of her activism has been centered around climate change, playing multiple shows, making speeches and raising money and awareness around the subject.
Smith has also taken up poetry in the last decade, performing poetry live often and releasing her own written poetry as well. To honour her love for poetry and combine it with her activism surrounding climate change, at the NYE showcase she will also be reading a poem dedicated to the climate change activist Greta Thunberg who will be celebrating her 18th birthday in the coming month. Smith wanted to honour Thunberg because she pretty much sacrificed her childhood for all of us.
When discussing the poem, Smith said that some of the work I did in my bedroom, some in a recording studio and some at my desk. I had to teach myself how to use Photo Booth on my computer and film myself reading a poem. She continued by joking about the creative process, saying I’m sure there are 14-year-olds who can do this in five minutes but it took me quite a while. But I got there and I’m so proud of myself.
When discussing her struggles during the covid-19 isolation, for which she needed to isolate because of lung issues, she said it was very difficult for her to overcome. She stated that she had so much responsibility and a true purpose. To be in limbo almost 10 months, for a person like me who doesn’t like sitting in the same place, it’s been very challenging. I feel like I’m part-wolf, roaming from room to room.
It is fitting that Smith will be honouring those who have sacrificed their lives considering she has spent the last decade sacrificing hers to make the world a little cleaner. YouTube’s Circa will showcase Patti Smith throughout January at 20:21 GMT at Piccadilly Lights, London, leading up to the special NYE tribute performance.
