Patti Smith:
A Salute to Robert Frank, Artist and Friend
Patti Smith, Jesse Smith, and guests

I keep trying to figure out what it means to be American. When I look in myself I see Abyssinia, nineteenth-century France, but I can’t recognize what makes me American. I think about Robert Frank’s photographs—broke down jukeboxes in Gallup, New Mexico, swaying hips and spurs, ponytails and syphilitic cowpokes, hash slingers, the glowing black tarp of US 285 and the Hoboken stars and stripes.

I think about a red, white and blue rag
I wrap around my head.
Maybe it’s nothing material; maybe it’s just being free.

Freedom is a waterfall, is pacing linoleum till dawn,
the right to write the wrong words.
And I done plenty of that...  notebook, April 1971

PLEASE NOTE: THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT.
STANDING ROOM TICKETS WILL BE SOLD AT THE BOX OFFICE BEGINNING ONE HOUR PRIOR TO THE CONCERT.

This event is presented in conjunction with the exhibition “Looking In: Robert Frank’s The Americans,” September 22, 2009–January 3, 2010.

The exhibition is made possible by Access Industries and the Blavatnik Family Foundation.

Additional support is provided by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation.

The exhibition was organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington.