Patti Smith performing at Sam Shephard book release at a church in Brooklyn
Patti Smith and longtime bandmates Lenny Kaye and Tony Shanahan will “present an evening of words and music” in NYC to celebrate the release of Spy of the First Person, the final book by Sam Shepard, who passed away earlier this year.
The event happens the day the book will be released, December 5, at St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church (157 Montague St in Brooklyn). Tickets are available. Here’s the book synopsis:
The final work from the Pulitzer Prize–winning writer, actor, and musician, drawn from his transformative last days
In searing, beautiful prose, Sam Shepard’s extraordinary narrative leaps off the page with its immediacy and power. It tells in a brilliant braid of voices the story of an unnamed narrator who traces, before our rapt eyes, his memories of work, adventure, and travel as he undergoes medical tests and treatments for a condition that is rendering him more and more dependent on the loved ones who are caring for him. The narrator’s memories and preoccupations often echo those of our current moment—for here are stories of immigration and community, inclusion and exclusion, suspicion and trust. But at the book’s core, and his, is family—his relationships with those he loved, and with the natural world around him. Vivid, haunting, and deeply moving, Spy of the First Person takes us from the sculpted gardens of a renowned clinic in Arizona to the blue waters surrounding Alcatraz, from a New Mexico border town to a condemned building on New York City’s Avenue C. It is an unflinching expression of the vulnerabilities that make us human—and an unbound celebration of family and life.
Patti Smith also has a few European dates with Her Band in June 2018, including a Dublin show with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. All dates are listed below.
Patti Smith — 2017/2018 Tour Dates
Dec 5 Brooklyn St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church^
June 2 Brighton Dome*
June 5 Manchester O2 Apollo*
June 6 Dublin Royal Hospital, Kilmainham with Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds*
^ – Patti Smith, Lenny Kaye and Tony Shanahan Remembering Sam Shepard
* – Patti Smith and Her Band
