Patti Smith, Salman Rushdie talk literature, Trump
NEW YORK — Patti Smith’s long, slender fingers trembled just thinking about being a writer during the presidency of Donald Trump.
“I don’t know how people are even able to contain themselves and contain their rage,” Smith said, “I always felt, even if I didn’t agree with whomever was our president, I felt that I could still walk tall wherever I want. I still was myself. But there’s something about this current administration where I feel tainted as a human being.”
On Monday night at the Whitney Museum in Manhattan, Smith and Salman Rushdie commiserated about Trump and otherwise compared notes on everything from the writing process to their favourite painters. They were guests at the annual “Chairman’s Evening” hosted by the MacDowell artist colony and were interviewed by Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and MacDowell chairman Michael Chabon. MacDowell has a long history of bringing artists together and previous Chairman’s Evening pairings have included Martin Scorsese with Lin-Manuel Miranda and Stephen Sondheim with Paul Simon.
Rushdie and Smith share liberal politics, a love for Manhattan and a willingness to try different art forms. Smith is a poet and rock musician who won a National Book Award for her memoir “Just Kids.” Rushdie is author of the acclaimed novel “Midnight’s Children” and one of the rare literary figures who shares a songwriting credit with a major rock band. Rushdie collaborated with U2 on “The Ground Beneath Her Feet,” the title lifted from Rushdie’s rock ‘n’ roll novel of the same name. At the Whitney, he joked about being approached by other rock stars who wanted to work with him on music, including a drunken Alex James of the band Blur.