Ah, New York, city of unique treats. Only in this metropolis of dreams and unfortunate smells can you take your kids to Diana Ross Playground, bring your date to see Woody Allen play jazz or get Reiki for your dog. And this Sunday, NYC is the only place on the planet that offers you the chance to take your mom to see Patti Smith play a Mother’s Day concert. Yes, that Patti Smith—uncompromising, defiant, razor-shunning punk poet—playing a Mother’s Day show.
Smith does have a tender side, as readers of her memoir, Just Kids, will attest. She’s a political activist, deeply concerned with social injustice. And, as pertinently, she’s a mother herself (not to mention mother-in-law to a certain Meg White). If you graze your way through Smith’s blog, you’ll find mentions of daughter Jesse Paris Smith, a pianist and composer, as sweet as this one, written on a plane: “The moon is full. It is my daughter’s birthday but I am far from her, although in truth we are never far from one another. I go through the moments before her birth and the moments after when a double rainbow appeared outside the hospital window as it was raining through the sun.”
Quirky veteran folkie Suzzy Roche and her daughter, Lucy Wainwright Roche, will join Smith and her daughter onstage, undoubtedly singing their soft new single, “Song for Wayward Saints.” It’s hardly Martha Stewart, but your own mother probably isn’t a Hallmark mom any more than you’re a Hallmark kid, right? Fearless, creative mothers of the world, rock on.—Sophie Harris
Follow Sophie Harris on Twitter: @SophieMeve