“I spent the evening checking out the action on St. Mark’s Place. Long-haired boys scatting around in striped bell-bottoms and used military jackets flanked with girls wrapped in tie-dye. There were flyers papering the streets announcing the coming of Paul Butterfield and Country Joe and the Fish. ‘White Rabbit’ was blaring from the open doors of the Electric Circus. The air was heavy with unstable chemicals, mold, and the earthy stench of hashish. The fat of candles burned, great tears of wax spilling onto the sidewalk.
I can’t say I fit in, but I felt safe. No one noticed me. I could move freely. There was a roving community of young people[…] I wasn’t kin to these people, but because of the free-floating atmosphere, I could roam within it. I had faith” (30)
Patti Smith’s experience of St. Mark’s Place expresses the ways in which New York creatives navigate the various influences on the formation and shaping of the artistic self. This particular passage evokes the location’s intense and intrinsic connection to the fashion, music, art, and drug scenes pervasive in the East Village in the mid-20th century, most of which is still present to this day. At the core of these scenes are radically creative self-presentation and counter-cultural individualism. It is ultimately the desire to become a part of this artistic scene that drives Smith – and countless other artists and creative spirits – to live in the city, and to spend time on St. Mark’s Place in particular. While some of this scene has changed in form and appearance (the Electric Circus, for instance, the nightclub from which Smith hears the song “White Rabbit” playing, lasted only a few years), the artistic and rebellious spirit of St. Mark’s has never left its few blocks. This eccentric and expressive area has shaped – and continues to shape – innumerable artists, often during their most formative years. It is among and against this crowd of bohemian city-dwellers that Smith and others define themselves as individuals, and as artists.
In first noting the eclectic fashions found on St. Mark’s Place, Smith highlights the crucial role of aesthetics and fashion/fashioning in creatively defining oneself. The very first description of her surroundings details “long-haired boys,” “striped bell-bottoms,” “used military jackets,” and “tie-dye” (Smith, 30). The inclusion of these considerably specific descriptions of fashions elucidates the importance to Patti – and to those whom she is describing – of self-presentation and aesthetics as they relate to the creation and definition of oneself. St. Mark’s Place’s connection to fashion and personal identity is by no means a young tradition: punk stores (like Trash and Vaudeville, which was around even during Smith’s days as a young artist) have sold second-hand punk clothing and head-turning ensembles for years. These garments are not just eclectic and colorful (or perhaps even intimidating), however; they are also considerably politically-charged. By donning used clothing, uncut hair, and tie-dye (a print inherently imbued with the spirit of peace and artistic expression), past and present passers-by send a political message: one of self-sufficiency and rebellion.
This rebellion – and counter-cultural action – is another means through which the artistic soul on St. Mark’s Place “marks” oneself. The drug-induced counterculture of the 1960s and 70s still thrives in this area: the “earthy scent of hashish” noted by Smith often floats in the air on these blocks on warm summer evenings (30). Perhaps one of the most crucial aspects of the formation and development of the artist in Smith’s time, however, is the use of psychedelic drugs. LSD – the abbreviation for the scientific name of the drug more commonly known as “acid” – proliferated popular culture in the 1960s as a recreational drug that inspires vivid hallucinations, subsequently altering the minds of artists and various creative types alike. The presence of this mystical drug in Smith’s description of St. Mark’s Place might go unnoticed were it not for her mentioning of the song “White Rabbit” by Jefferson Airplane. The song, with lyrics drawn almost entirely from motifs and events in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, alludes to changes in perception somewhat reminiscent of those resulting from LSD use.
As with her inclusion of descriptions of the fashions found on St. Mark’s Place, Smith’s passing reference to this drug-infused tune heard playing from an equally psychedelically-influenced nightclub underscores the importance of such formative and rebellious experiences occurring in this landmark location. To say that the use of various drugs alters one’s perception of life could be considered an understatement; in that sense, experiences with drugs can be extremely valuable to the artist, whose aim is often to represent unique yet identifiable perceptions. Just as Patti’s companion Robert dabbled heavily in experimentations with acid to aid his artistic growth, so too do many artists internalize the mind-altering visualizations experienced when taking drugs to influence and direct their work. Through the expansion of the mind and of creative perception, the artist can access, and hopefully convey, a broader range of perceptions, ideas, and sensory experiences.
Ultimately, the growth of the artist is a continuous journey shaped by a near-innumerable multitude of forces and experiences. As described in Patti Smith’s passage, St. Mark’s Place has for decades been a hub for artistic expression and discovery. Creative and countercultural forces combine in these three short blocks to create a hub of creative activity crucial to the development of artistic identity.