Somebody get me Marty Walsh’s iPod. In April, the Boston mayor celebrated Massachusetts’ first official Riot Grrrl day when he caught wind that Bikini Kill frontwoman and feminist icon Kathleen Hanna would be swinging by Beantown for a talk. This is after he tried — numerous times — to make the Modern Lovers’ “Roadrunner” the state’s official jam. This morning, Walsh continued his campaign to become the world’s coolest mayor by proclaiming tomorrow Patti Smith Day.
I declare October 10 to be Patti Smith Day-grateful for her artistic contribution, leading the way for women in rock. pic.twitter.com/DUTM649SSX
— Mayor Marty Walsh (@marty_walsh) October 9, 2015
“I urge my fellow Bostonians to join me in celebrating her enormous artistic contribution to the world,” Walsh wrote of the Godmother of Punk in the official declaration he shared on Twitter. The document also includes a beautifully written list of Smith’s day-deserving merits, including: “Ms. Smith’s work brilliantly balances the sacred and the profane, never succumbing to an easy moral binary and always urging her listeners to challenge their preconceived views of the world.”
Mayor Walsh: I am a native citizen of your fair city and I have a few ideas for future musical feminist day honorees, probably starting with Lil Kim or Lisa Simpson. If you just want to form a Patti Smith book club, I’m down, too.
RELATED: The five biggest surprises from Patti Smith’s ‘M Train’
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Text Emily Manning
Photography via Flickr user Blondinrikard Fröberg