Just York City Sparknotes

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The political movements of the 1960s—the Civil Rights movement, the anti-Vietnam War campaign, and the feminist movement—had transformed cultural life in the United States. As political elites continued to make decisions that enmeshed the US ever more deeply in war and inequality, art became more provocative and a vehicle of sociopolitical change. New York City provides the setting for Patti Smith’s memoir, Just Kids, at a time when NYC had become a haven for struggling artists to immerse themselves in their craft as well as to gain inspiration from other artists who had already achieved a privileged position in the arts. For Patti Smith, the daunting decision to move to New York at 19 years old led her to experiments with identity, her explorations …show more content…

Patti Smith's memoir tells the tale of her artistic ambitions and her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe. She depicts their uphill battle to find recognition for their art and to reinterpret love for herself. The 1960s in America was a decade consisting of compelling social change with notable social movements and events creating the country’s cultural landscape. What triggered the uproar of social movements occurred before the 1960s with the Civil Rights movement. A prominent issue that occurred in the Southern United States was segregation between African Americans and other Americans (predominantly White Americans). Segregation was implanted in all aspects of American society that eventually became “an accepted part of southern society” (Greene 2010). The government’s perspective on civil rights was stagnant and not striving toward …show more content…

The city that gradually welcomed young artists eventually created a close-knit environment where everyone was seeking to get their work out of the door and into the hands of success. However, these ventures artists took were set when the landscape of New York City was deteriorating out of the social division. The “postwar optimism” the country continued to pursue impacted New York City through the deindustrialization of downtown neighborhoods, rise in crime, and poverty (Rohlwing 2018). With this backdrop behind many young artists seeking to move to New York City, it further enhanced the escapism towards their craft. The diverse and accepting art community of New York City eventually inspired a new and upcoming artist by the name of Patti

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