Patti Smith calls on citizens to use the power of their vote against Trump’s ‘deplorable leadership’

The American singer and writer Patti Smith, this year’s recipient of the Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts, said Tuesday at a news conference following the ceremony in Oviedo, Spain that “sometimes it feels like we don’t have power, but we do have power,” and that what the U.S. needs right now is “for people to use that power, to rise up, think for ourselves and then unite.” She added that for her it is difficult to talk about her country’s current situation, describing it as having “deplorable leadership.”

“I have nothing good to say about our present administration. Usually, one finds some good, because I’m not a nationalist type of person, I don’t really care about Republican, Democrat, this country, that country; I consider myself a global person, but I really must say I feel ashamed of the present administration,” the artist said.

She said the role of artists is no longer enough to change this situation and appealed for all citizens to unite. “We are in such difficult, dangerous times that art is not enough; we need emergence of people, the people’s great numbers, our artists, our activists, people of all kinds who want to do good, not only for the United States but for the whole world. We will have elections soon and that is why voting right now is probably the most important thing to make change, rather than responding artistically,” she said.

During the press conference at the Hotel de La Reconquista, the honoree spoke at length about the current situation in the U.S. but also about her career, the influence of Spanish culture on her work and her relationship with religion. Asked whether her religiosity is incompatible with the “individual freedom” she has always defended, the artist described the “several evolutions” she has gone through. She said she was raised by her mother with the idea of God. She said she was raised as a Jehovah’s Witness and received a religious education both at school and at home. “When I was young I decided I could believe in God in my own way and pray in my own way and be free as an artist,” she said.

She recounted how an accident in 1977 brought her back to religion. She said that then she could see Jesus as a true revolutionary based on love, and that was when her idea of religion changed completely. “In the times we are living in, we need to believe in something, and I hope that at the very least each one of us believes—at least in ourselves,” she said.

The American artist also spoke at length about Spanish culture and the influence it has had on her entire body of work. Federico García Lorca, Cervantes and Picasso were cited by the honoree several times during the press conference. She said many aspects of Spanish culture have caught her attention and influenced the course of her life. “Picasso was my favorite artist for many years. In fact, when I was 12 and saw a work by Picasso for the first time, I knew I wanted to be an artist. Whenever I go to Madrid, I go to see Guernica,” she said.

Patti Smith also referred to the “beautiful coincidence” of being in Oviedo and giving a concert on the 50th anniversary of her first performance in Spain, on October 20, 1967.

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