It was the summer Coltrane died, the summer of love and riots, and the
summer when a chance encounter in Brooklyn led two young people on a path
of art, devotion, and initiation. Patti Smith would evolve as a poet and
performer, and Robert Mapplethorpe would direct his highly provocative
style toward photography. Bound in innocence and enthusiasm, they traversed
the city from Coney Island to Forty-second Street, and eventually to the
celebrated round table of Max's Kansas City, where the Andy Warhol
contingent held court. In 1969, the pair set up camp at the Hotel Chelsea
and soon entered a community of the famous and infamous—the influential
artists of the day and the colorful fringe. It was a time of heightened
awareness, when the worlds of poetry, rock and roll, art, and sexual
politics were colliding and exploding. In this milieu, two kids made a pact
to take care of each other. Scrappy, romantic, committed to create, and
fueled by their mutual dreams and drives, they would prod and provide for
one another during the hungry years. Just Kids begins as a love story and
ends as an elegy. It serves as a salute to New York City during the late
sixties and seventies and to its rich and poor, its hustlers and hellions.
A true fable, it is a portrait of two young artists' ascent, a prelude to
fame.