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For more information, contact Barb Steadman - 843.857.4199

HARTSVILLE, S.C. – March 23, 2011 – Professor Jean Grosser, chair of the Coker College art department, will lead a discussion of the book “Just Kids” on  Friday, April 8, at 3:30 p.m. in Room 228 of the Charles W. and Joan S. Coker Library Information Technology Center.

A National Book Award winner and New York Times best seller, “Just Kids” is Patti Smith’s memoir and tribute to her late friend, New York photographer Robert Mapplethorpe.

Patti Smith, a writer, performer, and visual artist, gained wide recognition in the 1970s for the way she combined poetry and rock music. Her groundbreaking album “Horses,” which bears Robert Mapplethorpe’s renowned portrait, has been hailed as one of the top 100 albums of all time. She has recorded twelve albums.

In a 2009 letter to the book’s readers, Smith describes why she wrote “Just Kids” and how she views the story that she eventually managed to share.

Before his untimely death on March 9, 1989, I promised my great friend Robert Mapplethorpe that I would write our story that began when we were both twenty. It was the summer of 1967. The summer of love.

It took a long time to write. Sometimes it gave me great pleasure, but often it would produce such a sense of loss that I had to set it aside.

Now it is finished. I have kept my promise to tell our tale. It is not a story of fame and fortune. It is the unfolding of life and art, our youthful struggles and our hopes and dreams.

-- Patti Smith

This event, the library’s final book discussion of the academic year, is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.  For more information on public programs and activities at the library, call 383-8125 or visit www.cokerlibrary.blogspot.com.

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Coker College readies undergraduates for personal and professional success through a distinctive four-year program that emphasizes a practical application of the liberal arts as well as hands-on and discussion-based learning within and beyond the classroom. Coker is ranked among the “Best Colleges” in the South by U.S. News & World Report as well as The Princeton Review. Located in Hartsville, S.C., Coker is within two hours of the cultural, financial and recreational resources of Charlotte, Columbia, Charleston and Myrtle Beach.