The rumor mill in my adopted home of Brooklyn, NY, is churning all about the final show at legendary punk club CBGBs (see So Long, CBs; Hello, Punk New Wave). A few nights ago, word was punk poet/activist Patti Smith would rule the stage—a superlative choice considering her long history with the beloved Bowery dive (she was one of the earliest performers to make the place home base). Funny then that my colleague Mirela recently passed me Frank Stefanko’s copper-hue jacketed Patti Smith: American Artist (Palace Press International, October), a gripping collection of 150 black-and-white photos chronicling Smith’s evolution from penniless female Keith Richards fan girl to near superstar. Smith herself contributes the foreword, and her longtime cohort and guitarist Lenny Kaye penned the intro. That this is a photographic capsule is important—looking at Smith circa 1970 with 21st-century eyes, one can easily forget that the piercing, “masculine” appearance she cultivated was absolutely daring and unique. Today in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, I pass dozens of limp lookalikes in the street, but this is the Original Urban Warrior, in all her strutting, inky-black romantic glory. An excellent companion to Smith’s very library-friendly Patti Smith Complete: Lyrics, Reflections, and Notes for the Future (Anchor).