Happy June and Dream of Life Anniversary

My birthday month and the month of my favorite album of my parents

Today is June 1, welcome to June! This is the first day of my birthday month, the last weeks of my 36th year, and it’s also the anniversary of Dream of Life, the album my parents wrote and recorded together, released on June 1, 1988. It’s my favorite of my mom’s albums, because it’s a project of both of my parents together, and also because I love each of the songs on it so much, each one for different reasons, and evoking different emotions and memories. The song of course that is most known from this album is ‘People Have the Power,’ so today is also the release anniversary of this song.

In honor of this anniversary, I wanted to share a few things, including a video we created in 2020 during election ti. Here are some words I wrote about it just a few months ago:

“This film is very special to me and represents collaboration and advocacy. When Covid took hold of the world in 2020, we canceled an entire year of events, which would have been our biggest and most exciting year to date. We felt connection and solidarity were needed more than ever, so we immediately transitioned to virtual events and online festivals as many others did, too. One of the first things we did was this video, a venture into the unknown. It isn't highly advanced in terms of equipment, but that’s one of the reasons I love it - because from places all over the world we created something together from our own homes with the exact same technology, using our phone cameras and communicating through email and text. In a dark and isolated time, this project brought about a feeling of togetherness, optimism, and hope, and so much of this is because of the song itself. It still makes me cry when I watch it, feeling the energy and heart of every single person, faces and voices from all over the world. Collaboration and collective action is so important and this is a kind example of that.”

A Rollingstone article which featured our video in September, 2020

Here it is! I hope you enjoy it. <3 It’s a low-res copy - I’ll replace it with a higher res version later. :) The credits at the end have a list of every person included and each city and country represented :)

Most recently, on April 5, we showed this film at the United Nations after a day of presentations and speaking to a room filled with international students and leading voices. To our shock and surprise, the room erupted in spontaneous singing, with students holding up their phones as flashlights, a room full of smiles, voices, and light. It was one of the most incredible and unexpected things I had ever seen.

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I also want to share some words that I wrote when I was 33, just before my 34th birthday. We were getting ready to launch our ‘People Have the Power’ t-shirt with our partners, Kin Ship Goods. Since then we’ve also launched kids shirts, sweatshirts, and other fun items, all benefitting Pathway to Paris and our climate action work. Thank you to everyone who has purchased one, and thank you to everyone who I see wearing them, at events, in crowds at concerts, on the street. Every time I see one, I smile and feel so grateful, and it touches my heart to see those particular words that my Dad came up with.

Here are the words I wrote for our original newsletter release:

Today we are so proud and excited to release this awesome shirt designed by our dear friends at Kin Ship Goods in West Virginia. The timing of this feels very special - moments from the past tied together in this serendipitous way, making it all feel like destiny. The song ‘People Have the Power,’ was written by my parents Fred Sonic Smith and Patti Smith and recorded in 1987 for their album ‘Dream of Life’ while my mom was pregnant with me. This is my favorite of her albums - such a dynamic collaboration of love and creativity between my parents, a true example of partnership. My mom often tells the story of how this song came to be, that she was cooking in the kitchen at our house in Michigan, when my dad walked into the room and said, ‘People Have the Power. Write it,’ to which my mom replied, ‘aye, aye, Captain.’ 

Thus the song was born, and soon I would be, too! While they recorded in the studio, my mom says I was kicking inside her belly, dancing away, full of energy, which seems to me a good way to measure the power and effect of a song. (The baby is kicking, it’s a hit!) I was born on June 27, 1987, and the album was released on June 1, 1988. This year I’ll be turning 34 and the song was recorded 34 years ago. Its’ amazing to see the journey it’s words have taken, the way it’s traveled and spanned its messaging across the globe. 

Original People Have the Power music video

My dad envisioned ‘People Have the Power’ to be an anthem for the world, a clarion call for anyone who might need it, hoping for the song to serve as a unifying aid and amplifier for protest movements, political campaigns, and more. Though he did not live long enough to see this happen, we have been continuously and deeply moved watching his dream come to fruition, perhaps long surpassing his expectations as the song grows in its usage around the world. Just as he imagined, it has been claimed globally by individuals and groups, sung by choirs and children, covered by bands and well known singers during festivals, recorded on charity compilations, chanted during marches and demonstrations. Its lyrics have adorned handmade signs carried by protesters, been sung during political campaigns and gatherings for environmental and humanitarian causes, and the song has often served as a closing finale for fundraisers and global concerts, as it has for every Pathway to Paris event since 2014.

Pathway to Paris and Kin Ship Goods have been connected for almost 5 years now, and it is again this song that brought us together. In February 2018, my mom, my brother Jackson, Lenny Kaye, and I traveled to Charleston, West Virginia to honor my Dad’s induction into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame, as he was born there in the Harts Creek area of Lincoln County. This experience was one of the most beautiful and moving times of my life, and I was touched every day by the comforting warmth and welcoming of nearly every person I met while spending time there. West Virginia is a special place, and I felt more at home there than I could have imagined. During our visit, we also performed at the legendary Mountain Stage, and waiting for us in the dressing room there was an amazing big bag of gifts from Kin Ship Goods, including t-shirts with their original design of the People Have the Power shirt. We all loved the shirt, and reaching out to thank them, meeting Dan and Hillary, there was an instant spark of friendship, collaboration, and lasting connection. 

A video created by the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame to honor my daddy

Since then, we have worked together frequently. They have designed incredible posters for our concerts, graphics for our website and virtual events, and even joined us in California for the Global Climate Action Summit. We have worked together, traveled together, celebrated, shared laughter and long nights, tight deadlines and tears of joy, the whole spectrum of everything - another true example of collaboration and partnership.

Today we are overjoyed to relaunch their People Have the Power shirt with this new design, sharing our names together, a marker of the journey we’ve been on since our first meeting, and a sign of all that's to come. It’s amazing what 4 words from the mouth of a boy from West Virginia can do - you can never truly know the possibilities of the things you do and say, but you have to trust your intuition and share the ideas and dreams that come to mind, and you have to ‘Find Your People’ in order to push them to higher bounds. I am thankful to my parents for their contribution to the world, and I am thankful to Kin Ship Goods for theirs. I feel this is really a collaboration between us all, spanning generations and decades, representing those who have gone, those who are here, and those who will join us in the future. So for my birthday, I hope you will join us, too. Happy Birthday to People Have the Power, to Dream of Life, to me, to you all! 

Lots of love, 

Jesse Paris Smith, Co-founder of Pathway to Paris

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Thank you everyone for reading. I am so grateful to you all. Please have a listen to the album, to the song, watch our video, and consider the relevance and importance of the song’s words and messaging at this particular moment in time. In some ways we’re almost right back to where we were then. In some ways so much has changed. It’s a moment to take for reflection, of where we want to be moving forward, the kind of country we want to live in, the kind of neighbors and citizens we want to be, the kind of individuals we want to be for each other. We need solidarity, compassion, and collaboration now more than ever. Doesn’t it always feel that way? Sending so much love to you all. Have a wonderful weekend, and thank you again so much.