May 11, 2026 · Rick Kogan

Chicago-born Patti Smith is the winner of this year’s Harold Washington Literary Award

Patricia Lee Smith was born here, in the Lincoln Park neighborhood at bygone Grant Hospital on the snow-swept night of Dec. 30, 1946. She was gone by the time she was four, but Chicago has been ever-present for her, in memories and in person. She has said, “When I come to Chicago, I feel very excited, excited to be in the city. But I was born here. I had my first breath here and, you know, and my first thoughts here. “ She has performed here dozens of times and at her “50th Anniversary Horses Tour” at the Chicago Theatre in late 2025, she called the city a “place that resists oppression.”