Patti Smith attends Greta Thunberg’s final ever school strike in Stockholm

11 June, 2023

Patti Smith

Patti Smith took part in Greta Thunberg‘s final ever school strike in Stockholm this week as the climate activist graduates.

After 251 weeks of striking outside her school in the Swedish capital every Friday in protest of climate change, Thunberg marked her last ever strike this week (June 9), though will still be holding the weekly protest.

“School strike week 251. Today, I graduate from school, which means I’ll no longer be able to school strike for the climate,” she wrote on Twitter. “This is then the last school strike for me, so I guess I have to write something on this day.”

At the end of a lengthy tweet thread, she said: “I’ll continue to protest on Fridays, even though it’s not technically “school striking”. We simply have no other option than to do everything we possibly can. The fight has only just begun.”

In an Instagram post of her own, Smith – who was on tour in Stockholm this week – was pictured next to Thunberg at the protest, and shared her admiration for the activist.

“This is Greta Thunberg, faithfully taking her Friday School Strike for Climate Action,” Smith wrote.

“She graduates today, and we extend our gratitude and congratulations.”

In an interview with local outlet Dagens Nyheter, she added of Thunberg: “I had tears in my eyes when I met her. I’m a big fan.”

Björk and Greta Thunberg recently appeared in conversation on New Statesman’s World Review podcast in which they spoke about climate change, greenwashing, politics and more.

The pair had never met in person before, but they previously collaborated together on the environmental manifesto speech that played during Björk’s 2019 ‘Cornucopia tour’.

Smith, meanwhile, has warned fans about a fraudster who is posing as one of her reps and asking people to send pieces of their hair.

Smith explained in a video message: “If somebody calls you, emails you, or any of the other ways people communicate supposedly on my behalf asking for something, like perhaps your hair so that they can make me, a… say, wig, it’s obviously [not me].

“I would never have anybody petition anybody about anything. If I want something, I’ll ask for it myself. Anyway, I don’t wear wigs. I didn’t even wear a wig when I played Phaedra in college. I don’t have anything against [wigs], I just don’t wear them.”

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