M Train

Smith prepares for another journey, this time to Tangier, Morocco, to take part in a conference celebrating the Beat writers. She is somewhat reluctant to go, wanting to spend more time overseeing her bungalow’s renovations, but she wants to see some of her old friends in Tangier. It will also coincide with the anniversary of Jean Genet’s death, making it the perfect opportunity for Smith to visit his grave in Larache and finally deliver the stones she took from the prison in French Guiana.

She recalls meeting Paul Bowles (1910-1999) in 1997 when she interviewed him in Tangier for Vogue. He was ill at the time. Smith told Bowles that they shared the same birthday and promised to visit him again. He died two years later, and Smith did not get to see him again. In Tangier, Smith is reunited with old friends, and they spend time talking about the Beat writers. Musicians play, people dance, and Moroccan writer Mohammed Mrabet (born 1936) tells stories of spending time with the Beat writers. 

Smith and several other conference members travel to Genet’s grave in Larache. Smith brings the stones from the prison with her and reveals that she was unable to deliver them to Genet as she originally planned because he passed away unexpectedly in 1986.