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James Franco, Patti Smith to read poetry in Rockaways Sunday

By Kelsey Durham

Rockaway Beach will play host to a pair of famous faces Sunday during the opening day of the Rockaway! festival in Fort Tilden, the MoMA PS1 announced this week.

Actor James Franco and singer Patti Smith will take part in a reading of Walt Whitman’s poetry, and Smith is also expected to perform acoustic songs after the readings. The free public arts festival, sponsored by the Jamaica Bay-Rockaway Parks Conservancy, is being held in celebration of Fort Tilden reopening after renovations following Superstorm Sandy in October 2012.

The event will be open Sunday from 12 p.m. to midnight, and Franco and Smith are both scheduled to perform at 7 p.m. The festival runs through Sept. 1, according to MoMA PS1.