Mavis Staples

More than seventy years after a high-school a cappella teacher tried and failed to change her singing style, Mavis Staples has one of the most recognizable voices in the world, with resonant phrasing and vocals so warm and textured, they feel like a physical presence.

Not only is Mavis still making studio albums, she’s still on the road, returning to venues like the Newport Folk Festival, where she’s been a fixture since 1964. This July at Newport, Public Enemy founders Chuck D and Flavor Flav dropped to their knees to bow down before her. She made clear it was all unnecessary, but there’s something regal about her that people respond to — a grace that rises out of lived experience.

Few people wield the combination of moral authority and the musical artistry that Mavis possesses. The moral authority comes from experiencing the Jim Crow era as a Black woman playing music in the South. With Freedom Highway, the Staple Singers created the literal soundtrack for the 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery. They opened for Martin Luther King Jr. at his rallies. Mavis has spent a lifetime standing up for those people the most powerful among us would like to beat down.

She considered retiring in 2023 but found she has too much left to express through music. And now, despite our dark days, as she said in the wake of her 85th birthday party last year, “You have to stay hopeful and have faith that things are going to get better.” She can’t keep us from the danger facing the country, or magically restore the progress that’s being undone. But she knows from her own experience that it’s possible to find a path through, a way to keep going.

She may be one of the last true ones standing, but she’s not waiting around to be revered for the wisdom she brings. She’s too busy still leading the charge, still showing us how it’s done. Steadfast in triumph and adversity, Mavis Staples is still making music—and history—just when we need her most.