Mavis Staples

Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award-winner Mavis Staples lends her "deep, husky contralto, at once devout and sensual" (New York Times) to songs introspective and uplifting, from the gospel standards and civil rights anthems she sang for decades, to wide-ranging pop music born from collaborations with artists like The Band and Nick Lowe. Staples performs selections from her latest recording One True Vine. Her appearance is in association with the UC Berkeley's On the Same Page program, marking the 50th anniversary of the Free Speech Movement.

This year the campus-wide On the Same Page program focuses on the fiftieth anniversary of the Free Speech Movement. Students and faculty will read Robert Cohen's Freedom's Orator, a biography of Mario Savio, whose role in the FSM grew out of his activism for racial equality in the Mississippi Freedom Summer of 1964. Music was critical to the movement—one more so than the Staple Singers, whose leader Roebuck "Pops" Staples brought his family's talents to support Dr. King. Today, legendary singer Mavis Staples carries the musical spirit of the movement for justice and equality forward in her concerts and albums.