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One in a Million: Mavis Staples and the King Legacy

Posted 01/21/2008 at 2:25 PM  |  Comment?

This morning I was treated to three songs from the legendary Mavis Staples as part of Brooklyn Academy of Music's annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Day celebration. The gruff-voiced singer tore into two numbers with only the aid of her guitarist, capping her performance with a gospel choir aided rendition of "I'll Take You There." I stood up to the dismay a few folks seated behind me because that song, this day, is about movement. Then and now, Staples and her family invited the fed up and the frustrated to join the civil rights movement while encouraging longsuffering activists to keep fighting the good fight, to keep on moving. And as her 2007 album made abundantly clear, Staples, a recent inductee to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, has no intention of turning back. In fact, today Ms. Staples let it be known that her involvement in social justice has not waned although its cachet has diminished. It is a walk that she said she's willing to walk alone. Who among us can say the same? At a moment when most activism is a hustle, many of us are too busy cutting eyes at smarmy Black pundits to keep our eyes on the prize. The movement wasn't (isn't) about scoring a talk show, spouting soundbytes on Bill Maher's show, selling a book, marketing a record, securing exorbitant appearance fees, or manipulating green behind the ear do gooders into buying whatever it is that your selling, which isn't to say its champions were perfect but that there is a lot younger generations can learn from them and vice versa. I am less interested in debating how and why the youth mistake ballers for leaders or how and why our elders dropped the ball but gathering the strength to pick it up.

*Photo of Mavis Staples at Rockefeller Park (NYC, 8.01.07)

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