On January 22, the Brooklyn Academy of Music presents Mavis Staples as part of their “Come Share the Dream” program. Jan 22 at 8pm at the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House

Endowed with one of contemporary music’s most
electrifying voices and idolized by musicians from
Pink Floyd to Bob Dylan, gospel and soul legend
Mavis Staples never stops. She first made her mark
more than five decades ago as the lead voice of
The Staple Singers. The group, led by her father
Roebuck "Pops" Staples, and with her gifted
siblings on harmony, topped the gospel charts and
was christened "God’s greatest hitmakers." By the
mid-1960s, the group had become musical allies of
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., with Pops declaring, "If
he can preach it, we can sing it."
 
 
  On the morning of January 21, Staples will share
her family’s memories of their friend as keynote at
BAM’s 22nd Annual Brooklyn Tribute to Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr. And on the evening of January 22,
accompanied by her band, she will perform songs from her most evocative album to date, We’ll Never
Turn Back. Produced by the incomparable Ry
Cooder and recently named one of Rolling Stone‘s "Top Albums of 2007," the album includes versions of some of the
freedom songs that became the soundtrack to the
Civil Rights Movement and it provides resounding
evidence that, 50 years on, Staples still makes
people sit up and listen.