Joan Baez Talks Protest in the Trump Era: 'We're in for a Bumpy Ride'
In a voice as clear and unwavering as when she sang "We Shall Overcome" at the 1963 March on Washington, Joan Baez opened the San Francisco Women's March last month onstage with her acoustic guitar and a version of "No Nos Moveran," the Spanish version of "We Shall Not Be Moved." She also dedicated Bob Dylan's "Forever Young" to Barack and Michelle Obama and declared: "Women, we need to be empathetic when there is no empathy. We need to be kind when kindness is not at the forefront."
The 76-year-old folk singer, who came to symbolize Sixties protest music with her activism in the Civil Rights Movement, withholding 60 percent of her taxes to protest the Vietnam War, and performing alongside Bob Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival, among many other things, caused a small commotion wherever she marched in January. "A lot of young people don't recognize me, so they're scratching their heads," Baez says, by phone from her Woodside, California, home. "I don't say, 'Ask your parents.' I say, 'Go Google me.' These connections get made." In a half-hour interview, she discussed protest movements then and now and her feelings about the new president.
We have some negative stuff to discuss, but let's start on a positive note: Congratulations on your recent induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Well, thank you very much. Honestly, I never thought about it because I don't think much about awards stuff, but it's an honor and it's kind of rare, so it'll be interesting just connecting my music back in the day – it's just preceding the rock & roll boom, because we were certainly intertwined.
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