Joan Baez released her first album in 1960. In 1962, at twenty-one years old, she appeared on the cover of Time magazine. At the March on Washington in 1963, Dr. King delivered his “I have a Dream” speech and Baez sang “We Shall Overcome,” melding her identity as a singer and social activist. She’d go on to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and to receive the Ambassador of Conscience Award, Amnesty International’s highest honor. 

Today, at eighty-three and retired from performing, Baez is still a restless creator. She has been writing poetry for decades, about her life, her family, her passions for nature and art, and her fears and her joys. For the first time, she’s sharing her life in verse in the intimate, autobiographical poetry collection, When You See My Mother, Ask Her to Dance. Revealing pivotal life experiences that shaped her and the reminiscences and musings of a great artist, the collection is striking not only in its accessibility but its range, from the lighthearted and silly to the dark and profound.  

In 2023, Baez appeared in the documentary Joan Baez I Am a Noise and released her acclaimed book of drawings,  Am I Pretty When I Fly? Baez will be in conversation with Ari Shapiro, a host of NPR’s “All Things Considered” and the author of The Best Strangers in the World.