In a truly magical twist of fate, my path recently crossed with the fabled singer-songwriter and activist, Joan Baez (IRL!). As a longtime admirer, I was pleased to discover that she didn’t just meet any expectations I might’ve had; she far surpassed them. She is everything you think she is—warm, willful, wholly present. But she’s also so much more; I could think up innumerable adjectives. And her latest interview in Rolling Stone brings to mind another one: legendary.
On Wednesday, the magazine published a Q&A with Baez that spanned myriad topics—from her thoughts on A Complete Unknown (“People in my camp, they’re outraged, and they’re fact-checking. And I said, ‘Don’t bother.'”); to Bob Dylan’s personal hygiene (“But then, that was part of the charm, I’m sure. The unwashed phenomenon.”); to her crush on Hozier (“Take me to church with that bad boy.”) But her reflections on the current political moment couldn’t have come at a better time.
Likening America to “torn fabric,” Baez said she “doesn’t spend a lot of time worrying about the fact that things are sliding backward.” Given she’s participated in decades of protest and personally witnessed the many moments of progression and regression, this particular revelation is oddly comforting as bleak as it be.
“Things don’t ever stay where you want them to be,” she said simply. “Havel’s government, Mandela: Those are wonderful, amazing people, and they do this wonderful, amazing stuff, and it lasts sometimes for a good amount of time, and then somebody fucks it up.”
“We have to remember what’s sewn into the fabric of America,” Baez added. “I keep picturing the Blacks and whites at the lunch counter in Mississippi. Those were enormous acts of courage, and they changed things, and that’s the commitment we need now.”
From the start of her career, Baez has demonstrated her own commitment to anti-war activism and social equity. In the 1960s, she refused to play at any colleges that were segregated, and not only performed at the March on Washington in 1963 but walked with Martin Luther King Jr. in support of integration. She’s often traveled to shed light on the American war machine and still performs at protests like Standing Rock; the many demonstrations after the shooting at Nashville Covenant School; and political rallies like Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Fighting Oligarchy tour.
While the interview took place prior to President Donald Trump sending the National Guard into Los Angeles as anti-I.C.E. protests remain ongoing, the mere threat was also a prominent part of the conversation.
“He’s dying to have something. Nothing could make it easier for them, because we can’t compete,” Baez said of Trump’s agenda. “Anybody who seriously thinks they can make social change with violence is really innocent. No, you get squashed.” Given she’s been on the frontlines for as long as she has, she makes a strong argument.
To keep oneself from despair about the state of the country, Baez suggested not to turn away from what’s happening, but to try to the take time to find the light wherever it remains.
“Enjoying yourself has become an act of resistance. Action is the antidote to despair. We’re supposed to be cowering. I went to my granddaughter’s graduation in Miami, and I ended up dancing with drag queens,” Baez said. “I thought, ‘OK, this is how we do it.’ You get nuts. Drink a lot. I went to a strip club. That was my statement for the week. Dance with a big, lascivious drag queen and post it. It’s good trouble dancing with drag queens, because they want to abolish drag scenes. I’m sure [Trump would] like to abolish me, but I hope I will have earned that if it reaches that point.”
You heard the woman: Go nuts. Get drunk. Go to a strip club. Dance with a big, lascivious drag queen and post it.
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Still here. Still without airbrushing. Still with teeth.
