Joan Baez

Joan Chandos Baez (born January 9, 1941, in Staten Island, New York) is a folk singer, songwriter and activist. She is known for her highly individual vocal style. Many of her songs are topical songs and deal with social issues.

She remains known for her long relationship with Bob Dylan and her lifelong passion for activism, notably in the areas of nonviolence, civil and human rights and, more recently, the environment.

Social and political involvement

In 1956, Baez first heard a young Martin Luther King, Jr. speak about nonviolence, civil rights and social change, the speech brought tears to her eyes. Several years later, the two became friends, later marching and demonstrating together on numerous occasions.

Civil Rights

The early years of Joan Baez's career saw the civil-rights movement in the U.S. become a prominent issue.

She was a frequent participant in anti-war marches and rallies, including:

• numerous protests in New York City organized by the Fifth Avenue Vietnam Peace Parade Committee, starting with the March 1966 Fifth Avenue Peace Parade;

• a free 1967 concert at the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C., that had been opposed by the Daughters of the American Revolution and which attracted a crowd of 30,000 to hear her anti-war message,

• the 1969 Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam protests,

Human rights

Her experiences regarding Vietnam's human-rights violations ultimately led Baez to found her own human-rights group, Humanitas International, whose focus was to target oppression wherever it occurred, criticizing right- and left-wing régimes equally.

Gay and lesbian rights

Baez has also been prominent in the struggle for gay and lesbian rights. In 1978, she performed at several benefit concerts to defeat Proposition 6 ("the Briggs Initiative"), which proposed banning all gay people from teaching in the public schools of California. Later that same year, she participated in memorial marches for the assassinated San Francisco city supervisor, Harvey Milk who was openly gay.

Environmental causes

On Earth Day 1998, Baez and her friend Raitt were hoisted by a giant crane to the top of a redwood tree to visit environmental activist Julia Butterfly Hill, who had camped out in the ancient tree in order to protect it from loggers.

Nowadays she lives in California (EUA).