Mavis Staples Talks About Her New Children’s Book, “Bridges Not Walls”

Mavis Staples remembers. In her latest children’s book, she harks back to the times when her father ruled what type of music was allowed of their home. The hearty harmonies of male groups just like the Dixie Hummingbirds and the Soul Stirrers, with whom Ms. Staples later shared a lead role, made what she calls “the religion of the old days” gospel, and subsequently welcome. She’s a bit of girl again when she tells me stories of meeting Mahalia Jackson (“She was my idol”) and singing together with her within the plain air concert shown within the film. She also remembers traveling within the Deep South and seeing “For Colored” signs towering over fountains.

The black American memory bank is something else; a treasure trove of dangerous, bitter social rejections and a pocket filled with warm guarantees. Maya Angelou’s poem “Memory” captures this anguish, longing, and hope. “Cotton rows cross the world/And dead-weary nights of longing…Sugarcane reaches for God…” she wrote in 1978’s And Still I Rise. We tell stories as if we were gesturing with one hand to the muddy, trodden road behind us, and using the opposite to clear the comb in front of the one in front. As Ms. Staples, a gospel giant and dedicated change agent, celebrates her eighty fifth birthday in July, she is joyful to specific that and her legacy.

“I felt like it was time for me to write a children’s book,” Ms. Staples says over the phone. It was an idea she pitched to her manager in 2022, who helped bring the project to fruition. “I’ve been around for a long time… and kids would come to the shows, and it was mostly kids who would say, ‘Miss Mavis,’” (She is, in spite of everything, within the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.) “And that really tickled me, because they’re just so innocent and pure. When I run into kids, I’ll tell you, I can be in a bad mood, but when you bring some kids over, I become a kid again.”

Ms. Staples was a baby when she began singing together with her father (Roebuck “Pops” Staples) and siblings (Cleotha, Yvonne and Pervis) within the Forties. Her thundering voice had a depth beyond her years, making her a natural leader for the group’s blues message. Today, that voice is as homely and smoky as you remember. You can’t help but smile when she laughs. The group won listeners over with renditions of hymns like “Uncloudy Day,” and by the point Ms. Staples was a teen, they were traveling the country to perform — and see those fountains.

Young individuals are true to the reality. Regardless of generation, whether it’s the coed protests in Vietnam within the Nineteen Sixties or Generation Z Freedom March in the case of civil rights, there may be a seed of justice in youth that, when left undisturbed, might be used to cultivate a brand new world. With her father’s encouragement, Ms. Staples became considered one of those freedom fighters through song, lending her talents to enduringly moving records like “I’ll Take You There” and “Long Walk to DC.” She made her mark alongside equally convinced singers like Nina Simone, Aretha Franklin and Odetta.

was co-written with Caldecott Award-winning writer Carole Boston Weatherford. Ms. Staples’ manager introduced the 2, and the singer was impressed by the author’s 2017 interpretation of “her favorite lady,” Lena Horne. Ms. Weatherford believes younger audiences can handle the reality, even when adults are uneasy. “Kids know how to question injustice,” she says. “They know injustice when they see it, and they know how to ask the right questions when they’re faced with difficult topics,” she says. She relished the chance to put in writing with the Nineteen Sixties crusader. “There are so many African-American women who were civil rights activists who have been overlooked and not received the recognition they deserved. So it was a real treat for me to delve into Mavis, not only her musical background but also her activism, and share that story with kids.”

Together they’ve combed through seven many years of cold singing, chronicling Ms. Staples’ childhood in Sam Cooke’s Chicago through her rise to turn into one of the vital grounding forces of the twentieth century. It touches on her father’s course-changing encounter with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the group’s decision to embrace soul music and Ms. Staples’s A-list audience, including President Kennedy and Prince. The book is illustrated by Staffi Wathall, a digital illustrator who has written several children’s books, including . The vivid imagery underpins Ms. Staples’ wealthy spiritual and earthly journey.

“Do I think we’ve made progress since the civil rights movement? Oh yes. I think we’ve done well,” Ms. Staples says. “We’ve done well, but we’ve got a long way to go. We still have work to do. Ninety-nine and a half just isn’t enough.”

Mavis Staples remembers. New generations will remember too.