Soul and gospel legend Mavis Staples opened her set on Friday at the Pitchfork Music Festival with an Alfred Hitchcock-esque “Good evening,” then proclaimed that she came to bring “joy, happiness, inspiration, and some positive vibrations.”
Hopkins has played in bands that have covered Staples’s music, so she knows it well. “I want that hot summer day where everybody’s upset about the government and the way that the world is,” she said, “and she comes out and just sings protest music in the way that only she can and somehow soothes and activates people at the same time.”
Staples is best known as the lead vocalist of the Staple Singers, the gospel-soul revolutionaries who championed the civil rights movement under the meticulous guidance of father Roebuck “Pops” Staples. The group’s music crossed racial and socioeconomic boundaries, knitting a socially conscious and all-loving fabric with the sound of classic singles “Respect Yourself,” “Let’s Do It Again” and “I’ll Take You There.”
In most years, the closest Pitchfork gets to gospel is booking the Jesus Lizard (from 2009) or Holy Ghost! (from 2016). But as the festival circuit rapidly expands and the demand for diversity grows louder, Pitchfork’s musical and demographic direction has subtly changed.
Toward the back of the crowd, a group of dancers wore warm, coordinated patterns, among them Devon Middleton, 29—his yellow shorts were printed with the words “acceptance,” “unity” and “love.”
