Mavis Staples: Benefit for Avalon Housing November 10, 2009

Legendary Gospel/ R&B Performer Mavis Staples and Her Band Take the Stage in Ann Arbor for Affordable Housing

"There are few living musicians who can lay claim to being America's conscience, even fewer who continue to make vital music. Staples is still capable of both... Staples can light a fire, agitate for change or re-energize the American songbook." - Time Out Chicago

With her signature contralto and inspiring blend of compassion and steadfast protest, Mavis Staples’ voice is perfect soundtrack for the toughest of times. For more than 40 years she’s been proving her capacity for defiant celebration in the face of reoccurring hardship and injustice, providing a stirring musical accompaniment to the Civil Rights Movement, and later topping the charts amidst the upheaval of the late sixties and early seventies. A Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee and one of VH1’s top 100 female vocalists, Staples today is as strong as ever.

Her electrifying live show has her joined by her sister and backed by a stripped-down blistering three piece band , wooing both diehard fans and young new converts alike. She’s released 2 critically acclaimed CDs in 2 years and with her upcoming appearance at the Kennedy Center after rave reviews of her performance at the Newport Folk Festival this past summer, the legendary singer is showing that she’s still in demand, and still in serious fighting form. Just when we need her most.

Staples’ performance in Ann Arbor kicks off a 5-day series of fundraising events for Avalon Housing, Inc. highlighting the urgent need for affordable housing in Washtenaw County.

Avalon Housing (www.avalonhousing.org) was created in 1992 to develop and manage permanent affordable housing with support for people with very low incomes or who are homeless or who have disabilities. Avalon currently serves more than 500 tenants in 324 units, at 22 scattered sites in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti. Avalon’s housing units include sleeping room-, efficiency-, one-, two- and three-bedroom units with most rents affordable to people with incomes at or below 30% of the area median income.

Official Website: http://www.avalonhousing.org