Joan Baez releases poetry collection, announces book store appearances

Joan Baez, “When You See My Mother, Ask Her to Dance.”

Updated May 5:

Bay Area singer-songwriter, activist and laureate Joan Baez will release her first collection of poetry this month.

“When You See My Mother, Ask Her to Dance” is an autobiographical work that will be released on April 30 via Godine. The publisher also released a collection of her drawings, “AM I PRETTY WHEN I FLY? An Album of Upside Down Drawings,” near a year to the date of this book.

Baez, a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee who stepped back from active performing in 2019, has been writing poetry for decades but she’s never shared it publicly.

The collection will include poems about her life, family and contemporaries, and her passions for nature and art, “speaking to the people, places, and moments that have had the greatest impact on her art,” according to the publisher.

Baez has also announced several book store appearances nationwide over the spring and summer, including Kepler’s Books in San Mateo on May 31 and Berkeley’s Bay Area Book Festival on June 1. See the complete schedule below.

May 16—Los Angeles, CA—Writers Bloc
May 31—San Mateo, CA—Kepler’s Books
June 1—Berkeley, CA—Bay Area Book Festival with Greg Sarris
June 12—Ridgewood, NJ—Bookends Bookstore
June 13—Long Island, NY—Long Island LitFest
June 14—New York, NY—Symphony Space with Patti Smith
July 29—Newport, RI—Charter Books
July 31—Washington, DC—Sixth & I with Ari Shapiro