1941

Joan Chandos Baez is born on January 9 in Staten Island, New York, the middle daughter of physicist Dr. Albert Vinicio Baez and Joan Bridge Baez.

1951

Joan spends a year living in Baghdad, Iraq, with her family when her father accepts a job there. Upon their return to the U.S., the family moves to California.

1956

For the first time, Joan hears a young Martin Luther King, Jr. lecture on nonviolence and civil rights. She also buys her first guitar.

1957

Joan commits her first act of civil disobedience by refusing to leave her high school (Palo Alto High School) during an air-raid drill. She also meets Gandhian scholar, Ira Sandperl, who becomes one of her strongest political influences.

1958

Joan graduates from Palo Alto High School, Palo Alto, California in June. She also records a demonstration album, but it fails to garner interest from record company executives and the project is shelved.

In late summer, the Baez family moves to Belmont, Massachusetts, when Joan's father accepts a teaching post at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Joan's interest in the Cambridge, Massachusetts, folk scene grows as she begins visiting the local coffeehouses. She registers as a student at Boston University School of Fine and Applied Arts, but only sporadically attends classes and soon quits school to concentrate on her blossoming singing career.

1959

Joan begins performing regularly at Club 47, a folk music club in Cambridge, where she attracts a large and devoted following. She meets Bill Wood prior to taping WHRB Harvard Radio Balladeers program, which Wood hosts. They become friends and begin performing together. With Bill and Ted Alevizos, Joan records the album Folksingers 'Round Harvard Square for Veritas Records, a local Boston record company.

At the invitation of impresario Albert Grossman, Joan appears at The Gate Of Horn nightclub in Chicago. During her two-week stint there, she meets both Bob Gibson and Odetta. Bob is impressed enough with her that he invites her to join him during his set at the Newport Folk Festival on July 11, and her unscheduled appearance makes her the talk of the Festival and establishes her as a talented and exciting new folksinger.

1960

Joan appears at the 1960 Newport Folk Festival as a solo performer, and makes her New York City concert debut at the 92nd Street Y on November 5th. Also in November, her first album for Vanguard Recording Society, Joan Baez, is released.

1961

Joan meets Bob Dylan at Gerde's Folk City in April of this year, following his appearance there as an opening act for John Lee Hooker. She also records and releases her second Vanguard album, Joan Baez, Volume Two, and embarks on her first national concert tour.

1962

As Joan becomes more involved with the civil rights movement, she conducts the first of three concert tours to Southern college campuses with a strict no-discrimination policy for audiences. The album Joan Baez in Concert is released in September, and she is the subject of the November 23, 1962, TIME Magazine cover story.

1963

Joan Baez In Concert is nominated for a Grammy Award in the "Best Folk Recording" category. Joan appears at the Monterey Folk Festival with Bob Dylan (and invites him to be a surprise guest on her summer tour) and headlines at the Newport Folk Festival.

Joan refuses to appear on and leads a much-publicized artist boycott of ABC-TV's Hootenanny show due to their banning of Pete Seeger as a result of his political activism. In August she sings "We Shall Overcome" before an estimated quarter of million people at the civil rights March on Washington.

Joan Baez In Concert, Part Two is released, and Squire Records releases an unauthorized reissue of Folksingers 'Round Harvard Square.

1964

Joan protests U.S. involvement in Vietnam by withholding 60% of her income taxes, the amount determined used for military purposes. The Internal Revenue Service responds by placing a lien against her. She continues to withhold portions of her taxes for the next ten years. And after performing for President Johnson in Washington, she urges him to withdraw U.S. troops from Vietnam. Joan also continues her civil right work by appearing at a benefit concert at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, protesting the state's Proposition 14 which would allow segregated housing, and she becomes involved with the Free Speech Movement at the University of California at Berkeley. As the students take over Sproul Hall, Joan instructs them to "Have love as you do this thing and it will succeed." The police wait until she departs the building before moving in and arresting 800 students.

Fantasy Records releases Joan Baez In San Francisco, an unauthorized release of the demonstration album she recorded as a teenager in 1958, and she files for an injunction to block distribution. Joan once again headlines at the Newport Folk Festival, leads a seminar on "The New Folk Music" at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, and travels with the Beatles on a portion of their U.S. concert tour.

Joan Baez/5, her final album of all acoustic music, is released, and The Joan Baez Songbook is published. Containing 66 songs from her repertoire and with illustrations by Eric Von Schmidt, the book becomes a staple among guitar students and is reprinted twenty times over the next few decades.

1965

"There But For Fortune" becomes a hit single and is nominated for a Grammy Award in the "Best Folk Recording" category. Joan does a joint U.S. concert tour with Bob Dylan, gives her first major concert outside the U.S. at London's Royal Albert Hall, and Farewell, Angelina is released.

In March, Joan participates in the civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, and in August she participates in a demonstration outside The White House protesting U.S. involvement in Vietnam. With Ira Sanderl, she founds the Institute For The Study Of Nonviolence in Carmel Valley, California. After area residents claim the onslaught of "hippies and free-love subversives" will threaten property values, the Institute closes after one month, but re-opens without incident in December.

1966

Joan's first three Vanguard recordings are certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America, and Noel is released. She also begins recording an album of contemporary popular songs produced by her brother-in-law, Richard Farina, but the project is shelved after Farina's untimely death in a motorcycle accident in late April.

While in West Germany, Joan leads an Easter Day anti-war march, and in September, she participates in a march with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Grenada, Mississippi, protesting the beatings of black school children as schools were de-segregated. When Joan attempts to enroll five black children in a formerly segregated school, she is barred from entering the school. In December she both performs at a benefit for striking farm workers in California, and participates in a Christmas vigil at San Quentin Penitentiary urging the commutation of death sentences for 64 prisoners.

1967

While performing in Japan, Joan's political comments are intentionally mistranslated. The interpreter claims, and later denies, that a CIA agent pressured him to mistranslate her political remarks. The CIA denies any involvement in the matter. Back in the U.S., on August 13, Joan is denied permission to perform at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., by the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) due to her anti-war activities. She responds by performing in a free concert at the base of the Washington Monument before an estimated audience of 30,000. Later in the year, Joan joins 56 others in filing suit in California's Federal District Court to reclaim portions of their 1965 and 1966 income taxes on the grounds that they are conscientious objectors to the Vietnam War. The suit is dismissed from court in January, 1968.

Joan headlines at the Newport Folk Festival in July. She also appears on the Women Strike For Peace benefit recording Save The Children, as well as appearing in the films Don't Look Back and Festival. Her own Joan is released by Vanguard in August.

On October 16th Joan is among over 100 people arrested for blocking the entrance to the Armed Forces Induction Center in Oakland, California. She is sentenced and serves ten days at the Santa Rita Rehabilitation Center. In December, she is again arrested with 49 other demonstrators for blocking the entrance of the same induction center. She receives a 90 day prison sentence (45 days suspended), but is abruptly released after just a month because prison officials fear an inmate uprising on her scheduled release date.

1968

The European Exchange System reveals that the sale of Joan Baez recordings has been banned in Army PXs because of her anti-war activities. On March 26th, Joan marries draft resister and activist David Harris. They tour the country on a joint concert and lecture series advocating draft resistance. Later in the year, twenty young men spontaneously present Joan with their draft cards during her concert at the Los Angeles Forum.

Baptism, an album of poetry recited and sung, is released, Joan again appears at the Newport Folk Festival, and Any Day Now, a two-record collection of Bob Dylan songs, is released. Daybreak, a memoir penned by Joan, is published (Dial Press) and is a bestseller.

1969

During a taping of CBS-TV's The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, Joan's remarks pertaining to draft resistance are censored, prompting a pre-emption of the show. When it finally does air, her remarks are deleted from the tape, and soon thereafter, CBS cancels the controversial program.

David Harris begins serving a three-year prison term for draft resistance in July. Joan gives birth to their son, Gabriel Earl, in December, and Harris is released in 1971 after serving 20 months.

Any Day Now is nominated for a "Best Folk Recording" Grammy Award, David's Album is released, and in August Joan is a headliner at the Woodstock Festival.

1970

Both One Day At A Time and The First Ten Years are released. Joan appears at the Isle of Wight Festival, the Big Sur Folk Festival, and the International Song Festival in Sopot, Poland. The film Carry It On, featuring Joan and David Harris is released, as is the film of Woodstock which features Joan's performance of "Joe Hill."

1971

David Harris is released from prison on March 15th. He and Joan later separate and eventually divorce. The book Coming Out, written by Joan and David is published. Also, the soundtrack album to the film Carry It On is released.

The Chicago Business Executives Move for Vietnam Peace honor Joan with an award for her anti-war work. In October, Joan gives three sold-out concerts at University of California at Berkeley's Greek Theatre, including a benefit for the Greek Resistance attended by Melina Mercouri, Jules Dassin, and other exiled patriots.

The film Sacco And Vanzetti and its soundtrack recording are released. Both feature songs sung by Joan and written by Joan with Ennio Morricone. The film Celebration At Big Sur, comprised of highlights of the 1969 Big Sur Folk Festival and featuring several performances by Joan, is released.

Joan's own Blessed Are... is released, and "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" reaches the Top Ten and is certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America.

1972

Blessed Are... and Any Day Now are certified gold, and Joan is nominated for a Best Female Vocalist Grammy Award. Joan, having left Vanguard Records the previous year, signs with A&M Records and records and releases Come From The Shadows as her debut with A&M. While working in Nashville, she co-produces Jeffrey Shurtleff's album State Farm, also contributing vocals to the project.
In June Joan helps to organize an anti-war demonstration for women and children called Ring Around The Congress. Though plagued by political sabotage and Hurricane Agnes, 2500 women and children succeed in surrounding the Congress. Back home, Joan devotes almost a year to helping establish Amnesty International on the west coast. She gives benefit concerts for the fledgling organizations and later serves on the Advisory Council. In December, Joan travels to Hanoi at the invitation of The Liaison Committee to distribute mail and Christmas presents to the American prisoners of war. While she is there, Hanoi is subjected to heavy aerial bombings from U.S. forces, later known as the "Christmas Bombings."

1973

Where Are You Now, My Son? is released. This recording features taped segments from Joan's trip to Hanoi. She also does more fundraising and outreach for Amnesty International.

1974

Gracias A La Vida, a Spanish language album, is released. Joan tours around the world including Japan, Australia, Israel, Lebanon, Tunisia and Argentina. Also, the film Sing Sing Thanksgiving, featuring Joan and taped at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, New York, is released.

1975

Diamonds & Rust is released in April and later in the year it is certified gold. In October Joan begins touring with Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue.

In May, Joan appears at The War Is Over! rally in New York's Central Park. In August she receives the Public Service Award at the first annual Rock Music Awards, and is honored with "Joan Baez Day" on August 2nd in Atlanta, Georgia.

1976

From Every Stage, an two-record set comprised of performances from Joan's 1975 U.S. concert tour, is released, and later in the year Gulf Winds, the first album to consist solely of her own compositions, is also released. She also tours for a second time with Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue.

Joan travels to Northern Ireland and marches with the Irish Peace People, calling for an end to the violence plaguing the country. She also promotes the plight of jailed Czechoslovakian musicians through a mass mailing to members of the music industry.

1977

Joan appears at a Kent State rally protesting the building of a gymnasium over the site where four students were gunned down in 1970, and while touring in Spain, she sings "No Nos Moveran" ("We Shall Not Be Moved") on a live national television show, ignoring a sanction imposed by the late dictator Francisco Franco 40 years earlier prohibiting the song from being performed.

Blowin' Away is released on Portrait Records and Joan tours both Europe and the U.S. Concerts in the U.S. include one at California's Soledad Prison and one as part of the Bread & Roses Festival of Acoustic Music presented at the University of California at Berkeley's Greek Theatre in October.

1978

The film Renaldo and Clara, comprised of footage from the Rolling Thunder Revue and featuring Joan, is released in January.

Joan appears at various demonstrations and rallies on behalf of the nuclear freeze movement, and she also performs at several benefit concerts in California to defeat Proposition 6 (Briggs Initiative), legislation that would have banned openly gay people from teaching in public schools. She is also scheduled to perform a concert in Leningrad on July 4 with Santana and The Beach Boys, but the concert is abruptly cancelled without explanation by Soviet officials. Despite the cancellation, Joan travels to Moscow and meets with dissidents including Andrei Sakharov and Yelena Bonner, bringing them messages and gifts from their friends and relatives in the U.S.

Joan brings suit under the Freedom of Information Act to obtain National Security Agency files pertaining to her. A Federal judge orders all documents, with the exception of two paragraphs in one report, released in November. The NSA protests the judge's ruling, claiming that the de-classified information would prove harmful to "national security." Also, late in the year, Joan participates in the candlelight memorial march to City Hall following the assassinations of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, and later presents a free concert on the steps of San Francisco's City Hall as her Christmas gift to the city.

1979

The songbook And Then I Wrote..., containing Joan's original songs and sketches, is published. Also, Honest Lullaby is also released this year, and Joan receives the San Francisco Bay Area Music Award (BAMMY) as top female vocalist for 1978. In the fall, she again performs at the Bread & Roses Festival of Acoustic Music, and she also receives the American Civil Liberties Union's "Earl Warren Award" for her commitment to human and civil rights issues.

Joan founds Humanitas International Human Rights Committee, a human rights organization she will head for the next 13 years. The first course of action for Humanitas is to publish the "Open Letter to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam" in five major U.S. newspapers. The letter protests human rights violations occurring in that country. Joan travels to Southeast Asia to substantiate reports of human rights violations there, and back in the U.S., she successfully prevails upon President Jimmy Carter to dispatch the Seventh Fleet to rescue large numbers of "boat people" fleeing the region. Humanitas, along with KRON-TV and the San Francisco Examiner newspaper, forms the Cambodian Emergency Relief Fund and raises over one million dollars in aid.

1980

Joan is bestowed Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degrees by both Antioch University and Rutgers University for her political activism and the "universality of her music." She also receives the Jefferson Award presented by the American Institute of Public Service, and she receives the San Francisco Bay Area Music Award (BAMMY) as top female vocalist for 1979. The recording Tournee Europeene (European Tour), comprised of songs from her European concert tour, is released in Europe and Latin America. She also gives a free concert in front of the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris on Christmas Eve, and begins working with members of the Grateful Dead on a record which is never released in its entirety.

In another trip to Southeast Asia, Joan assists in an effort to take food and medicine into the western regions of Cambodia and participates in a United Nations Humanitarian Conference on Kampuchea (Cambodia).

1981

During a five-week concert and human rights fact-finding tour of Latin America, Joan is forbidden to perform publicly in Argentina, Chile and Brazil. While there, she is subjected to police surveillance and death threats. The country of Nicaragua, however, allows her to perform.

1982

The film There But For Fortune: Joan Baez in Latin America, documenting her 1981 Latin American tour, premieres on PBS (Public Broadcasting System) television. Joan also makes several appearances in support of a nuclear weapons freeze, including performances with Bob Dylan at the Rose Bowl in Los Angeles and Paul Simon in Boston. Additionally, she joins Jackson Browne in an ecumenical vigil in Washington, D.C. in memory of assassinated Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero.

Very Early Joan, a two-record set comprised of Joan's live concert performances recorded between 1961-1963, is released by Vanguard Records.

1983

Live Europe '83, a live album comprised of performances recorded during her spring 1983 concert tour of Europe, is released in Europe and Canada. The album is awarded a gold record in France and the Academy Charles Cros Award for the "Best Live Album of 1983." Also, while on tour in France Joan presents a free concert dedicated to nonviolence in Paris on the Place de la Concorde on July 15, attended by an estimated crowd of 120,000, and she receives the French Legion D'Honneur Award.

In the U.S., Joan appears on the Grammy Awards telecast for the first time, performing "Blowin' In The Wind," and she embarks on her first U.S. concert tour in three years.

1984

The American Civil Liberties Union brings suit on behalf of 15 organizations and 37 individuals, including Joan, against the conservative Western Goals Foundation. The plaintiffs charge that the organization illegally accessed Los Angeles police department databases and intelligence files on dissident organizations and individuals. The suit is later settled for $1.8 million dollars.

Joan appears in the film Hard Travelin', a documentary on Woody Guthrie, and contributes a song to the film's soundtrack album. She also tours the U.S. and Europe, and begins work on her second autobiographical book. The Vanguard collection Greatest Hits is released.

1985

Joan attends Club 47's 25th Anniversary concert, held at Boston's Symphony Hall, and also performs with the Boston Pops Orchestra for a segment of PBS's Evening At Pops television program. In the summer, she opens the U.S. portion of the Live Aid benefit concert. She also tours the U.S., Australia and Canada, and appears at the Newport Folk Festival in August, the first Festival since 1969.

In November, Joan travels to Poland with her friend and fellow activist, Ginetta Sagan, and among others, meets Lech Walesa.

1986

Joan is featured as a performer with Amnesty International's Conspiracy of Hope tour, and she appears at Bill Graham's Fillmore Auditorium reunion concert in San Francisco, which is later broadcast on television as A 60s Reunion With Bill Graham. Also, at the time of the summit meeting between U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev in Reykjavik, Iceland, Joan performs "The People's Summit" concert which is broadcast live throughout Iceland.

1987

And A Voice To Sing With, Joan's autobiography, is published by Summit Books (Simon & Schuster) and becomes a New York Times bestseller. Recently, her first studio album in eight years, is released by Gold Castle Records. Joan Baez, a PBS documentary featuring concert and other footage and an interview, premieres.

Joan travels to the Middle East to meet with and sing for the people of Israel, West Bank, and Gaza Strip. She also performs in a sold-out benefit concert at New York's Carnegie Hall for Countdown '87, a coalition formed to lobby against the U.S. support of the Nicaraguan contras. Through Humanitas, Joan, together with Bill Graham, co-produces a benefit concert for the AIDS Emergency Fund at Graham's Warfield Theatre in San Francisco. The show features Joan and Mimi Farina, as well as members of the Grateful Dead.

1988

The song "Asimbonanga" (from Recently) is nominated for a Best Contemporary Folk Recording Grammy Award.

Joan is featured as a special guest performer on Amnesty International's Human Rights Now! concert tour. While touring in Europe, she leads a candlelight march in Rome on July 28, seeking repeal of a death sentence against a U.S. teenager.

1989

In May Joan performs in Czechoslovakia in a concert attended by many of that country's dissidents. She is later credited by President Vaclav Havel (who was in attendance at the concert) as having been a great influence in the subsequent nonviolent "Velvet Revolution." Joan also receives the Leadership Award from the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.

Diamonds & Rust In The Bullring, recorded in concert in Bilbao, Spain in 1988, is released in April. Speaking Of Dreams, featuring songs recorded with Paul Simon, Jackson Browne and the Gipsy Kings, is released in November.

1990

The video Joan Baez In Concert, featuring a guest appearance by Jackson Browne, premieres on PBS television in March. Joan tours Europe in the spring and the U.S. in the summer, including six dates with the Indigo Girls in which they open and close the shows as a trio.

1991

Brothers In Arms, a Gold Castle Records compilation album featuring two previously unreleased songs, is released in September.

In a benefit performance for Humanitas International Human Rights Committee, Joan performs in a vocal quartet, appropriate titled Four Voices For Human Rights, with Indigo Girls and Mary Chapin Carpenter in Berkeley, California, in October. The four women perform together numerous times throughout the next few years.

1992

Play Me Backwards is released on Virgin Records, and Joan embarks on a world tour lasting through 1993.

Humanitas International Human Rights Committee ceases operations after thirteen years of work.

1993

At the invitation of Refugees International and sponsored by The Soros Foundation, Joan travels to war-torn Bosnia-Herzegovina in an effort to help bring more attention to the suffering there. She is the first major artist to perform in Sarajevo since the outbreak of the civil war. In October, Joan becomes the first major artist to perform in a professional concert presentation on Alcatraz Island (former Federal Penitentiary) in San Francisco in a benefit for her sister Mimi Farina's Bread & Roses organization.

Play Me Backwards is nominated for a Best Contemporary Folk Recording Grammy award. Rare, Live & Classic, a box-set retrospective chronicling her career from 1958-1989, is released on Vanguard Records. The set contains 60 tracks, 22 of which are previously unreleased.

1994

Joan tours the U.S. and Europe extensively. She performs at the Kennedy Center Honors Gala in Washington, D.C., in honor of one of the recipients, Pete Seeger. Along with Janis Ian, Joan performs for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force's "Fight the Right" fundraising event in San Francisco.

1995

In April, Joan performs four shows at the legendary Bottom Line club in New York City with guest artists Mary Black, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Mimi Farina, Tish Hinojosa, Janis Ian, Indigo Girls, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, and Dar Williams. The best of these performances are released on the CD Ring Them Bells on Guardian Records.

1996

Joan receives the San Francisco Bay Area Music Award (BAMMY) for Outstanding Female Vocalist for 1995. Greatest Hits, a compilation by A&M Records is released as part of their Backlot Series releases. Live At Newport, a CD of previously unreleased performances from Joan's 1963, 1964 and 1965 Newport Folk Festival appearances, is released by Vanguard Records. She tours the world in support of Ring Them Bells. In October, she once again returns to Alcatraz Island in San Francisco in a benefit concert for Bread & Roses along with Indigo Girls and Dar Williams.

1997

Gone From Danger, Joan's second project for Guardian Records, is released on September 23. She begins a world tour in Europe in October.

1998

Joan continues to tour in support of Gone From Danger. She also appears at a fundraising event to benefit the legal defense fund for her cousin, Peter Baez, fighting charges stemming from his operating a medicinal marijuana clinic.

1999

Joan and Bonnie Raitt visit environmental activist Julia Butterfly Hill in a 200 foot redwood tree named Luna, several hundred miles north of San Francisco to encourage her during her two-year stay to protect the tree from the logging industry.

2000

Joan continues extensive touring in the U.S. and Europe. She joins an all-star cast and participates in three Honor the Earth benefits on reservations in Montana. A concert performance taped in Philadelphia is broadcast over the internet.

At the first BBC2 Folk Awards in London, Joan is presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award.

2001

Joan cancels her U.S. and Canadian tour due to the illness of her sister, Mimi Farina. Mimi succumbs to a rare form of cancer on July 18, and Joan eulogizes her sister at a memorial service a Grace Cathedral in San Francisco.

Joan accepts the limited engagement role of "La Contessa" as part of the cast of Teatro ZinZanni in San Francisco.

In August Vanguard Records begin re-releasing Joan's catalog as part of their Original Master Series. The series will encompass all 13 original albums she recorded while under contract from 1960-1972. Each reissue will feature digitally restored sound, bonus cuts, new and original artwork, and new liner notes essays written by Arthur Levy.

2002

Joan returns to touring in the U.S. and Canada. Joan also rejoins the Teatro ZinZanni cast for another limited run.

2003

The Bay Area Chapter of NARAS presents Joan with their Governor's Award. She is also presented with an special award by the John Steinbeck Society.

For the third time, Joan reprises her role as "La Contessa" in Teatro ZinZanni.

In August Universal follows Vanguard's lead and releases a mini-boxed set of Joan's six complete A&M albums, with bonus material and new liner notes by Arthur Levy.

Joan joins Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle, Billy Bragg and Chrissie Hynde in London for the Concert for a Landmine Free World. Grammy Award-winning classical guitarist Sharon Isbin presents her debut performance of The Joan Baez Suite, Opus 144. Composed for Isbin by John Duarte and commissioned by the Augustine Foundation, the piece features songs from Joan's early career.

Dark Chords on a Big Guitar is released and Joan begins to tour in support of the CD.

2004

Joan tours the UK in January and February, and presents Steve Earle with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the BBC2 Folk Awards. Joan and Steve also do a series of concert dates together in June, after which she heads to Europe for a summer tour.

In the fall Joan joins the west coast leg of documentary filmmaker Michael Moore's "Slacker Uprising Tour" in advance of the U.S. elections.

2005

After some well-deserved time off in the winter and spring, Joan returns to Teatro ZinZanni as the Gypsy "Calliope."

In August she joins antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan in Crawford, Texas, for the weeks long protest outside President Bush's ranch. Sheehan's son Casey was killed in combat while serving in Iraq.

Joan returns to touring in the U.S. in the fall, after the release of her live CD Bowery Songs, recorded in November of 2004 at the Bowery Ballroom in New York City.

2006

Joan tours the U.K., France, Germany and Italy in March and April.

In late May Joan joins Julia Butterfly Hill and others in an effort to save a community farm in south central Los Angeles.

In July Joan is honored by the Legal Community Against Violence, a public interest law center dedicated to preventing gun violence.

In October Joan travels to the Czech Republic to help honor Vaclav Havel at the annual conference of Forum 2000.

Joan tours the U.S. in October and November.

2007

Joan receives a Lifetime Achievement Award from NARAS (National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences) at the 2007 Grammy Awards, and introduces a performance by the Dixie Chicks.

In October, Joan is honored by the Huntington's Disease Society of America at their 40th Anniversary Guthrie Awards at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City.

Joan returns to the U.K./Europe for a concert tour in the winter.

2008

Joan tours in the United States, Germany, Switzerland, France, Bosnia, Croatia, Slovakia, Italy, and Spain. She also appears at the Glastonbury Festival in the United Kingdom.

In June Joan attends Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday celebration, 46664, in London's Hyde Park.

In September, Joan receives the Spirit of Americana Free Speech Award at the Americana Music Association's seventh annual awards show in Nashville.

Day After Tomorrow, produced by Steve Earle and recorded in Nashville, is released on September 9.

2009

In January, Joan performs at the first Presidential inauguration of Barack Obama and performs at the Peace Ball.

On May 3rd, Joan performs at the Pete Seeger birthday celebration concert at Madison Square Garden.

The PBS American Masters series premieres the story of Joan's life, Joan Baez: How Sweet The Sound.

Throughout the year, Joan tours the United States, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Holland, France, Sweden, Denmark and Norway.

2010

In February Joan performs at the White House in Washington, DC, as part of In Performance at the White House: A Celebration of Music from the Civil Rights Movement.

Joan tours in Austria, Germany, France, Spain, and Portugal in February and March. While in Spain in March, she is awarded the Orden de las Artes y las Letras de Espana (Order of Arts and Letters from Spain), the country's most prestigious award given to foreign artists.

In May Joan participates in a Haitian relief benefit organized by the Jenkins Penn Haitian Relief Organization, and in June she is honored with the Humanitarian Award by the Children's Health Fund in New York City.

In October and November Joan tours in the United States and Canada.

2011

The album Joan Baez is inducted into the GRAMMY Hall of Fame by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.

In February Joan is awarded the 2011 Folk Alliance International Elaine Weissman Lifetime Achievement Award, and in March Joan is honored by Amnesty International with the inaugural Joan Baez Award for Outstanding Inspirational Service in the Global Fight for Human Rights.

Joan joins the cast of Teatro ZinZanni once again in June and July.

While in Paris, Joan officially receives the Ordre National de la Legion d'Honneur (National Order of the Legion of Honor), representing her status as a Chevalier (Knight) in the Order.

In November Joan participates in Occupy Wall Street's Veterans Day Rally in New york City.

Joan's touring for the year includes France, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and the United States.

2012

Joan tours France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Morocco, Italy, Austria, and Ecuador.

In May Joan is honored by International House at UC Berkeley.

2013

Early in the year Joan travels to Hanoi to revisit the area she spent time in during the Christmas bombings of 1971.

Joan tours the United States in June. In July she joins Emmylou Harris and Jackson Browne in a benefit performance for Downtown Streets Team, a San Jose area organization working to end homelessness.

In August Joan tours Australia and New Zealand for the first time since 1985.

2014

Early in the year Joan performs as a guest of Mary Chapin Carpenter with the New York Philharmonic.

Joan returns to Latin America in March for the first time since 1981, doing shows in Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, and Chile. Coinciding with this trip is the release of "Diamantes," a CD combining Spanish language song culled from the 1988 album Diamonds and Rust in the Bullring with some concert favorites and two newly recorded Portuguese songs.

She tours the U.S. in June, July, and November, as well as Europe and the U.K. in September and October.

In November Joan receives the ASCAP Centennial Award, a singular once-in-a-century honor.

The album Joan Baez (1960) is inducted into the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry.

2015

In March Joan tours Italy, Spain, and Portugal.

In May Joan receives Amnesty International's Ambassador of Conscience Award, the organization's top honor recognizing those who have shown exceptional leadership in the fight for human rights.

Joan tours Turkey, Austria, Germany, Belgium, France, Switzerland, and Luxembourg in July, with a final appearance at the Cambridge Folk Festival in the U.K.

September and October find Joan touring in Australia and New Zealand.

2016

Joan celebrates her 75th birthday with a star-studded evening at the Beacon Theatre in New York City. The concert is filmed and airs on PBS Television's Great Performances.

Joan tours the U.S. in March, Europe in July and August, and the U.S. again in the Fall.

Late in the year, Joan visits Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota where tribes gathered to oppose the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline.

2017

In April Joan is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

In the summer Joan, Mary Chapin Carpenter and the Indigo Girls perform eleven shows in a reunion of the early 1990's Four Voices.

In September Joan's artwork receives its first solo professional gallery showing at the Seager Gray Gallery in Mill Valley, California. "Mischief Makers" is a collection of portrait paintings of people who have brought about social change through nonviolent action.

2018

Whistle Down The Wind, Joan's final studio album produced by Joe Henry is released on March 2nd.

Joan spends much of the year touring the world as she begins her "Fare Thee Well" tour, the final extended tour of her career.

In December, Joan is inducted into the California Hall of Fame by Governor Jerry Brown.

2019

In January Joan participates in a Civil Rights Retreat organized by the Gandhi King Institute for Nonviolence and Social Justice.

Whistle Down The Wind garners a nomination for the Best Folk Album at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards.

Joan spends much of the year touring the world and completes her "Fare Thee Well" tour, culminating with a July 28th final concert at Teatro Real in Madrid, Spain.

In November Joan receives a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Latin Grammys and helps celebrate the 60th anniversary of Club Passim (Club 47) in Boston.

2020

The Covid-19 pandemic spreads around the world. Joan produces several at-home video performances of songs shared on her social media accounts. She is inspired by the resilience of the Italian people under the Covid-19 lockdown and does a painting, "Viva Italia," in their honor, produces a limited edition print run and raises $50,000 for pandemic relief. Similarly, following the death of John Prine, she painted his portrait, titled "Hello In There," which is sold as a limited edition print, and raises $50,000 for the Pandemic Resource and Response Initiative at Columbia University's Earth Institute.

The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, announces Joan as a member of the 2020 class of Honorees, however the ceremony is postponed until 2021.

Joan is inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

2021

"Mischief Makers 2," her second original art exhibition opened, once again at the Seager Gray Gallery in Mill Valley, California. Due to the ongoing Covid-19 restrictions, the traditional opening day reception was instead a virtual event, including interviews, songs, dancing, and, as it was the week of her 80th birthday, cake!

In May Joan is a recipient at the prestigious 43rd Annual Kennedy Center Honors, in a class that includes Dick Van Dyke, Midori Ito, Garth Brooks, and Debbie Allen. While Covid-19 still rages, the limited audience/socially distanced ceremonies were postponed from the previous December.

2022

In September Joan appears with former Vice President Al Gore at the Generation Conference in San Francisco, where they discuss activism, climate change, music, and more.

2023

JOAN BAEZ I AM A NOISE begins to make appearances at film festivals around the world - Berlin (February), SXSW in Austin, Texas and Copenhagen (March), San Francisco, California and Toronto (April), Washington, DC, and Nantucket, Rhode Island (June), The Hamptons, New York (August), and Woodstock, New York (September). The film has its theatrical premiere on October 6th at Film Forum in New York City, with a wider release in the weeks to come.

Joan's collection of upside down drawings is published in book form as AM I PRETTY WHEN I FLY?: AN ALBUM OF UPSIDE DOWN DRAWINGS by Godine on April 4th. Publication is followed by a nationwide book tour including San Francisco, Nashville, New York, Los Angeles, Menlo Park, Berkeley, Chicago, and Miami.

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