A lifelong performer with an unparalleled career and voice, Mavis Staples turned 86 years old this July and continues to tour around the world, bringing her music and message to the people one show at a time.

This time last year Staples spoke to the New York Times and said she has no plans to retire. Her voice, she explained, has changed with time, “having broadened and softened, like a steel sculpture pillowed with velvet.”

“I’m the messenger,” Mavis Staples says. “That’s my job—it has been for my whole life—and I can’t just give up while the struggle’s still alive. We’ve got more work to do, so I’m going to keep on getting stronger and keep on delivering my message every single day.” That message—a clarion call to love, to faith, to justice, to brotherhood, to joy—lies at the heart of her music and her powerful performances.