Ryan Lowry for The New York Times
The gospel singer Mavis Staples has toured the world with her family as part of the Staple Singers, sang for the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the height of the civil rights movement, spent weeks on the Billboard charts, experienced a midcareer resurgence in the 1980s thanks largely to Prince, and once turned down a marriage proposal from Bob Dylan. Now the soon to be 77-year-old will be a Kennedy Center honoree, the second gospel singer, after Marion Williams in 1993, to be recognized in the awards’ history.
Other recipients of the award this year are Al Pacino, Martha Argerich, James Taylor and the Eagles.
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