Mavis Staples told Bob Dylan no. The socially conscious young woman who’d captured a fragmented America’s imagination as the earthy-voiced singer on the Staples Singers hits knew she wasn’t ready to get married, and so she demurred when the man considered the voice of a generation proposed.

That singular sort of conviction defines the Rock and Roll and Blues Hall of Fame member, Kennedy Center Honors recipient and Berklee College of Music honorary doctorate. But where so many social activists are fervor and rage, Staples has a more deadly approach.

“I live from feel,” she explains of what drives her. “Whatever my heart tells me, that’s the direction I go. I’m not going to pretend that things are fine, but anger can give the devil a foothold as they say, and I don’t want that. So rather than anger, I think we need more love, more compassion.”

Mavis Staples brings that compassion and her talents to the Vineyard on Tuesday at the Performing Arts Center, part of the Martha’s Vineyard Concert series and a benefit for MVY. The show begins at 8 p.m. A show by Dwight and Nicole begins at 7 p.m.

Given that a young Mavis was on the front lines of the Civil Rights movement with Dr. Martin Luther King, saw the Staples Family Singers move from gospel to bringing the message to a more universal pop audience, the 79-year-old triple Grammy-award winner has seen it, lived it and turned it into music.

If All I Was Was Black, her latest collaboration with Wilco founder Jeff Tweedy, finds the soul legend opening her heart and her wisdom for fans of roots music that inspires.

As a musical advocate for a world of justice, equality and mercy, Staples puts her music where her commitment is. When asked which pieces of her work sum up her career, she responds: “All this work I’ve been doing, all these years, I feel that recently there’s been a resurgence of all the things we’ve fought against, the bigotry and hate. So, I would like people to hear You Are Not Alone, Build A Bridge and I’ll Take You There, because we shouldn’t be so divided and what we need is music to bring people together and help one another.”

It’s a theme that’s consistent for the woman who was, along with the rest of her family, jailed in the Jim Crow South after a stop for gasoline that ended with a particularly heinous epithet and Pops Staples sticking up for his daughter. It didn’t matter that the money in their trunk was from a show they’d just played, the authorities believed the attendant who claimed they’d robbed the station.

“In some ways, I’m sad that I am still having to sing songs with this same message. Looking around today, what’s going on can make me feel like I’m living in that era again. I get depressed, but then realize it’s important to keep singing, to keep on that freedom highway. I feel like I am a servant, and the righteous cause still needs voices, and that’s timeless. I’m still here, and I’m ready.”

Ready is an understatement. The woman who’s been a muse to producers Ry Cooder, Prince and M. Ward and has been nominated for a Best Pop Vocal Collaboration Grammy with Dylan on Gonna Have To Change My Way of Thinking, as well as being frequently sampled on hip-hop recordings by Salt-N-Pepa, Ludacris and Ice Cube, is musically hungry — and always willing to make music. She finds herself inspired by the energy of creation.

“I have to say, I like working with the young artists today. Arcade Fire had me over to their house in New Orleans to record. Damon Albarn took a train from New York to Chicago for a session. I also did a session with Benjamin Booker that was a lot of fun, a song called Witness. I feel like it keeps me young to be with the hipsters! I’m flattered these young folks know who I am, and that they want to work with me and for me to be on their songs.”

The 79-year old soul-stirrer has an especially special place for Tweedy.

“Jeff is a real songwriter, and I like to really get inside the songs I record, and live them. That’s what Jeff is great at. We have done some older songs together, plus Pops’ album, but on this new album I guess I’m back to the bad news and making people cry. But it’s just too much, what’s been going on, to not try to sing about it, and try to inspire people to fix it.”

Smoky, sultry, evocative, her voice carries emotion like electric current through copper wire. It adds charge to her gospel of love and coming together. She understands the power of music to overcome divides, dissolve differences and speak to a place beyond bias.

Whether recording for Stax, back in the day, or Anti- today, she keeps a steady eye. “I’m a loving person and I think love does come through. I sing on it on these: We set each other free; It’s time for more love; I’ll always be your friend; I’ll let the sunlight in. So there is joy in there, and Jeff got to it in the songs he wrote through me and for me.”

All one has to do is listen. Last year’s Living’ on a High Note and If All I Was Was Black both speak to who we are, and who we can be. They invoke Michelle Obama’s “When they go low...,” Martin Luther King’s speeches, and Jesus. It’s a powerful witness without ever telling anyone what to do.

That’s the power of that voice, one that matches worn experience with stoic phrasing and enough passion to flicker the senses like brandy after a good meal. And that marriage proposal by Dylan? Well, that was a long time ago but the two remain good friends.

“He told me last year during the tour we did together we’re going to make a new record,” she reports, “but we didn’t get to it yet.”

Fickle as Dylan can be, she’s not giving up the light even if the record doesn’t happen. “The tour was great. We had a great time and talked a lot, reminisced and had some laughs every day.”

Mavis Staples performs at the Performing Arts Center Tuesday beginning at 8 p.m. Visit mvconcertseries for tickets and information.