When Lucy Dacus walked onstage at the Jan. 1 inauguration of New York’s new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, music fans watching at home perked up with excitement. Dacus herself was feeling some big jitters. “I was so nervous, because I can’t think of a higher-stakes stage that I’ve been on,” she says. “You can mess up your own things, but it’s really not cool to mess up somebody else’s thing.”
In fact, Dacus nailed that moment with a stirring rendition of “Bread and Roses,” an early-20th-century anthem of the labor and women’s suffrage movements. A couple of days later, she called Rolling Stone to take us behind the scenes of a historic day in New York.
Her City Hall appearance, which was not announced until the day of the inauguration, came together in just a few weeks, after the mayor-elect’s office reached out in early December. They went back and forth on what to perform — “It would have felt weird to get up and sing one of my own songs,” she says — before Mamdani’s team suggested the storied protest song they went with.
Dacus was familiar with “Bread and Roses” because of a performance she did with Julien Baker and Phoebe Bridgers, her boygenius bandmates, back in 2021 at a San Francisco benefit for the nonprofit organization of the same name. “It’s such a beautiful sentiment,” she says. “The idea that you’re not just fighting for your sustenance — you’re fighting for your joy.”
Although Dacus is based in Los Angeles, she’s one of many people around the country who found something inspiring in Mamdani’s promise to work toward a better life for all New Yorkers. In September, ahead of the mayoral election, she brought the popular progressive candidate out as a surprise guest during her set at the All Things Go festival in Forest Hills, Queens, just a few months after he made a similar appearance at one of MJ Lenderman’s shows in Brooklyn.
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“I feel such love and joy in the crowd this evening, and this is what our city should feel like,” Mamdani told the crowd at All Things Go. “It should be a city where trans New Yorkers are cherished, a city where our queer neighbors are celebrated, and a city where each and every New Yorker can be the fullest version of themselves. And it has to be a city that all of us can afford, whether you’re an artist, or a dreamer, or someone who works the night shifts. And that city, that city is within reach, if we’re willing to fight for it.”
On the frigid afternoon of the inauguration, Dacus walked onstage to join keyboardist Sarah Goldstone and looked out at the people assembled in front of City Hall. “It doesn’t feel like that big of a crowd, actually,” she says. “It’s not even as many people as I’d have at one of our concerts. But then, all of the cameras, you realize this is a global event.” She tried not to think too much about that, and focused on visualizing the images that went with poet James Oppenheim’s lyrics as she sang.
After finishing the song, she exchanged a hug with New York’s new first lady, visual artist Rama Duwaji. “And on the way off the stage, I tried to fist-bump Bernie Sanders, which maybe confused him,” she adds. “But he said that I did a good job.”
She also took the chance to chat with Broadway legend Mandy Patinkin, whose performance of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” was another highlight of the inauguration. “His voice is so iconic to me,” she says. (Hamilton star Javier Muñoz and Punjabi Canadian musician Babbulicious were also part of the festivities.)
Ultimately, Dacus thinks it’s no coincidence that Mamdani’s vision for New York connected with so many creative artists. “When you make art, you realize that it’s not a luxury,” she says. “People that make art know the value of having the time and presence to focus on your interests.” That connects with the theme of “Bread and Roses,” too: “I think people need to not look at organizing or participating as something that is only going to be draining. It’s something that gives back a lot of purpose and beauty.”
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Mamdani himself has a background in the arts, having grown up as the son of noted filmmaker Mira Nair and, famously, put in some work as indie rapper Mr. Cardamom before entering politics at the suggestion of Das Racist’s Himanshu Suri.
“I wonder if being creative is a great attribute for a politician, because when you’re creative, you make something because you aren’t satisfied that it doesn’t exist,” Dacus continues, thinking out loud. “If he’s bringing a creative approach to policy, I’m glad. Maybe more politicians should be creative.”
