Judy Collins, 86, has won a Grammy, been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame for her rendition of Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now,” written several books, and become a committed social activist. Before moving to New York and joining the folk scene in 1963, she was a strong-willed piano prodigy growing up in Colorado. “I was a disciplined little girl,” she told the Wall Street Journal in 2015, recalling how she overcame polio at age 10. After discovering Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger during her adolescence, Collins pivoted from classical music to guitar. Then came New York, the Greenwich Village folk community, and her friendships with fellow singer-songwriters, from Joni Mitchell to Randy Newman to Leanord Cohen. Collins now returns to the intimate Café Carlyle at the Carlyle Hotel for a residency that blends stories from her career, classic songs, and a preview of her new poetry collection, Sometimes It’s Heaven. —Jeanne Malle