**Live-streamed from Proctors on Mandolin.com: an 8th Step Production
UPDATE - Formally released April 2, the critically acclaimed new Reggie Harris CD will premiere onstage in two parts:
1) April 10: BACKSTAGE - Reggie Harris & Wanda Fischer in conversation [with a little music, see listing below], and
2) May 15, CD Release Concert: ON SOLID GROUND, live-streamed with several guest musicians [see 5/15 listing]. Both events will be presented in GE Theatre, one of our customary Proctors stages (no live audience on-site).
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April 10…BACKSTAGE with Reggie & Wanda
Award-winning singer-songwriter-storyteller- guitarist-musical change maker REGGIE HARRIS, led by award-winning radio host Wanda Fischer (“Hudson River Sampler,” WAMC-fm), takes a fascinating deep-dive into the past COVID year, with its explosion of racial awareness and change that confronts America and the world. It has shaped his songwriting and this new album, strengthening his resolve in the face of #BlackLivesMatter protests to both call out and heal racial division and injustice across the country
As Americans white or black, who are we, collectively? Who do we want to be in the future? What is the role of art in our deeper understanding and response to a year of such upheaval? Reggie Harris may be uniquely suited to helping us explore these question.
In great demand as both a performer and a teaching artist, Reggie Harris is already known internationally for addressing inequality with his passionate performance and heartfelt storytelling. The isolation of the pandemic strengthened his dedication to understanding and community, like his beloved mentors Pete Seeger and Bernice Johnson Reagon.
Hugely inspired by his heroes U.S Rep. John Lewis, civil rights pioneer Rev. C.T. Vivian, organizer Ella Baker, and of course, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Harris has long worked as a (founding) artist with the Kennedy Center's Changing Education Through the Arts program, serves as co-president of The Living Legacy Project, an organization advocating for civil and human rights (http://www.uulivinglegacy.org)..
He has been featured on CNN and in the NY Times, was this year awarded the Spirit of Folk Award by Folk Alliance International, and has toured across the United States, Canada, and Europe. As performer, recording artist, master song leader and storyteller, he loves to use music and history to help people discover that they, too, can make a difference - at any age, wherever they live,
WANDA FISCHER
Every Saturday night for 39 years, she has transported listeners with two hours of the finest folk music, bluegrass and blues familiar and obscure, international and regional. Her familiar voice and widely respected, encyclopedic knowledge of the music celebrate both contemporary and traditional folk music, its artists, venues, festivals and audiences.
Also a novelist and musician, Wanda Fischer was inducted into the Folk Alliance International’s Folk DJ Hall of Fame in 2017, among such radio luminaries as the late Oscar Brand, UK’s “Whispering” Bob Harris, and Fiona Ritchie, host off “Thistle and Shamrock.” A longtime friend of The Eighth Step, she has often graced our stage.
TO OUR PATRONS: Thanks for your patience (Reggie fractured his wrist and it’s healing). Check back soon for tickets, and join us on April 10 & May 15!