Dear Music Family,

I hope you are all well and paying attention to keeping yourself safe in this ongoing COVID-19 crisis. My heart is very sad in this moment as cancellations, mis-information, and fears continue to mount. We all find ourselves in a state of uncertainty as we try to adjust to the need for individual, community, and global safety which could be difficult for a lot of people and cbd products like gummies can help with this, so for all those interested they can check this website to find information.

Two weeks ago, in my role as co-president of the Living Legacy Project, I led a conference call where our board decided to cancel two Civil Rights Pilgrimages that were scheduled for this month. At that time, we had two bus-loads of excited participants who were looking forward to exploring over 20 sites related to our extraordinary Civil Rights heritage. At that time, it felt like a hard and bold decision to make. Now, in hindsight, it was clearly the reasonable thing to do.

As you know, one of my great joys is leading music on these powerful journeys that connect people not only to the past, but to the critical issues that still plague our nation. Singing with people on the bus is always one of the highlights that sets the tone for the narratives that we must consider, past and present. These songs have stood the test of time, and still inspire activism and action to drive us forward.

Last month I had the chance to celebrate some of these very songs with one of my musical heroes, my brother Josh White, Jr. We sat together on stage in East Lansing and traded songs and stories, and watched our audience “come alive” with the passion and fervor of a mass meeting. There were moments when we could have been in one of those churches in Selma, Birmingham, Montgomery, AL, or Jackson, Mississippi, waiting for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. or C.T. Vivian to stand and deliver a stirring sermon aimed at firing us up to register to vote. And here in this election cycle, faced with some of the most important challenges our nation has ever faced, we need all the inspiration we can get.

Check out this video: https://vimeo.com/397802933

Like Josh, I come from a long line of committed song leaders who knew the power of song. When they sang “Woke Up This Morning with My Mind (stayed on Freedom)” they were committing themselves to personal action in hopes of changing the world.

Our cancelled journeys will be rescheduled, and as most of us feel trapped in our homes for periods of time, I encourage you to use this opportunity to read, watch, and learn so that when we again have the opportunity to gather, organize, and vote, we will be ready. Two favorite books include The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson and Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson. You might also watch that movie, or watch the documentary “13th,” a very thought-provoking documentary on our system of justice. An additional reading list is available at https://deeperthantheskin.com/about/bibliography/

In peace, health, and song,
Reggie

Dear Music Family,

 

Really? Has it really been 9 years?  I still remember the conversation that brought me to the Living Legacy Pilgrimage bus (LLP) that first time in 2010.

My friend Rev. Hope Johnson and her sister Janice Marie Johnson had just returned from having an incredible experience on a civil rights journey through Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee. Hope said the only thing missing in the experience was that it did not include any of the music that fueled that movement. She asked if I would be willing to come on the next journey as a musician who could provide a spark and some historical background. The answer was easy! Yes!!

In my mind, it would just be “another gig where I had to sing some freedom songs as we visited those hallowed sites.” And as they say, “little did I know!”

Two days into the journey, my passion came alive and my heart knew that I had found a new mission. Like so many before and after, I was ready to join forces with those who have committed themselves to sharing the lessons and the hope that these pilgrimages bring alive. Quickly I went from being a hired musician… to serving as Director of Music for LLP… to being a member on the board as a resource for planning and co-leading these extraordinary journeys. On average, I’m on the bus twice per year, and I’ve helped plan even more.

Now, some nine years later, I find myself as one half of the new LLP leadership team. With my dear friend Jan Sneegas, I have accepted the position of Co-Chairperson of LLP for the next year. Jan and I are now charged, along with our new energized board, with leading this amazing organization into its next phase of new collaborations, more pilgrimages, and developing new ways to expand the mission. Traveling from Birmingham, to Selma, Marion, Montgomery, Jackson, Philadelphia, Memphis, and more, we continue to use the sites, songs, and stories to drive home important messages of resolve and hope.

Here is a two minute video example of such a moment on our Oct. 2017 LLP pilgrimage . We were blessed to have some time with the family of civl rights martyr Vernon Dahmer Sr, where his son Vernon Dahmer Jr, still a vibrant force, shared thoughts about their critical involvement in legacy of Mississippi civil rights history. https://youtu.be/7HuK0dvEROg

The work of crafting a vision with LLP has me singing with renewed inspiration. My other connections in music, education, history, and faith are also blossoming to make this challenging and often perplexing time in history feel like the best opportunity possible to bring about social change.

9 years!! One step and one bus ride at a time. We are all doing small things to keep the fabric of justice growing. We’ve had everyone from 9th grade to into their 90’s, and people from every kind of racial and faith (or not) background imaginable. If you haven’t yet joined us on a pilgrimage, put us on your list. http://www.uulivinglegacy.org

In peace, justice, and song,
Reggie

 

May/June News 2019

“Are these stories true?” The question came from a fourth grader who was seated at a desk at the back of the classroom. It was inspired by an age-appropriate but honest description of life in slavery. It’s a question that I’ve heard many many times, and as always, I smiled, and then in as calm a voice as I could muster, I said, “Yes, these stories are all true. I know it’s hard to believe. But you don’t have to believe me. You can look them up.”
This is work I love to do. I get great joy performing for thousands in groups small and large, and traveling the world singing at house concerts, in concert halls, festivals, and in famous art centers. There is nothing, however, like the magic of being in a local school somewhere in America talking about issues that many adults think we should hide from kids. My programs on the Underground Railroad, slavery, and Civil Rights are moments when I feel the most hope for the future of our world.

Kids are honest, open, curious, and more than happy to entertain themselves if you don’t happen to be interesting or if you seem like you’re trying to hide something. Whether I’m telling a story to 200 kindergartener-to-third graders, or I’m teaching “Wade In The Water” to the most cool, disinterested-looking 9^th-through-12^thgraders on the planet, my 40 years of engaging with students from every region of the country in concert, classroom, or during a residency has taught me that there’s a way in. The goal is somehow to discover the way in together, and music and story help students discover, engage, and then demonstrate their learning in ways that are not only fun, but universally effective.

In pictures and letters that come through the mail weeks after a performance, students show that lessons on Harriet Tubman, Henry “Box” Brown, or the marching children of 1963 Birmingham have hit the mark. Teachers report, “The students are still singing those songs, and they’ve made connections to present-day students in Parkland, Florida and Columbine, Colorado.” The connections between past and present become more than words on a page. One of my favorite pictures was drawn by a second grade girl after an Underground Railroad program. She drew herself crying, with a thought bubble showing a girl in slavery. I love the drawing because it demonstrated the emotional impact of slavery, her understanding of injustice, and her ability to reflect on it.

Some days I’m arriving with the janitor at 7am, others I’m doing workshops for educators, and still others I’m leaving a college classroom at 10:00 at night, but it’s all work that makes me feel vibrant and alive and the positive effect on my life and work is deeper than I can say.

In learning, joy, and song,
Reggie

 

 

Dear Friends and Music Family!

It’s what I seem to love to do… so I looked it up!
Collaboration: the process of two or more people or organizations working together to complete a task or achieve a goal.  

I’ve spent most of my life working in collaboration. It started in childhood, living with my grandmother, my single-parent mom, and my sister, living in a house that my mom “Midge” and her sister “Sweetsie” helped my Nana and Grandpop to buy. They were the first Black family on the block, in a house bought in a collaboration with a White realtor and the first Black female judge in PA, The Honorable Juanita Kidd Stout. Through those years, we didn’t always have what we needed, but we had love. With the help of our church and neighborhood, we got by.

That effort continued in my adult life as I discovered that music was my inspiration and my way to express all that I love and hope to represent. I used to have a peek at this web-site. As part of the duo Kim and Reggie Harris and many satisfying collaborations including with Pete Seeger, Matt Jones, Scott Ainslie, Pat Wictor, Magpie and many others, we raised our voices to stamp out hate and lift up hope.

I have also come to love the joy and power of singing and performing as a solo act. Music speaks to hearts and minds in ways that transforms our lives and makes our planet more safe, more sane, healthy and just. But working in collaboration remains one of my great joys.

Most of you know of my collaboration with Greg Greenway, my friend of 30 years. Deeper Than the Skin is a story/concert/dialogue that takes on the subject of race. We’re at a new and exciting place and are happy to announce that we are recording a CD of the presentation that will be available later this year! This CD comes at a challenging time in our nation, and has allowed us to engage in critical conversations with audiences from Maine to Florida, Oklahoma to Virginia.

Born 3 days apart we have forged a friendship that merges our different beginnings, White and Black, North and South, a descendant of slaves and a descendant of slave owners, into a collaboration that invites people to recall their stories and hear the stories of others. This is the only way that we will heal the racial divide. We invite you to watch for ways to purchase the CD (not yet available). We welcome you to join us when we’re in your area (see dates below, Reggie’s website, or visit the Deeper Than the Skin website) or you can invite us into your community by visiting this link (https://deeperthantheskin.com).

Malcolm X said, “We need more light about each other.” You can help us in our efforts to open hearts and create more light.

 

In 1969, somewhere around the middle of November, I heard James Taylor’s song ‘Fire and Rain’ on a late night WIBG radio program called “Americana Panorama”. It was a seminal moment for me, an eclectic black kid living in North Philly, who was going to a mostly white high school across town. The strains of his guitar and voice awakened something in me that I couldn’t explain. But having heard that song, a path to a life in music and an actively engaged citizenship was begun.

It would take years for that awakening to become a reality. That moment was enhanced and intensified as I, inspired by the music of Gordon Lightfoot, Aretha Franklin, Cat Stevens, Pete Seeger, Stevie Wonder, and countless others, experimented with those myriad influences that stirred the juices of creativity around and around in my body and brain. Murmurs of the spirituals and gospel songs of my youth simmered together with the classical and jazz songs I heard in school as I moved and swayed to the pop/rock classics that filled the airwaves. Together they freed me from what might have been the usual course for a kid of my background. It was a fusion of sound and message that lifted me into the ozone of boundless self-expression. Music, as it so often does, opened new windows of meaning for me and allowed me test my wings in a new atmosphere of artistic freedom. And with joy, my life and career dreams took flight.

And now, so many years removed from that fertile valley of inspiration, I find myself still deeply connected to the central truth of my discovery on that November night…That music heals, transforms and makes change possible.

That knowledge has served me well through years of struggle, challenge, joyful exploration, illness and triumph in the same way that it has fueled movements of social and historic change. And I find myself, with new and renewed vigor, embracing the causes of positive change in old and new ways without fear. And I’m trying everyday to share that light.

“I almost didn’t come here tonight. I’ve been so frustrated, angry and upset by everything in the news. I really didn’t want to leave the house. But when I saw the announcement of this program, I went online and I looked at your Facebook and webpage and what I saw gave me a little bit of hope. Your music spoke to me tonight, and I’m so glad I came.”

If these were the words spoken by just one person over the last few weeks that would be a marvelous thing. But I’ve heard similar statements from person after person in state after state…at intermission and at the end of shows as people go off into the night. I hear it at the end of my solo concerts and at the end of presentations of “Deeper Than the Skin” with Greg Greenway or in my concerts with Scott Ainslie, Kim Harris, Pat Wictor, Magpie, Emma’s Revolution or the many other artists with whom I share the value of song.

We live in a challenging time! Good news in the 24/7 news cycle often feels hard to come by. It’s hard to remember that WE are the good news. If we realize that we still have the ability to open our hearts to honest connections that bind us to each other and affect the shape of our world then the world will change for the better.  If not us, then who?

Whether it’s talking to a stranger on a plane or to the young people we love as we try to help them begin to define their dreams or make sense of what’s happening in the world; or when we take a moment to encourage someone to take an active role in our nation’s direction or volunteer an hour or two at a school, soup kitchen or community center. It’s one of the reasons we register and vote or spend time talking with friends and family to help them to regain their perspective and mental balance.

WE must be the change that we hope to see in the world.

Malcolm X said: “We need more light about each other. For light brings understanding, understanding brings love, love brings patience and patience brings unity.”

So just as my forebears set the example in the past, I now try to add my piece to the puzzle at a time when hope seems distant and faint. Every time I open my mouth to sing or I pick up that guitar, I’m back in my room on 17^th street in Philly, rediscovering the joy, possibility and hope that music can bring.

This is the song in my heart; this is still very much my work in the world. I am happy and fortunate to have many partners in this work… the musicians and artists who have come to know that fame, money and personal glory are not enough reason to build and sustain a healthy grounded life and career.

As Bernice Johnson Reagon founder of “Sweet Honey in the Rock” said’ “Music changes the air!”  Music builds community and heals our hearts.  And blessed be… it can also help us change the world!