(Submitted Photo)

OXFORD – With in-person concerts on hold, 6 On The Square in Oxford will host an online concert featuring singer/songwriter Reggie Harris at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 20.

Harris is a singer-songwriter, storyteller and cultural ambassador on a mission to educate, entertain and inspire. For over 40 years, he performed for audiences in the US, Canada and Europe.

A songwriter of great depth and insight, Harris writes from a personal but accessible place that reveals his deep sense of humanity and a uniquely positive worldview. He is a trailblazer who performs for audiences of all ages. His effervescently humorous and hopeful presence has led fans to label him the “Ambassador of Joy, Hope and Freedom.”

Harris received a life-saving liver transplant in 2008. He uses the inspiration and triumph of that gift of life to spread light and hope.

Averaging over 250 dates per year, Harris is in high demand at arts centers, schools, universities, and festivals. He is an intuitive presenter in workshops on history, songwriting and performance.

Harris is a teaching artist for the John F Kennedy Center’s CETA program, a Woodrow Wilson Scholar, and the director of music education for the UU Living Legacy Project. He is a master song leader who values the power of song and the dignity of every human being.

Previously known as half of the folk acoustic duo Kim and Reggie Harris, he is a natural collaborator who invigorates his solo touring with occasional partnerships, such as Greg Greenway (Deeper Than the Skin), Scott Ainslie (Long Time Coming) and Pat Wictor.

Harris leads workshops and seminars on songwriting, race relations and performance at colleges and universities, retreat centers and festivals such as the Kennedy Center Summer Education Institute, The Swannanoa Gathering, Boston’s Summer Acoustic Music Week (SAMW), the People’s Music Network, and the Southeastern Unitarian Universalist Summer Institute (SUUSI).

Recently, Harris released a new single for Black History Month called “It’s Who We Are,” which starkly lays out the reasons for our divisive times: It’s greed, it’s self-indulgence, it’s the fear of compromise.”

"As an African-American songwriter,” he says, “I feel uniquely privileged and honored to carry this message forward, standing in the shoes of elders like the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Fanny Lou Hamer, Ella Baker, Rep. John Lewis and millions of others who believed that we would overcome the hate and division that has so long been a part of our nation landscape. I’m doing my part to keep the dream alive. This song carried the message that Black folks have been preaching for years. It doesn’t have to be this way. That’s why Black History Month exists."

Tickets for the Feb. 20 online concert are $18 (plus $2 service fee); purchase online at 6onthesquare.org. Those who buy tickets will receive emails about how to view the show on Zoom.

6 On The Square, Inc. is an intimate, not-for-profit, volunteer-based acoustic music listening room and arts venue located at 6 Lafayette Park in downtown Oxford.

- Submitted article