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February 24, 2023 @ 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
FreeTo commemorate Black Heritage Month, Guelph Museums has partnered with Guelph Black Heritage Society for February’s Fourth Friday. We are pleased to host Shane Philips, an internationally acclaimed musician with a whole lot of soul. Philips is described as a singer whose voice is beyond his years and yet his message is timeless. Shane is an environmental and social activist, and his songs spread messages of change, love, and community.
Every Fourth Friday of the month enjoy free admission to the Civic Museum from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., and a free concert starting at 7 p.m.
Tickets will be available January 27, 2022. Reserve yours on Eventbrite!
The concert will also be streamed on our Facebook Page, and available for a limited time afterwards on our YouTube channel and Museum Everywhere portal.
Due to high demand for seating, please arrive at the Museum and take your seat by 6:50 pm. Seats not claimed by this time may be re-assigned to rush line visitors.
Please let us know in advance if you can no longer attend so we can release the ticket to others wishing to attend.
Cash bar.
About the Artist:
Philips’ career as an artist has spanned the last 30 years from his first cassette tape release in 1990 and then to six CD’s from 1996 to 2016. During this time Philips toured North America as a singer and performer playing original music while performing in a lead role as “Sammy Davis Jr.” in the musical “The Rat Pack” which toured Germany, Austria and Dubai. Fast forward to 2019, Philips later completed a “Harry Belafonte” musical tribute which toured Quebec.www.shanephilips.comwww.bandofpeople.com
In 2008 Philips began to receive film and TV placement within the Lifetime Network and his singing eventually earned him a spot on the NBC show “The Voice” in 2014 and was eventually cast off because producers officially said he was “too soulful”. Shane deemed it a major compliment and used it as a guide in his path forward. He slowly understood that singing songs of hope and change were what his inner voice hungered for. With the completion of a coast-to-coast US tour in 2014 of which culminated at the San Francisco Folk Festival, Philips used that momentum to propel his journey forward and was eventually given the opportunity in 2015 to sing with his musical inspiration Stevie Wonder as part of the cast ensemble for the concert finally at the Scotia Bank Centre in Toronto, Canada. This once in a lifetime experience was followed up with a one on one meeting between Philips and Wonder where the main topic of discussion was the state of the world. A year later in 2016, Philips would form Band of People, a non-profit music collective that shared a vision for peace and harmony expressed through music. That summer Philips was asked to sing one of his original compositions at the official protest rally downtown Philadelphia during the Democratic Convention to protest the side lining of then Presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders. To a crowd in the thousands, Philips, as one youth put it, inspired and gave hope to the idea that people standing together could make a difference. As a recording engineer, at the age of 22 Shane was running a co-op for his local high school as well as Fanshawe College in London Ontario. Shane’s approach to music production was refined by his time signed to a Montreal based Mile End Records where he spent years learning audio techniques from veteran engineers at Studio MixArt. Shane believes in keeping things simple and using the best equipment available for any specific environment. As a performer himself, Shane learned how to coach fellow artists that found themselves in front of a mic. This would later become an asset as he began to work in the field of location audio with CEO’s, politicians, NGO’s and a wide variety of other clients to record interviews, marketing campaigns and documentaries such as the Rwandan Healing Project in 2019. Shane’s path as an artist traveling the world inspired him to use music for positive change devoting time and energy to activism promoting human rights, veteran affairs, social and environmental change. Early on in 2002 one of his songs was adopted by the York Regional School Board for an anti-drinking and driving campaign and then in 2011 Shane began his personal journey as a water activist walking not only once but twice from his hometown of Guelph Ontario to Queens Park in Toronto to highlight issues of equity when it came to local and global water rights. He eventually volunteered his time in the summer of 2021 “Ear to the Ground Water” campaign which connected communities all over Ontario through series of walks in solidarity for water protection and First Nations rights. Philips currently continues to produce and record new music while singing in renowned venues including The Reservoir Lounge.