MinneapoliMedia’s The Power of Her: A Spotlight on Women Building Legacy, Leadership, and Liberation in Minnesota

There are artists whose voices can reach the rafters, just as there are leaders who can command a podium—but there is a rarer breed entirely: those who do not merely fill a room, but fill the people within it. Mari Harris is the embodiment of this dual resonance. Revered for her intuition and an unwavering commitment to humanity, she has emerged as a grounding force in spaces where much is said but little is truly understood. In this sweeping interview, Harris traces the arc of her personal evolution, exploring the spiritual practices and philosophy that guide her movement through the world.

At 72, she sits in the soft amber of an August morning, laughing with the easy confidence of someone who has made peace with her own brilliance. “If you haven’t yet turned 72,” she tells me with a mischievous grin, “I highly recommend it.”

She says it like a toast to life itself — joyous, unhurried, deeply awake.

Harris is a singer, yes. But calling her simply a singer is like calling a cathedral a room. She is a multidimensional creative force: vocalist, songwriter, life coach, voice coach, reflexologist, spiritual mentor, in the words of her dear friend Cory, “she does Mari Harris things!”. Her work slips effortlessly between performance and healing, art and empowerment, sound and spirit.

“I don’t always think about legacy,” she says early in our conversation. “But I know energy doesn’t die. And I know I have an impact on people. Anyone who’s with me for more than five minutes walks away differently than they came.”

Her voice is warm, unpretentious, but crystal-clear in its conviction. “People need to know they’re okay. When you know you’re okay, you can do anything. I think that’s part of my legacy — people leave feeling free, inspired, empowered.”

It is this very spirit — this fusion of art, healing, presence, and liberation — that fuels MinneapoliMedia’s The Power of Her: A Spotlight on Women Building Legacy, Leadership, and Liberation in Minnesota, a signature series dedicated to honoring women whose work shapes our communities, our cultural texture, and our collective future.

It is within this intentional celebration of women transforming Minnesota — and indeed, touching the world — that we sought out a conversation with Mari Harris.

A woman of rare multiplicity, Mari is not only a vocalist and songwriter but also a pianist, actress, voice coach, life coach, and certified reflexologist. She is a force whose talents stretch far beyond the stage. Her performances — including appearing at the esteemed Minnesota theaters Mixed Blood, Penumbra, The Dakota, The Guthrie, and across the country — are described not simply as musical experiences, but as encounters with presence, depth, and emotional clarity.

Showing Up, Again and Again

Harris has never chased fame; she has simply shown up. And somehow, showing up has carried her across continents and into the spiritual and personal journeys of thousands.

For two decades she was a celebrated vocalist in Eckankar, performing on CDs and stages heard around the world. “I know I’ve impacted the planet,” she says, almost casually — not out of arrogance, but acceptance. Later, she spent 25 years immersed in the international transformational training world of Landmark, leading introductions in the U.S., and assisting with courses in Europe, the U.K., and beyond.

She laughs about how technology now allows her to impact lives “all over the place without leaving the house.” And she means that literally — some days, the most important thing she does is sit still, look out the window, and listen inward.

There is a spiritual discipline in her stillness. “Part of my power is in the fact that I will sit,” she explains. “Being still, minding my own business — that’s where clarity comes.”

Healing as Presence

When Harris talks about healing, she doesn’t speak like someone reciting a philosophy. She speaks like someone who has lived it — through injury, reinvention, and decades of choosing to see possibility over pain.

“If you’ve got a disease or an injury, it makes a difference to be present,” she says. “It’s harder to heal if you’ve got an attitude about it. Hard to excel, hard to be powerful, hard to move forward — if you’re a victim or you’re making something wrong.”

This philosophy shapes her work as a life coach and voice coach. When she trains singers, she often teaches with her eyes closed. “I don’t need to see what you’re doing to know what you’re doing. I can hear when you’re thinking.”

To Harris, voice, mind, body, and spirit are inseparable. “It’s all connected,” she says. “You shift your thinking, you get present — and life shifts with you.”

The Freedom to Be Oneself

When I ask her about authentic empowerment—especially for women navigating leadership today—she pauses thoughtfully.

“The world is set up to tell women what size to be, how to walk, how to look, how to lead,” she says. “The power is in being yourself.”

She tells me about her weekly Facebook tradition: It’s Tuesday—“Good News Day”!!!. After a couple of years, she started thinking that it was corny. Then friends would stop her in grocery stores to tell her they look forward to it — especially on weeks when they themselves have no good news to give.

“That’s when I realized: this is a service,” she says. “So I embraced my corniness. If it brings joy, if it brings connection, that’s leadership too.”

During the uprising after the murder of George Floyd, her form of leadership looked different than what some expected. “People asked what I thought they should do. I said: figure out what makes sense to you. For me, I stayed home.I radiated love from home. That was my contribution.”

Empowerment, to Harris, is alignment with self — not performance for others.

The Moment She Realized She Was Larger Than Her Art

There was a night, years ago, when a friend gathered a circle of people who knew Harris best. Each person shared who they believed she was in the world. Someone said that Mari could be singing to a room of hundreds of people. “When she looks at me I feel like she is singing directly to me”. Others described her as a teacher, a healer, a workshop leader, a presence far larger than the songs she performed.

“That night,” Harris remembers, “something clicked. I realized I wasn’t just a singer. I was multi-dimensional. Multi-talented. Multi-faceted.”

She didn’t rush to build a brand or career off that realization. She simply continued becoming the person they reflected back to her. Today, she is, in her words, “larger than life — and still growing into it.”

Faith, Resilience, and the God Within

Faith is not something Harris performs; it is something she inhabits.

“I was raised in the Black Baptist Church,” she says. “Then I spent years in Eckankar. What I know now is: God is within me. I am the God that I am. That gives me space to be.”

Her spirituality is both fierce and tender. It shows up in her writing, in her songs, in how she speaks love into people, in how she refuses to make others wrong for believing differently.

She’s strongest, she says, when she honors where she is — even in her body. After years of weight changes, she embraced herself fully, found joy in food, and began lifting weights weekly. “I’m fierce in the gym,” she laughs. “My trainer is often amazed and inspired by me.”

It’s physical strength, yes — but more importantly, spiritual.

The Symphony Ahead

When I ask what comes next in the “symphony” of her life, Harris lights up.

“Oh, Tom,” she says. “That’s a fabulous question.”

She talks about possibility with the same excitement most people reserve for their first act, not their seventh decade. She is training young singers — including a 12-year-old prodigy she describes as a star in the making. She is writing, performing, coaching, empowering, strengthening, resting, expanding.

“I’ll keep ‘doing Mari Harris things’,” she says simply. “I’ll sing. I’ll write. I’ll empower people. I’ll look out the window. And I’ll keep showing up.”

In her worldview, the future is not something to chase. It is something to inhabit with presence, purpose, and joy.

As we close, I ask her a final question: Who else should we hear from? Who out there is doing work that lights up the world the way you do?

She pauses, thinking, already reaching across the community in her mind.

There is always someone else to uplift. Always someone whose story she wants told. Always someone she sees.

That, perhaps, is the deepest truth of Mary Harris:
Her legacy is not what she creates — it is what she awakens.

MinneapoliMedia