A free concert hosted by the B&O Railroad Museum to honor Martin Luther King Jr. Day will feature the debut of a spoken word piece by local artist Anthony Parker, also known as Wordsmith.

Parker said his composition captures the stories of eight enslaved Black Americans who traveled through the city’s historic Mount Clare Station in the 1800s, to reach a place of freedom.

So, it’s a piece about perseverance, he said. “But it’s also a piece that speaks for our culture, and also is telling the stories of Black slaves that have never truly been told.”

The B&O Railroad Museum unearthed these stories while opening its exhibit of the restored Mount Clare railroad station in 2022 – along with 19 other stories from formerly-enslaved Black Americans who sought freedom through the B&O Railroad as a whole.

“Some of them are still unnamed, they haven't been able to unearth those parts,” Parker said. “And some of them they have, and have been able to find the actual stories of slaves that came through there.”

The free concert will also feature performances of all Black-composed pieces through the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, who will be led by a Black conductor.

“So it's truly going to be a night of celebrating Black culture, a night of getting rid of any racial divide,” Parker said. “Reconciliation, unity, love – all those things will be in the air.”