Wordsmith

Wordsmith is a songwriter, poet, recording artist, actor, playwright and philanthropist from Baltimore, MD.

He earned a full athletic scholarship to play football at Morgan State University studying radio, TV and Performing Arts. A transfer to Salisbury University 2 years later earned Wordsmith a Bachelor of Performing Arts Degree in 2002.

Wordsmith is a Grammy Voting Member, winner of the 2025 Bernard/Ebb Songwriting Awards, finalist for the 2024 Baker Artist Awards, voted one of 25 Black Marylanders to Watch in 2024 by the Baltimore Sun, 5 time ASCAPLUS Award winner and his music/jingles are featured on prominent networks like WWE, ESPN Sports center, Kawasaki, Russian Doll (Netflix), Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (Netflix), Preacher (AMC) and many more!

Continuing to expand his reach, Wordsmith is an International Exchange Alumni with the US Department of State. He has performed major concerts, humanitarian missions and held music/performance/poetry workshops in Azerbaijan, Haiti, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Angola, Ukraine, Namibia, Cote D’ Ivoire, Panama, Tunisia and Tanzania since 2016.

Wordsmith’s career took a new direction in 2018 when he was hired to write new narration for Carnival of the Animals with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. A second opportunity came when Wordsmith was asked to host the 2018 BSO Gala with special guest Cynthia Erivo. Officially becoming an Artistic Partner with the BSO in September 2020, Wordsmith & composer James Lee III debuted two commissioned pieces; “Destined Words” for the BSO Gala Celebration in honor of Marin Alsop and the Frederick Douglass inspired piece “Freedom’s Genuine Dawn.” Wordsmith followed up these performances with landmark reinterpretations of Stravinsky’s “The Soldier’s Tale”, “Beethoven Ninth,” his original classical fusion piece “Made in America” and the world premiere of “Network to Freedom, ” at the B&O Railroad Museum on MLK Day 2024! On Juneteenth, Wordsmith joined the Minnesota Symphony Orchestra for a special concert featuring his original fusion piece “Made in America.”

Wordsmith officially opened his nonprofit “Rise with a Purpose, Inc.” in 2020, while delivering his first TED Talk via John Hopkins University. Always looking to expand his horizons, Wordsmith joined the faculty of Baltimore School for the Arts as a playwright and director, while recently being voted on the board for the B&O Railroad Museum.