Musical creator wants to register, motivate Black voters at Baltimore concert

Nygel Robinson knows that telling people to vote is not enough — especially in a state solidly as blue as Maryland. Sometimes you can make your point better with song.

The co-creator of the hit off-Broadway musical “Mexodus” is teaming with Black Girls Vote for an Oct. 10 concert at Center Stage for a voter registration event. The concert will evoke traditions of the Black church, organizers said, bringing the community together and, similar to Souls to the Polls events, encourage them to register and vote.

“Telling people things can sometimes become boring, and they won’t listen to you,” he said. “If I can’t tell you, I’ll sing it at you.”

The Center Stage voter registration initiative comes as efforts to preserve accurate history are under attack, cultural wars are prevalent and political ideologies divide.

And Baltimore holds a special place in the writer and actor’s heart. “Mexodus” premiered in Baltimore, and he credits Charm City with playing a major role in its success.

“It was a big part of its birth,” the North Carolina native said.

“Mexodus,” which Robinson co-wrote with Brian Quijada, who is Salvadoran-American, tells the story of an enslaved Black American who seeks freedom by heading south via the Underground Railroad into Mexico.

The show’s themes of history and race relations between Black and Latinos are politically relevant, Robinson said.

Black and Latino communities don’t always have the same political goals. That split widened during the 2024 presidential election when an overwhelming majority of Black people voted for Kamala Harris while nearly half of Latinos voted for Donald Trump.

Robinson primarily wants to attract Black people to Saturday’s concert, but he hopes that his theater work will help heal relationships among diverse groups.

“We all eat rice, beans and chicken. We just cook it different ways,” he said.

Center Stage Executive Director Ken-Matt Martin worked with Robinson on a holiday-themed musical called “CHARMZ: The Other Reindeer. It will premiere at the theater next month. Martin said Robinson is “one of the most important and decorated artists working in the American theatre.”

Many great artists used their music to remind people what’s important and what is at stake, Martin said, and the right to vote has not always been a given. Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court weakened a portion of the Voting Rights Act that protected majority-Black districts.

“This concert honors them and that history while reminding people that the midterms are just as important as any other election period,” he said.

Martin said it is important to encourage voter participation even in decidedly blue states like Maryland with an established voting rights act. Just 45% of those eligible voted in the 2022 midterms, Martin said.

Nykidra “Nyki” Robinson, founder of Black Girls Vote, a nonpartisan national group founded and based in Baltimore, said the event reminds her of the Black church’s role in the fight for freedom and the right to vote.

Holding the event in such a large space like Center Stage — which also hosts weekly church services — is powerful because it ”is about gathering together, celebrating together and then carrying that same energy and sense of community to the polls,” she said.

It reminds her of the tradition of Black people organizing around the Black church, which has historically played an important role the fight for freedom and the right to vote, she explained.

“It is also a reminder that having the right to vote and actually exercising that right are two different things. We honor that history by continuing to show up.”

She calls Nygel Robinson’s undertaking “incredibly meaningful.”

Robinson “could simply entertain,” she said, “but he has chosen to use his voice and his talent to help move people to action.”