Art Space is a recurring element in the UpFront section of our print publication that spotlights a local artist or project making an impact in the city at large. Here’s what’s going on this month:

Their efforts to guide enslaved people to freedom would forever change our nation. And this month, the legacies of two Marylanders will be honored on film for all to stream. Airing on PBS on October 4 and 11, respectively, Harriet Tubman: Visions of Freedom and Becoming Frederick Douglass will provide in-depth looks at how these hometown heroes pursued equality for all. “There are so many figures hailing from our state who have impacted the world,” says Travis Mitchell, chief content officer at MPT, which produced the documentaries with Firelight Films. “This is the beginning of a series of new stories we’ll be able to bring forth.”

Eighty miles from Baltimore, the tidewater town of Cambridge on the Eastern Shore looks much like it has for the past 200 years. With many downtown buildings dating back to the 19th century, little has changed for the Dorchester County seat since 1943, when William Jarmon was born here—or 1822, the birth year of the woman to whom he’s dedicated his later-life’s work.

“Harriet Tubman would have walked these streets,” says Jarmon, director of the Harriet Tubman Museum and Educational Center, a small, volunteer-run establishment on Race Street in operation since 1992, considered one of the oldest community organizations dedicated to her memory. “With the Choptank River, and the ships that were coming in during that time, [our] courthouse was already there—she would have had knowledge of our streets as they were carved out today.”

America’s most famous abolitionist next to Frederick Douglass (who also grew up on the Eastern Shore before moving to Baltimore), Tubman was born into slavery just a few miles from the museum, around the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge. A short drive takes you to the butter-yellow Bucktown General Store, where, as an adolescent, she took a near-fatal blow to the head, which some say gave her divine visions. Further down the road, a single historic marker overlooks the pine-encompassed farmland near where she spent her early years before becoming a Civil War spy and suffragist.

These are two of the sites visited by the tours of Tubman’s namesake museum—not to be mistaken for its newer, bigger counterpart, the nearby National Park Service’s Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center—and just some of many local landmarks associated with the Underground Railroad conductor who, after escaping slavery herself, returned to Maryland 13 times to free more than 70 friends and family. This year marks the bicentennial of her birth.

“We can actually take you where it all happened—you can touch it, you can feel it,” says Jarmon, who has been involved with the Harriet Tubman Museum and Educational Center since 2010. “We can take you to the creek where she would catch muskrat, go crabbing, and go fishing. We can take you to the place where she grew up…There’s a history here. And once you get involved in it, you just get absorbed.”

“We can actually take you where it all happened—you can touch it, you can feel it.”

Back in Cambridge, the cheery, wooden building, built in the late 1800s, beckons visitors inside for history exhibits, a short film, and artifacts from the days of slavery. Open on Thursday through Saturday mornings with free admission, it will also host a jazz concert commemorating the bicentennial in March.

Outside, the museum’s claim to fame is a colorful mural that has been emblazoned on the side of the building since 2019. Painted by local artist Michael Rosato, it has garnered attention from the likes of The Washington Post and CNN, including one viral photograph of a young girl touching Tubman’s outstretched hand.

As part of the Federal Highway Administration-affliated Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway, the museum itself has attracted visitors from around the country and world. But Jarmon finds it especially important for Marylanders to know about her roots here.

“People from South America know about her, they know about her in Europe…Even in Africa,” he says. “No matter what the school systems teach us, and no matter what our nation may teach us, the local people here need to know that they are a part of history…Until I can’t do it, I will be here, making sure that the legacy of Harriet Tubman continues.”

According to the 1860 Census, more than one out of five people living in Howard County was an enslaved person. First brought to the county to work in the tobacco fields, slaves were later used in the mining and production of iron in and around Elkridge. Simply put, over the century and a half that slavery was institutionalized and legally enforced in Howard County, a significant part of the economy was built upon the backs of enslaved African Americans.

At the same time, it was home to abolitionists and an increasing number of free Blacks in the decades leading up to the Civil War. Geographically, the area was centrally situated—between railroads and the Potomac and Patuxent rivers—serving as a way station on the Underground Railroad to free country in the northern United States and Canada.

As a result, Howard County was also home to a jail, which remains standing, that incarcerated fugitive slaves. Additionally, it was home to a stone-built courthouse, which remains standing as well, that heard the cases of those charged with encouraging and assisting enslaved African Americans to flee their masters.

Built in 1851 and located at 1 Emory Street in the historic district of Ellicott City, the Howard County Jail held runaways, including Augusta Spriggs—who was detained while ads for her master in Prince George’s County to claim her went out—and Richard Martin, who was held as a fugitive without a pass. Augustus Collins was held here, too, while awaiting trial for inciting an insurrection among the Black population.

From its construction in 1843 to the end of slavery in Maryland on November 1, 1864, the Howard County Courthouse, also in the historic district of Ellicott City, held judicial proceedings related to legal cases involving those charged with encouraging enslaved persons to run away. Arguably, the most famous case here involved well-known Underground Railroad “general” William Chaplin of the American Anti-Slavery Society, who was arrested in August 1850 for having “abducted, stolen, taken, and carried out from the city of Washington” two fugitive slaves. But there were other cases, too, involving Howard County free Blacks such as Warner Cook, who was charged with enticing those enslaved to run away.

“These places and stories are important,” says Dr. Everlene Cunningham, chair of the Howard County Center of African American Culture, which curated the county’s The Simpsonville Freetown Legacy Trail. Named for the local community of early free Black landowners, the trail commemorates several places where oral history says Harriet Tubman led fugitives fleeing slavery, as well as the county’s historic jail and courthouse. “These are stories you didn’t get in school growing up.”

Maryland has the most documented successful escapes from slavery, and, in recent years, counties have been rediscovering—and highlighting—more historical sites in the state, considered the epicenter of the Underground Railroad.

Maryland has also been at the forefront of Underground Railroad research, documentations, and commemorations, which includes the now annual state recognition of September as International Underground Railroad month, signed by Gov. Larry Hogan two years ago.

That said, there’s no reason to wait until the fall to discover the indispensable role Maryland played in the Underground Railroad.

Howard County’s Network to Freedom and Underground Railroad

The Visit Howard County website highlights several stops on The Simpsonville Freetown Legacy Trail, including Locust Cemetery, where oral history says Harriet Tubman and the fugitive slaves she was guiding rested on their journey north. The cemetery is situated at the intersection of Harriet Tubman Lane and Freetown Road.

More information on the complete list of sites, as well as Tubman artifacts and belongings, can be found at the Howard County Center of African American Culture Museum in Columbia. The Center also sells Seeking Freedom: A History of the Underground Railroad in Howard County, Maryland, which was written by The Center’s since-deceased founder Wylene Burch, staff, and a team of researchers. The Center also hosts an exhibition on Maryland’s 4th United States Colored Infantry Regiment, which saw action in the Civil War in North Carolina and Virginia.

The Howard County Historical Society Museum on Frederick Road in Ellicott City also includes exhibits related to those who escaped from slavery in Howard County.

Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center

It’s estimated that Harriet Tubman helped free 70 people over 13 trips back and forth to the Eastern Shore. The new Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center in Dorchester County serves as a museum and gateway to the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Scenic Byway and provides visitors with the opportunity to walk in the abolitionist’s footsteps.

Among the destinations on the Byway are the Brodess Farm, where Tubman grew up in slavery; the Bucktown General Store, the site of her first act of defiance; the Tuckahoe Neck Meeting House, a gathering place for Quaker abolitionists—some of the most effective anti-slavery activists—and Tubman-Garrett Riverfront Park in Wilmington, Delaware, which honors Tubman and Thomas Garrett, who lived in nearby Quaker Hill.

Following In His Footsteps—Maryland’s Frederick Douglass Driving Tour

Organized online at the Visit Maryland website, this wide-ranging tour features sites from the Eastern Shore—where the famed abolitionist, writer, orator, and diplomat’s life began—to Central Maryland and the Capitol Region. (Douglass’ historic Cedar Hill home, now a museum, in Anacostia is not to be missed.)

Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey was born close to Tuckahoe Creek near Holme Hill Farm. Outdoor exhibits chronicle his early life here, as well as his enslavement at Miles River Neck and St. Michaels. Sites in Easton on the tour include the former Talbot County Jail, where Douglass was locked up for a week after attempting to gain his freedom by paddling a log canoe to the upper head of the Chesapeake Bay.

The Talbot County Courthouse in Easton, the location of Douglass’ famous “Self-Made Men” speech in 1878, honors him with a statue. Also on the tour site list: Bethel A.M.E Church and Asbury United Methodist Church, where Douglass also spoke in 1878.

“I am an Eastern Shoreman, with all that name implies,” Douglass once said. “Eastern Shore corn and Eastern Shore pork gave me my muscle. I love Maryland and the Eastern Shore!”

Among the key sites in Baltimore related to Douglass’ escape to freedom are the Frederick Douglass-Isaac Myers Maritime Park, which documents his life and working experience in the city, and the President Street Station (now home to the Baltimore Civil War Museum), where at 20 years of age in 1838 he successfully disguised himself and boarded a train for Philadelphia.

Hagerstown Underground Railroad Trail: Sites of Freedom and Resistance

From the mid 1700s through the Civil War period, African Americans were enslaved in Washington County, with about 14 percent of the population, or 3,200 people, enslaved in 1820.

Among those who escaped slavery here was James W.C. Pennington. He made it to Pennsylvania in 1827 at age 19, changed his name, eventually attended Yale University, became a Presbyterian minister, and officiated at Frederick Douglass’ wedding. Although he never returned to Washington County before the Civil War, he helped several members of his family escape as well, sheltering them and raising funds to secure their freedom. Pennington penned a memoir, The Fugitive Blacksmith (1849), and one of the first history books of African Americans, The Origin and History of the Colored People (1841).

Otho Davis also escaped slavery in Washington County. Taylor fled Henry Fiery’s Farm on Easter Sunday, 1856, taking his wife, two children, two brothers, a sister-in-law, and nephew with him on Fiery’s horses and two buggies, eventually reaching Canada. The Fierys attempted many times to get the Davises back, but to no avail, according to Visit Hagerstown, which has a downloadable local Underground Railroad map and brochure on its website.

The urban Underground Railroad trail in Hagerstown can be walked or driven, and takes visitors to sites associated with escapes from slavery, highlighting the individuals who fled and those who assisted in their escapes. There are several original buildings still standing—including Ebenezer African Methodist Episcopal Church, chartered in 1820—and the home of Sheriff William FitzHugh, who held people in slavery and enforced the law against those hoping for freedom.

Underground Railroad Experience Trail—Montgomery County

The trail, created in 1998 by Montgomery Parks to preserve the county’s rural landscape, provides walking paths and commemorates a part of Sandy Spring and Montgomery County’s Underground Railroad history.

The town of Sandy Spring was settled by Quakers in the 1720s, and they later banned members of the church from holding slaves. Eventually, a group of former enslaved people and the local Quakers worked together to help fugitive slaves to freedom, and it is said that Dred Scott stayed in Sandy Spring while the U.S. Supreme Court decided his famous 1857 case.

Among Underground Railroad destinations in the area are the Sandy Spring Slave Museum, which holds an actual slave cabin; the Sandy Spring Friends’ Meetinghouse, whose congregants were active abolitionists; and the Sharp Street Church, established in 1822 by newly freed African Americans. One of the stops on the trail is the Woodlawn Manor & Barn, built by a prominent family of local Quakers, who were banished from their congregation for refusing to free their enslaved workers.

Five years ago, the barn reopened as Woodlawn Museum, and today it hosts exhibits on the legacy of the Quaker community, the local African-American community, 19th-century farming, and Montgomery County’s Underground Railroad.

History, Heritage, and the Underground Railroad—Prince George’s County

African Americans have raised families and built communities for more than 300 years in Prince George’s County, which kept more slaves than any other county in Maryland. Of the more than 13,600 African Americans living in the county in 1860, some 91 percent were enslaved. Almost 10 percent of the fugitive slaves arrested in Baltimore were from Prince George’s County.

Among the historic sites here are the Northampton Slave Quarters and Archaeological Park in Bowie, which features the reconstructed foundations of slave quarters on the former Northampton Plantation. Excavations from the former plantation (1673-1860) have discovered artifacts from the lives of enslaved African Americans.

The Mount Calvert Historical and Archaeological Park in Upper Marlboro interprets the history of local Native Americans, the colonial town of Charles Town (Prince George’s first county seat), and the lives of African Americans. Fifty-one enslaved African Americans worked at the Mount Calvert Plantation by the mid 1800s. St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in Oxon Hill, believed to be the oldest Black congregation in Prince George’s County, was built upon property acquired shortly after the Civil War in 1867.

Among those who successfully escaped slavery in Prince George’s County was Nace Shaw, who fled the Upper Marlboro estate and plantation owned by Sarah Ann Talburtt in September 1858. Nace, who was 45 when he escaped, was also an unlikely candidate to flee given his relative privileged position as a plantation foreman, according to Maryland State Archives. But Shaw also had family in Washington, D.C., where he initially went before heading to Philadelphia and ultimately, Canada. “I wanted a chance for my life,” Shaw later said. “I wanted to die a free man.”

A few weeks ago, at the dedication ceremony for the new statues of Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass at the Old House Chambers of the Maryland State House in Annapolis, one of Tubman’s descendants walked up to sculptor Ivan Schwartz, president and founder of StudioEIS in Brooklyn, New York.

Schwartz, whose studio had been tasked with crafting the pieces, started to get nervous. As he saw it, the descendant’s judgment would be a litmus test for how successful the years-long process had been. Thankfully, the reception was positive.

“She told me that the way the statue shows Harriet holding her hands is the way that all the women in her family stand when they have their photograph taken,” Schwartz says. “How amazing is that?”

The statues of acclaimed writer and abolitionist Frederick Douglass, and Harriet Tubman, a fearless conductor of the Underground Railroad, arrive as the national conversation around historical symbols continues to evolve. Their commissioning by then-House Speaker Michael E. Busch and then-Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller came in the wake of the 2017 removal of a statue outside the Capitol of Roger B. Taney, a staunch defender of slavery who, as a chief justice, wrote the Dred Scott decision that denied citizenship to African Americans.

“Where the void was created, there clearly was a new impetus to fill it,” says Schwartz, whose studio has made hundreds of historical sculptures, including a depiction of George Washington resigning his military commission that sits at the State House. “We are living in a time of changing symbols. What more appropriate symbol of changing times than to install sculptures of two of the most famous Marylanders in the history of the state in the very room slavery was abolished [in the state of Maryland]?”

Catherine Arthur, the senior curator and director of the Maryland Commission on Artistic Property at the Maryland Archives, which collaborated with StudioEIS on the project, calls the two pieces of artwork “forensic sculptures,” referring to a process in which the final product is generated by studying myriad photos and gathering historical research. Schwartz and StudioEIS first met with Arthur and other stakeholders in the project to discuss where the statues would be placed and exactly which photos would be used as reference points.

Douglass is one of the most photographed figures of the 19th century, so they had plenty to choose from. But when it came to Tubman, the group decided to take a chance and use a newly discovered photo of her at a young age as her statue’s framework.

“It’s a new view of Harriet,” Arthur says of the photo, which was a joint acquisition by the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture. “Most photos of her are of when she’s very old. This showed her at a younger age in a different costume.”

After that meeting, Schwartz and his team got to work. They hired actors to dress up in costumes relative to the time Tubman and Douglass lived, and took countless photographs to use as visual aids. Those photos were then the focal point of an all-hands-on-deck meeting at the state capitol where the final blueprint was designed.

In the midst of a months-long creation process that Schwartz estimates included 20 to 25 people, they even molded the hands of Ken Morris, Jr., Douglass’s third great-grandson, to obtain the closest approximation of what his hands might look like. Interestingly, there is both recent and historical precedent for this practice. Arthur notes that, in creating the first-ever Douglass statue in Rochester, New York, Douglass’s son’s hands were used as a model. Morris has also lent his hands to additional Douglass statues.

“This is a very orchestrated process,” Schwartz says. “The communication is scrupulous. We are not historians, but it’s very important that people working on our projects are not just coming in to do their jobs, but that they know something about the people that we’re working to create. You cannot afford missteps.”

There is, of course, the conversation surrounding exactly what historical symbols can and should mean in 2020.

For the state of Maryland, honoring Douglass and Tubman in a very public and outward way is an effort to highlight their struggle and remarkable achievements. Arthur says she has been blown away by the reception to the statues, noticing more foot traffic than in the past at the Old House Chambers.

“I’ve been down in the State House, and guards that I’ve walked by and said hello to five million times have literally come over and hugged me and thanked me for my role in making this kind of recognition possible,” Arthur says. “There’s a real sense of a more balanced story being told. To see the joy with which visitors—particularly African American visitors—feel like this is an important part of their story being told and acknowledged so many years after the heroism of these two individuals—it allows the conversation to deepen.”

EAT

Feb. 23: Bottomless Cereal Sundays

101 Baltimore, 1118 S. Charles St., #101. 10-2 a.m. $10.

We love brunching in Baltimore; that’s been established. But, after a while, even the most dedicated brunchers can tire of the rotating cast of omelettes, jam-packed skillets, and French toast options. Luckily, 101 Baltimore is offering a new spin on a classic breakfast food, with an all-you-can-eat cereal bar every Sunday. Roll out of bed and head to the Federal Hill bar to watch cartoons and sip mimosas while you crunch on everything from Fruity Pebbles to Cocoa Puffs.

DRINK

Feb. 22: National Margarita Day

Locations, times, and prices vary.

With sunny skies and a high of 52 degrees predicted for Saturday, there’s never been a better time to bop around to local cantinas and taco joints in celebration of National Margarita Day. Whether you’re in search of creative takes on the classic drink (see Barcocina and Holy Frijoles) or just looking for the best boozy bang for your buck, we’ve got you covered. Plan out this tequila-soaked holiday using our guide to specials, one-of-a-kind drinks, and beat-the-clock deals, and don’t forget to nosh on a taco or two in between margaritas.

SEE

Feb. 22: Open Hours: True Laurels—A Gallop Through Time

The Baltimore Museum of Art, 10 Art Museum Dr. 2-4 p.m. Free.

This Saturday, pack the Baltimore Museum of Art Commons for a special screening of the 2004 documentary We Are Arabbers, which features a group of Baltimore-based people who carry on the centuries-old local tradition of selling goods via horse cart. After the credits roll, Lawrence Burney, the founder of local media platform True Laurels, will host a discussion with a group of former arabbers to talk about the practice and the regional culture that has formed around the beloved tradition.

HEAR

Feb. 22: The Life of Harriet Tubman

Enoch Pratt Free Library, Light Street Branch, 1251 Light St. 11 a.m. Free.

During this program to honor the legacy of Harriet Tubman, an American hero remembered for her efforts to rescue enslaved people before and during the Civil War, local reenactor Gina Lee will share a narrative of Tubman’s life and achievements at the Light Street branch of the Enoch Pratt Library. Reacquaint yourself with the historical figure’s vital place in our local and national history, and watch in awe as Lee, who previously transformed into Tubman for Baltimore’s Legends and Legacies Jubilee event, portrays how she lived, worked, worshipped, and led others out of slavery.

DO

Feb. 21-23: The American Craft Show

Baltimore Convention Center, 1 W. Pratt St. Fri. 10 a.m.-8 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Sun. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. $14-36.

Calling all crafters! This annual weekend-long event is known for being a DIY haven, and this year’s lineup of more than 600 vendors from across North America will not disappoint. Browse through the Baltimore Convention Center’s vibrant marketplace to shop for everything from jewelry and clothing to furniture and home goods. Whether you leave with new baskets or necklaces or a dress, stop by to snag some thoughtfully made pieces.

There’s been lots of chatter lately about the relative merits of the superhero movie. I can’t say it’s my favorite genre, but I’ll make an exception for real life superheroes like Harriet Tubman.

To be sure, Kasi Lemmons’ biopic of the legendary Underground Railroad conductor is strictly in a mythologizing mood. But so what? Few Americans deserve the kind of hagiography that Tubman receives here. In some ways, it would be impossible to overstate how brave, important, and singular a figure she was.

When we first meet Harriet (Cynthia Erivo) on a farm in Dorchester County, MD, you don’t see any of this coming. She’s a slave, who goes by the first name of Minty. Her husband (Zackary Momoh) and father (Clarke Peters) are both free men, but their freedom seems precarious. Her mother and siblings are still slaves (a lawyer’s letter demanding that they be released from their bondage, as per a previous arrangement, is unceremoniously ripped up).

Harriet prays for her master’s death—and it comes, the first indication that the film really does see her as a prophet of sorts, bestowed with extraordinary gifts. (The film takes the fact that Harriet can see the future and communicate with God as canon.) But this doesn’t free her. She still has the master’s self-pitying wife and mean-spirited son Gideon (British actor Joe Alwyn, distractingly handsome and dandyish in the role) to contend with. Gideon saw Harriet praying for his father’s death, so he decides to sell her. That’s when she knows she must escape to the north, where black men and women can live free.

This, of course, will prove to be the first of many trips Harriet makes to the north and back—and each plays out like an edge of your seat adventure film, with terrifyingly high stakes. In this first escape, Harriet is being pursued by men on horseback and bloodhounds. When they find her, she’s standing at the precipice of a rapid river. This is when she makes the now famous declaration, “I’m going to be free or die,” and off she jumps.

There are more perils along the way until she makes it to Philadelphia. In a remarkable scene, she finds herself in the center of this bustling city, stunned by the black men and women who are walking free. A friendly stranger tells her to stand tall. There’s nothing to hide from here.

In Philly, she’s introduced to William Still (Leslie Odom Jr.), who has dedicated his life to helping and documenting the stories of slaves. He’s incredulous when he discovers that Harriet has made this journey on her own. It won’t be the last time he underestimates her. William takes Harriet to the boarding house run by the beautiful, uncommonly dignified Marie Buchanan (Janelle Monaé), who immediately comes to admire and love her new charge.

We revisit Harriet a year later and see her as a new woman—no longer meek in any way, but indeed, standing tall and in her power. This is when she decides she must return to Maryland to free her husband and siblings. She gets so good at freeing slaves she becomes a folklore like figure, called Moses. And some slave owners, refusing to believe that they are being outwitted by a black man (they assume she’s a man, of course), speculate that she’s an abolitionist in black face.

I can’t overstate how great Erivo is in this role, as we watch Harriet evolve from a scared (if determined) slave to a free woman whose passionate faith in God and herself inspires a movement. Erivo doesn’t deify Tubman—she can be stubborn, dour, and even bullying—but she depicts her in all her fierceness, righteousness, and glory.

Yes, the film is a straightforward biopic that will certainly be shown in high school history classes for generations to come. I’m fine with that. This kind of American history deserves a film like this. And lest you think the film is exaggerating Harriet Tubman’s bravery and accomplishments, please remember that she was a conductor of the Underground Railroad, the first woman to lead an armed expedition into war, a Union spy, an abolitionist, and a leading supporter of women’s suffrage. If that’s not a superhero, I don’t know who is.

When it was announced that the $20 bill featuring Harriet Tubman, the famed abolitionist who was born into slavery in Dorchester County, Maryland, was indefinitely delayed, an enterprising artist named Dano Wall created a stamp that admirers of Tubman could superimpose on the bill.

Now Tubman fans have something else to look forward to: the new Focus Features biopic Harriet, which will have its debut at the Toronto Film Festival and be released nationwide on November 1.

Based on the trailer, the film seems to focus on the first time Tubman escaped from slavery and her unthinkably brave decision to return south to help free others, eventually making her the most significant figure of the Underground Railroad.

There’s lots to be excited about: The film is directed by the talented Kasi Lemmons, who previously directed the sultry Eve’s Bayou. It stars the scene-stealing Cynthia Erivo, recently seen electrifying audiences in Widows and Bad Times at the El Royale, as Tubman. Heavy hitting costars include Janelle Monaé, Joe Alwyn, and Hamilton’s Leslie Odom Jr.

If there’s one disappointment, it’s that the film was shot in central Virginia, not Maryland, where Tubman was born and raised. Still, Tubman admirers in Maryland have lots of opportunities to celebrate and learn more about her life, at both the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center and the Harriet Tubman Museum and Educational Center.

Until then, watch the trailer, below.

Harriet Tubman left Dorchester County without a trace, covertly returning again and again to shepherd away slaves, so maybe it’s appropriate that such an underground legend still casts something of a fleeting image in her native region. There are, in fact, no elaborate memorials to Tubman in Dorchester, just a storefront museum in downtown Cambridge, a mural off Route 50 near the Food Lion, and a historic marker outside of town. If you turn off Route 50 onto Bucktown Road and drive the winding two-lane past the Bay Country Trailer Park and the old barrel factory near Indian Bone Road, you’ll come to the marker. Erected at the edge of a field surrounded by forest, it reads, “The ‘Moses of her people,’ Harriet Tubman of the Bucktown District found freedom for herself and some three hundred other slaves whom she led north. In the Civil War she served the Union Army as a nurse, scout and spy.”

It’s simple and dignified, and on a blustery day, two tourists from Western Massachusetts—Jonathan (who declined to give his last name) and his young son, Steven—stand before it. Returning from a trip to Chincoteague, Jonathan wanted to show Steven the birthplace of “a true American hero” and pulled off the highway. “I’m a little disappointed there isn’t more here, more to celebrate her,” he says. “But the landscape is amazing and gives you a sense of what she had to endure. I might get some good material out of it.”

Asked to elaborate, he explains he’s a folk-singer who has long admired Woody Guthrie’s “Harriet Tubman’s Ballad,” a fact confirmed by Steven’s head nod and slight eye roll. “She inspired a lot of people,” says Jonathan, before snapping a few photos with his phone and departing.

Tubman, who passed away 100 years ago, inspired many people, especially creative types. Her role as an artistic muse is an enduring, but often overlooked, aspect of her legacy, and she’s probably inspired more art than any other Marylander.

The amount of Tubman-related art is staggering. It includes paintings by Jacob Lawrence, numerous statues and sculptures, writings by poet Langston Hughes and novelist James McBride, and a wide array of music by jazz titans John Coltrane and Wynton Marsalis, country rockers The Long Ryders, composers Christian Wolff and Nkeiru Okoye, and folk/children’s duo Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer. Tubman also gets shout-outs in songs by Janelle Monae, Stevie Wonder, Ice Cube, and Rah Digga (the self-described “Harriet Tubman of hip-hop”), and there’s even a Brooklyn-based experimental jazz band named after her.

Michelle Wilkinson, director of collections and exhibitions at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African-American History and Culture, thinks she knows why. “I wonder if Harriet Tubman resonates with so many artists because she was able to manifest her vision of freedom,” says Wilkinson. “Her life is a guiding light to those seeking a way forward.”

“She is a symbol of a way of thinking and a way of being,” says Melvin Gibbs, bassist in Harriet Tubman: the band. “There are so many levels you can grab onto when you’re dealing with who she was—like the fact that she wasn’t a military figure. It’s like your grandmother made you free, and that resonates in a whole different way.”

Jazz musician Marcus Shelby first learned about Tubman when his mother gave him a copy of Sarah Bradford’s book, Harriet Tubman: The Moses of Her People. It made a huge impression on Shelby, who was born in Alaska and raised in California. “Growing up in the 1970s, I didn’t hear many stories with black superheroes,” he says. “She was a black superhero to me.”

Years later, he came across Kate Clifford Larson’s biography of Tubman, Bound for the Promised Land, while browsing at Borders and found it “wildly inspiring.” By that time, he had attended Cal Arts and established himself in the San Francisco jazz scene. He started researching Tubman’s life and, in 2006, made a pilgrimage to Dorchester County, where he took note of “the different land, different earth, and different air. The people have a different rhythm, a slower pace, and that affects how they walk and talk.”

He later learned about Tubman singing spirituals and work songs and connected her to a lineage that includes Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, and Nina Simone. He then translated those observations into rhythms and melodies and incorporated them into a jazz oratorio he wrote for Tubman. Released as a two-CD set, it’s a sprawling and swinging history lesson infused with gospel, blues, and jazz. Shelby performed it at the San Francisco Jazz Festival, and he’ll perform selections from it in Cambridge on March 10. “It’s all about the pursuit of freedom and being able to express yourself,” he says. “Harriet Tubman represents the best of us.”

Composer James Lee III feels similarly. Lee wrote “Chuphshah! Harriet’s Drive to Canaan,” an orchestral piece performed by the BSO in 2011. The year before, the Morgan State University professor visited Dorchester to “gather impressions” for the piece. He came away with deep appreciation for Tubman’s “steadfast determination,” a sentiment echoed by members of the Tubman band.

“Once you signed on to her mission, there was no turning back,” says Melvin Gibbs. “There’s no Plan B when you’re dealing with Harriet Tubman. You’re either gonna be free, or you’re gonna be free. Those are your options.”

“Her spirit wasn’t broken,” says drummer J.T. Lewis, “and we try to emulate that.”

“It makes you think about the type of person who accomplished all she did,” says guitarist Brandon Ross. “Many of us accept the historical narrative of her life without really connecting to the visceral details, about what was actually involved.”

Mark Priest strives to reflect those details in his paintings, which, for years, have focused on Tubman, slave life, and the Underground Railroad. The Louisville-based artist, who is exhibiting his paintings this month in Denton (which was a stop along the Underground Railroad), says he wanted to show all the “tugging and heaving, hoisting and dragging” and “depict the mental, emotional, and physical” strain experienced by Tubman and others.

Like Shelby and Lee, Priest also made the pilgrimage to Dorchester, where he perused historical documents, heard Tubman stories from locals, and kayaked through marshland. His Tubman series shows her, in addition to leading escaped slaves, working on a timber crew, trapping muskrats, and being struck in the head by an irate overseer. There’s also a piece portraying the frequent “sleeping spells” Tubman suffered as a result of that head injury.

When Priest speaks of Tubman, he sounds, at times, like he could be talking about a dedicated artist, a painter like himself or a musician such as Marcus Shelby. “The life Tubman chose was one of uncertainty,” he says. “Still, she carried on undaunted.”

GRASS IS GREENER
According to a new study published in the premier Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Chesapeake Bay cleanup efforts have contributed to a major influx in important underwater grasses. Between 1984 and 2014, nitrogen levels fell 23 percent while acres of submerged vegetation, long considered a key indicator of bay heath, more than tripled to nearly 100 square miles. Researchers directly correlated this resurgence with recent cleanup initiatives, such as the pollution reduction efforts that were established in 2010. High-nutrient pollution can cause algae blooms that block sunlight from or smother the grasses, which remove carbon dioxide from the water and act as habitat for other aquatic creatures. That being said, the Trump administration’s 2019 budget is currently considering cuts to regional water cleanup efforts like those on the Chesapeake Bay.

HOORAY FOR THE BAY
At the beginning of the month, the Environmental Protection Agency reversed its decision to cut federal funding for the 27-year-old Chesapeake Bay Journal. Last year, the EPA abruptly announced its $325,000 cut half-way through its six-year grant with the environmental publication, inciting public outcry over the potential detriment that the Trump administration’s budget could cause the restoration efforts of the Chesapeake Bay. The Bay Journal, which receives another two-thirds of its funding from other sources, sued the agency in hopes that it would disclose an explanation. Under pressure from Senator Democrats, the EPA restored the grant just shy of four months later on March 1.

GUIDING LIGHT
In early March, the Baltimore City Department of Recreation and Parks announced that a portion of the Wyman Park Dell would be rededicated the Harriet Tubman Grove in honor of the iconic, Maryland-born abolitionist and Underground Railroad conductor. The wooded area formerly included the contest the Lee Jackson Monument, which was removed by Mayor Catherine Pugh in August 2017. The Harriet Tubman Tree Fund was also announced, with a goal of planting young trees to help sustain the native canopy.

BIRD WATCHER
With spring officially sprung, Great Blue Herons are back in action, and the Chesapeake Conservancy makes it easy to watch their ways. Installed last year, the non-profit’s webcam takes viewers behind the scenes of one of the water birds’ Eastern Shore rookeries. The same organization that brought us peregrine falcons Boh and Barb of downtown Baltimore now brings you a treetop view of these majestic creatures, including one couple named Eddie and Rell. Any time of day, they can be found feeding, nesting, or tending to their young. Watch the live-stream via their website, and also tune into the conservancy’s other cameras, including one for ospreys Tom and Audrey on Kent Island.

HIT THE GAS
In mid-March, state regulators approved a new natural gas pipeline beneath the Potomoc River. Helmed by Canadian energy company, Columbia Gas, this controversial project led to five arrests during a sit-in protest just two days earlier. While opponents vehemently oppose the pipeline, the Department of Energy claims that the project will meet a slew of precautionary environmental requirements so as to not threaten the river, or that of ground or drinking water.

APPLES TO APPLES
In late March, Civic Works’ Baltimore Orchard Project announced the upcoming launch of Moveable Orchards, a new initiative that brings portable fruit trees to the city’s vacant lots and community gardens in underserved neighborhoods like Sandtown-Winchester. The program hopes to provide a sustainable source of nourishment for local residents, as some 23.5% of the Baltimore’s population lives in food deserts, according to a recent study by the city’s planning department and Johns Hopkins University, the majority of whom are African-American. They plan to officially launch on Arbor Day on April 27, having currently raised nearly $7,000 of their raising $15,000 crowdfunding goal.

BOOK WORMS
As a veteran journalist and environmental radio host on WYPR, Tom Pelton has become a go-to source when it comes to conversations surrounding the Chesapeake Bay. His new book, The Chesapeake In Focus: Transforming The Natural World, brings together those years of experience in a rumination on ways to save our state estuary. He also celebrates other great local conservationists, like Bonnie Bick and Michael Beer. Catch a reading and book signing at the George Peabody Library on April 18.

A legend lives on in the low, tidal marsh of the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge outside of Cambridge on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. There, where runaway slaves once navigated the loblolly pines, wispy strands of cattails, and dark inky water to seek safe passage on the Underground Railroad, now stands an archipelago of barn-like buildings to honor the illustrious life of the network’s most noted conductor. 

More than 20 years in the making, the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center opened in March with a celebration that included Tubman’s descendants, who offered extensive input on the center’s creation. “They still have the tenets of faith and family,” says assistant park manager Angela Crenshaw. “That is our focus here with these exhibits.” 

Managed by the Maryland and National Park services, the 15,000-square-foot state-of-the-art visitor’s center serves as a gateway to the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway, a scenic stretch that runs from the Chesapeake Bay through Philadelphia with stops at local landmarks related to Tubman’s life. 

“This is such an important story,” says Alan Reed, president of Baltimore-based GWWO Architects, which designed the center. “We said to ourselves, we want everything—the architecture, the materials, the experience of moving through the exhibits—to somehow relate back.”

The buildings themselves represent different stations along the Underground Railroad, while the exhibits revolve around a symbolic “view north.” Through a barn wood gateway, the exhibit faces toward floor-to-ceiling windows that overlook a thick forest to the north, before taking tangled twists and turns, similar to those that runaway slaves likely faced during their escapes. 

“It was never a simple journey,” says GWWO senior associate Chris Elcock. “In the exhibits, you find yourself bouncing around, and when you get to the end, you go back the way you came, because that’s what Harriet did. But you’re going to be changed. Each time she returned, she had new information, so she could be a better conductor.”

 The exhibits span Tubman’s courageous life, from her childhood as a slave in Dorchester County to her extraordinary efforts in the Civil War to her late-life role in the women’s suffrage movement. There’s a wall honoring some of the 70 people she helped rescue, and a mural featuring an iconic illustration from Jacob Lawrence’s 1968 children’s book, Harriet and the Promised Land. Throughout, slavery’s terror stands in stark contrast to the region’s natural beauty and Tubman’s unwavering sense of faith.  

One of the most serene yet stirring elements is a life-size statue of Tubman, who will eventually replace Andrew Jackson on the front of the $20 bill, making her the first female and African-American on American currency. She is seated on a church bench beneath faux stained glass windows and a quote by Frederick Douglass, another Maryland slave turned abolitionist. “The midnight sky and silent stars have been the witnesses of your devotion to freedom and your heroism,” he wrote in an 1868 letter to Tubman. 

Out here, beneath the pines, we now bear witness, too.