Octavia McBride-Ahebee

Our Ode to Joy by Octavia McBride-Ahebee

2026-09-28T12:54:07.352-07:00

*For my dear friend Danni, with whom I have shared fifty-six years of friendship and a lifetime of music.

This is not an elegy. My dear friend Danni is still here. She is in hospice now, and after fifty-six years of friendship, I find myself thinking not only about how long we have known each other, but about how much of that knowing has had a soundtrack.

We were two little girls in West Philadelphia when we met, neighbors in Overbrook and third graders at Overbrook Elementary School. I played the violin. Danni found her way to the oboe and clarinet. We weren’t always assigned to the same classroom, but there was another room where we could count on finding each other: orchestra rehearsal.

There is something remarkable to me now about the faith Philadelphia’s public schools once placed in children. Someone put a violin beneath my chin. Someone put a woodwind into Danni’s hands and taught her how breath could become music. We were children, but we were being invited into something ancient and enormous.

We carried our instruments with us through high school where our paths overlapped. It was at the high school level that our music playing morphed into something else. There, music became something more than an activity. Much of that was because of Dimitri Kauriga.

To those of us fortunate enough to study under him, he seemed almost mythic. His brother Paul Kauriga, whom Danni knew more closely through percussion and woodwinds, belonged to that same musical firmament. The Kauriga brothers expected us to listen to the score, certainly, but also to one another. They taught us that music deserved discipline because beauty deserved discipline. We adored them for it. And somewhere along the way, Danni and I fell absolutely, permanently in love with classical music. The School District of Philadelphia helped open the door. The Philadelphia Orchestra flung it wide.

Danni and me at a winter holiday performance of the Philadelphia Orchestra, continuing a musical tradition that began when we were two little girls in West Philadelphia.

As high schoolers, Danni and I would meet at the Philadelphia Orchestra rehearsals that students were allowed to attend. Imagine that gift: two Black girls from West Philadelphia sitting within hearing and seeing distance of some of the greatest, classical musicians in the world. We heard the orchestra under the direction of Eugene Ormandy. Decades later, we would still be listening, now under our beloved Yannick Nézet-Séguin. The conductors changed. We grew older and the music kept finding us.

There were years when oceans separated us and careers became demanding. Children claimed most of our time. Life did what life does, it scattered us and summoned us elsewhere. Yet somehow Danni and I kept finding our way back to those burgundy velvet seats, first at the Academy of Music and later at the Kimmel Center.

Perhaps that is one definition of an old friendship: someone who has heard so many movements of your life that she can recognize the melody even after years of silence. This year, Danni could not join me and our friends for the opening performance of the Philadelphia Orchestra’s season and that absence sat beside me.

Earlier this week, when I visited her in the hospital, I played a recording of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony for her. I wanted somehow to carry a little of what had always belonged to us into that hospital room.

But a recording through a phone could never reproduce what happened when the Philadelphia Orchestra filled Marian Anderson Hall, this past Thursday, with Beethoven’s Symphony N. 9, joined by the Philadelphia Symphonic Choir and the magnificent voices of Leah Hawkins, J’Nai Bridges, Issachah Savage, and Ryan Speedo Green.

And yet, as I listened, Danni was there.

Opening night at the Philadelphia Orchestra: an audience on its feet applauding the orchestra, the Philadelphia Symphonic Choir, and that phenomenal quartet of opera singers after their performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.

Not physically in the seat beside me, but threaded through my listening. I could hear the little girl with the clarinet and the teenager rushing toward rehearsal. I could hear the woman who had traveled through more than half a century of life beside me. Music has a peculiar relationship with time that way. A few measures can collapse decades.

Now Danni is in hospice care. I will not write about her as though she has already left us. She hasn’t. She is here. And while she is here, I want to say her name in the present tense. I want to honor the girl she was and the woman she is. I want her to know that when I enter a concert hall, some part of me still listens with her.

Hospice has made me think differently about what it means to accompany someone. An orchestra taught us something about that long ago. You do not always carry the melody. Sometimes your task is to listen closely enough to know when another instrument needs room. Sometimes you enter softly. Sometimes you simply remain present while the music changes.

Danni and I could never have known, sitting in those student rehearsals, what the score ahead of us would contain. We only knew that we loved the music. During this difficult passage in my own life, with so much noise and discord beyond us, I find myself profoundly grateful that I still have an old friend in my city’s orchestra.

Opening night with dear friends, carrying on a tradition of gathering for the music and holding a place in our hearts for our friend who could not be with us this year.

And I am grateful to the Philadelphia public schools that once believed music belonged in the lives of ordinary children and not as decoration, but as education. That belief placed instruments in the hands of two little West Philadelphia girls and gave us a language we would still be speaking fifty-six years later.

The Philadelphia Orchestra became part of that language. It has sustained us through childhood and motherhood, distance and reunion, ordinary Tuesdays and magnificent opening nights.

And now, even here. So this is not goodbye. It is an offering to my friend while she can still receive it. Danni, for fifty-six years, somewhere beneath everything else our lives have asked of us, the orchestra has been playing.

We, her friends, are preparing to bring a local violinist to her bedside to play something whimsical; something that can touch her wherever she is. Perhaps that is what music has been doing all along and that is finding us wherever we are.

I hear it still. And because you are still here, my dear old friend, this is not an elegy.

It is our Ode to Joy.

From Joyful Abundance to Philadelphia’s Black Opera Past by Octavia McBride-Ahebee

2026-09-06T17:15:32.048-07:00

I’m pleased to share that my reflection on the experience of being part of the Mendelssohn Chorus’s Joyful Abundance initiative this past summer was published this week in The Christian Science Monitor. I’m grateful for the opportunity to reflect on this meaningful collaboration and on bringing poetry, music, and community together.

Here is the link to the piece: https://www.csmonitor.com/.../octavia-mcbride-ahebee...

And if you haven’t already, I invite you to subscribe to my Substack. This week, I’ll be turning my attention to Philadelphia’s dynamic Black opera history as a companion to my most recent short story, Arias in the Devil's Pocket.

Since sharing the story last week, I’ve heard from many readers with personal memories and stories connected to this rich musical history. Their responses have opened up even more avenues to explore, and I can’t wait to share some of what I’m discovering. 
https://octaviamcbride.substack.com/.../arias-in-the... 

New Audio Story: Arias in the Devil’s Pocket by Octavia McBride-Ahebee

2026-08-31T15:42:55.401-07:00

An imagined gathering from Arias in the Devil's Pocket where Black, Italian, Palestinian, and other neighbors come together after long workdays to create music that transcends the world outside.

Usually, this time of year, my dear friend Danni and I would be settling into our seats at the Kimmel Center, waiting for another Philadelphia Orchestra concert to begin. We’ve shared music for fifty-seven years from playing together in school orchestras as children to attending concerts as senior ladies

This season is different. Illness has kept Danni from the concert hall, but not from the music. We have grand plans to bring the music to her.

Thinking about our friendship reminded me of another community bound together by music, one that inspired my newest flash fiction story, “Arias in the Devil’s Pocket.”

Set in post-World War II South Philadelphia, the story follows an unlikely community of Black, Italian, newly arrived Palestinians, and other neighbors who gather after long workdays to make music together. Though they earn their living in factories, offices, and shops, they refuse to let their occupations define them. They were musicians. They were creatives. In one another, they found friendship and purpose that transcended the racial, economic, and cultural boundaries of the world outside.

I grew up believing that music belonged in homes. My grandmother played bass, my mother played violin, my dad many instruments and our living room and others  were often filled with musicians, teachers, neighbors, and friends. Looking back, I realize I was raised by an extended family of creatives who refused to let their occupations define the boundaries of their imaginations.
Music was a family inheritance. Gathered in my grandmother Mary Green's living room are my grandmother on bass, my mother, Sallie, on violin in front of her, and William Hill, my mother's violin teacher and, years later, mine surrounded by other musician friends.
The story also quietly explores, in a small way, mental illness within a community 
held together by music.

I hope you’ll take a few moments to listen, share and tell me your favorite piece of music.  

Listen here: https://octaviamcbride.substack.com/.../arias-in-the...

When My Adopted Homeland Came to Visit ; Watching Côte d'Ivoire Take the FIFA World Cup Stage in Philadelphia by Octavia McBride-Ahebee

2026-06-25T19:27:00.000-07:00

Today my heart is full. As an American from Philadelphia who was married to a man from Côte d’Ivoire, I was blessed to spend many wonderful years living there, where our children were born. Although we’ve been away for many years, Côte d’Ivoire will always hold a special place in our hearts.

Sojo and friends at the Lincoln Financial Field to watch the match between Côte d'Ivoire and Curacao.

Today, seeing the Elephants of Côte d’Ivoire playing Curaçao at the Lincoln Financial Field , *see Sojourner and crew, as part of the FIFA qualifying matches, in my hometown of Philadelphia feels like two worlds I love coming together. * Oh my gosh- we won!!

Côte d’Ivoire 2, Curaçao 0 (June 25, 2026) at the Lincoln Financial Field this past Thursday.

My parents would be thrilled over these games. They absolutely loved coming to visit us, in Côte d’Ivoire.

On top of the world at the FIFA games!

I believe they are smiling today to see our hometown welcoming the people and team of a country that became such an important part of our family’s story.

From Philadelphia to Côte d’Ivoire, with love, gratitude, and memories that will always live in our hearts. 
Our dear family friend Haj and Sojo. 

What 150 Voices Can Hold: Reflections on Joyful Abundance with the Mendelssohn Chorus of Philadelphia by Octavia McBride-Ahebee

2026-06-10T18:47:14.497-07:00

I’m a wordsmith, but words alone can’t fully capture the beauty, shared vision, creativity, and collaboration that came together in Saturday’s extraordinary concert by the Mendelssohn Chorus of Philadelphia.

The performance marked the debut of the Joyful Abundance initiative, in which five local poets were paired with five composers to create original works exploring the question, “What Now?”, a particularly timely theme as we approach the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

I had the honor and pleasure of collaborating with Grammy-nominated composer Ted Babcock and the phenomenal poet Kirwyn Sutherland, who served as my mentor, to create my piece, *Electric Bloom*. Hearing it performed by the Mendelssohn Chorus, a 150-voice ensemble celebrating its 152nd season, was truly unforgettable.

I wish I could share the full performance here, but the video is simply too long. If you’d like to hear the Mendelssohn Chorus of Philadelphia bring my commissioned poem Electric Bloom to life, I invite you to visit my Substack, where I’ve shared this extraordinary moment. Here is the link:
https://open.substack.com/pub/octaviamcbride/p/what-150-voices-can-hold-reflections?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

My deepest thanks to Dominick DiOrio, Artistic Director and Conductor of the Chorus, and to the entire staff whose dedication and hard work made this remarkable experience possible.

With Dominick DiOrio, far left , and Ted Babcock

I feel especially blessed to have shared this milestone with family and friends who came to celebrate with me: Sojourner and Sami; Laura and Osama; Phyllis; my young writing colleague Conor; my dear Aunt Mabel, who has been attending my events since I was a little girl; my favorite cousin Carol, my dearest Mona; Danni; Gideon; Mr. Norm; Renee; and my beloved Powel School family-Ms. Bunyon, Coach Spivey, Brandy, and Lynnette.

My heart is full of gratitude for this experience and for everyone who helped bring *Electric Bloom* to life.

As the Nation Turns 250, We Gather to Ask: What Now?- An extraordinary afternoon of Joyful Abundance with the Mendelssohn Chorus of Philadelphia.

2026-06-05T12:37:09.664-07:00

Painter, sculptor, filmmaker, and installation artist Titus Kaphar confronts history by unsettling the classical forms and visual traditions of Western art, often dismantling them to reveal what has been obscured, omitted, or erased. Writing for Gagosian Quarterly, Bridget R. Cooks observes: “Through a kind of tender violence, Kaphar emphasizes what is unknown in representations of the past and forcefully argues that our understanding of the past still matters.”

Mendelssohn Chorus of Philadelphia

After attending the rehearsal, this past Wednesday, for Joyful Abundance, I can honestly say: this project is absolutely beautiful.

There are moments in Philadelphia when art reminds you who we are or perhaps asks us who we might yet become.

On Saturday, June 6th, the 152-year-old Mendelssohn Chorus of Philadelphia, more than 150 voices strong, will premiere Joyful Abundance, an extraordinary afternoon of new choral works created through collaborations between Philadelphia poets and composers as part of the ArtPhilly Festival’s question: “What Now?”

The concert will include world premieres, poets reading their work, composers speaking about their creative process, and Randall Thompson’s stirring Testament of Freedom, not performed by the Chorus since 1976 , an especially moving offering as our nation approaches the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

I am deeply honored to be one of the five commissioned poets. My poem, Electric Bloom, brought to life musically by Grammy-nominated percussionist-composer Ted Babcock, asks difficult but necessary questions through the imagined voices of those excluded from the nation’s earliest promises.

Yet the poem is not only about exclusion. It also speaks to how, generation after generation, those once denied liberty and belonging , Indigenous peoples, the enslaved, immigrants, women, workers, and others , used the very language and ideals of our founding documents to lay claim to dignity, citizenship, humanity, and a fuller vision of democracy.

An excerpt:

“Here we are, here we are and who are we?

We are an odd pair,

one body, indigenous and transplanted,

indivisible from your plunder,

swathed in earth’s unending memory…”

Hearing these words sung by more than 150 voices during rehearsal genuinely moved me.

If you can, come. Truly. This feels like one of those rare Philadelphia afternoons where history, music, poetry, and possibility gather in one room.

Saturday, June 6 | 4 PM

Rodeph Shalom

615 N. Broad Street, Philadelphia, 19123 (use the 1339 Green Street entrance)

Discount code for tickets: 50% off discount code: GUEST50. This code can be utilized online (here)

Learn more about Joyful Abundance through the official ArtPhilly Festival site:Art Philly

Come Share This Moment: Joyful Abundance, June 6, Philadelphia-Five poets, five composers, and the extraordinary voices of the Mendelssohn Chorus by Octavia McBride-Ahebee

2026-05-27T13:37:29.634-07:00

For the better part of a year, I’ve been quietly working on a project that has meant a great deal to me, and I’m pleased to finally share it with you.

I was honored to be one of five poets commissioned by the Mendelssohn Chorus as part of its Joyful Abundance initiative, a major artistic work commemorating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Each of us was paired with a composer and a poet mentor to create an original piece that will be performed by the Mendelssohn Chorus, which consists of 150 voices and this year celebrates its 152nd anniversary.

My poem invites us to acknowledge that while the nation’s founding carried both promise and contradiction, many descendants of those excluded from its earliest vision have helped bring its ideals closer to reality.

As we reflect on the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, “America’s Civilized “by Harmonia Rosales reminds us that the nation’s story has always been shaped by Indigenous and African peoples, even when history sought to place them at its margins.

The collaborative process has been deeply affirming. To write in conversation with composers and poet mentors, thinking together about this country’s ideals, contradictions, exclusions, and possibilities, has felt like a rare gift.

And yet, there is also a particular vulnerability in this process. One turns over not only words, but intentions and emotional truths to another artistic body to bring to life in its own way. In my case, I will not hear how the chorus has interpreted and rendered my piece until just two days before the public performance.

Rosales’ “Perseverance on Turbulent Waters” is an homage to survival: to those who endured displacement, violence, and rupture and still carried memory, and hope forward.

There is trust in that and anticipation too and perhaps even a little trembling.

I look forward to sharing more with you soon.

In addition to sharing information about the project and how you can attend the public performance, I’m also sharing artwork by Harmonia Rosales, an artist who should absolutely be on everyone’s radar. Her work powerfully evokes the histories, beauty, resilience, and presence of Indigenous and African peoples whose labor, lives, and cultures were foundational to the making of this country, even as they were so often erased from its official narratives.

Please join me and many others for the public performance of this extraordinary project, Joyful Abundance, on Saturday, June 6, 2026, at 4:00 p.m., here in Philadelphia. I would love to share this moment with you. Below is a link where you can learn more about the project and find information about attending the performance. Mendelssohn Chorus

If you’re interested in attending and would like a 50% discount code for tickets, feel free leave a comment below, and I’ll gladly send one along.

Here is a link to learn more about her work: Harmonia Rosales

*Take a moment too to explore my content on Substack:

https://octaviamcbride.substack.com/p/the-last-king-of-rwanda-a-story-of

A New Nonfiction Piece in Philadelphia Stories by Octavia McBride-Ahebee

2026-05-15T07:00:00.000-07:00

Honored to be included in the current issue of Philadelphia Stories. Grateful to share a piece rooted in West Philadelphia and Caribbean foodways.

Earlier, I shared that I had a nonfiction piece published in the latest issue of Philadelphia Stories. Physical copies were distributed earlier throughout many branches of the Free Library of Philadelphia system and cafes. I’m happy to share that the issue is now available online for free. See link below:

There’s something beautiful about seeing local stories

moving through local hands;

a reader with the latest issue

of Philadelphia Stories in a South Philadelphia café.

In the piece, I write about an unplanned visit to a small Dominican meat market in West Philadelphia, where I was welcomed by a lovely Jamaican elder. The essay reflects on layered diasporic histories shaped by colonialism, heard in the mingling of languages and accents flowing through the tight aisles of Caribbean foods. Yet what remains most vivid is the joy found in shared oxtail and chicken feet recipes, the echoes of Igbo tongues braided with Irish brogues, all moving to the rhythm of merengue, in a West Philadelphia Black neighborhood.

Link to current issue of Philadelphia Stories: Current Issue of Philadelphia Stores

Named a PA Humanities Window Keeper Civic Honoree

2026-05-09T13:38:00.000-07:00

PA Humanities inaugural Window Keeper: Civic Honorees. Honored to be included. Here is a link to learn more: The Window Keepers

What does it mean to be recognized as an individual for work that is deeply collective?

I’m grateful to share that I’ve been selected by PA Humanities as one of its inaugural Window Keeper: Civic Honorees, a recognition of everyday leaders across Pennsylvania whose work strengthens community life and civic imagination.

While this honor is awarded to me as an individual, I am especially moved that one of the projects cited is a collaboration that involved many including poets Yolanda Wisher and Enoch the Poet.

I was part of a phenomenal team of Philly poets, students, and community partners whose work led to my students’ poems being installed in a local playground which is an act of placing young voices into public space and affirming that their words matter. This project, like so much of my work, is never mine alone.

That is the spirit that shapes my practice. Whether through short fiction, audio storytelling, or community-based projects, I work in relationship with history, with place, and with people. I move in the collective, even when the recognition carries a single name.

If you’d like to learn more about the students’ poetry installation project, please see video below.

The Free Library of Philadelphia's Monday Poets Series- Season Finale

2026-04-20T05:58:00.000-07:00

Passing the Bow: Young Musicians in Conversation with Violist Jay Julio and Violinist Emily Bakakati by Octavia McBride-Ahebee

2026-04-18T13:43:00.000-07:00

Let me start from the end. This beautiful violin, with a photo of my mother watching over it, was “checked out” from the library. Yes, the Central Branch of the Free Library lends instruments.

My mother looking on as I return to the violin borrowed recently from the Free Library.

After conversations with my Aunt Mabel Mabel reminiscing about the many musicians in our circle, I decided to begin playing again. Music shaped my childhood. Many of us studied with the same teacher, William Hill, who was so stately and exacting. A Black American child prodigy from Georgia, sponsors arranged for him, as a very young man, to come to Philadelphia to study at the Curtis Institute. In the photo, my grandmother stands in the back on bass, Mr. Hill in the foreground, and my young mother just behind him along with other friends.

My mother, my grandmother, William Hill, and friends playing together.

I began violin in third grade, at Overbrook Elementary, and continued through Philadelphia High School for Girls. In our neighborhood, most homes had a piano, and most children played an instrument. Music was central to our lives. My own children would go on to play violin as well.

All of this has led me to a small but meaningful effort to honor that legacy: The Legacy Strings Initiative, through which I organize intimate concerts and conversations for young musicians.

Earlier in April, string students at the Powel School met two extraordinary artists: violist Jay Julio and violinist Emily Barkakati. Jay, a Juilliard School-trained musician, serves as assistant principal violist for the Opera Philadelphia Orchestra and has performed widely, including with touring productions like Hamilton and locally with the Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra. Emily performs with Opera Philadelphia, Philadelphia Ballet Orchestra, and the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia.

The students were captivated and full of questions about training, discipline, and life as a working musician.

Young string students lean in, listening, asking, and learning as violist Jay Julio and violinist Emily Bakakati share their music and their journeys.

A heartfelt thank you to Powel School string teacher Ashley Vines and the school leadership for making this experience possible.

Holding Rwanda: Remembering the Genocide, Honoring Renewal by Octavia McBride-Ahebee

2026-04-07T11:36:00.000-07:00

Today I spent the morning calling and texting my friends in Rwanda, letting them know that on this momentous day in the history of their nation, I am holding them in my thoughts.

Standing with my daughter in Rwanda at the Kigali Genocide Memorial, learning and holding close the stories that must never be forgotten.

7 marks the beginning of Kwibuka, Remembrance,a national period of mourning. The word Kwibuka, in Kinyarwanda, means “to remember.” It commemorates the start of the Rwandan genocide in 1994, when, over the course of approximately 100 days, an estimated 800,000 to one million people, primarily Tutsi, along with moderate Hutu, and Twa were systematically killed.

Names of some of the victims who
were killed, remembered here.

Kwibuka is not only a time of grief, but also of witness. Across Rwanda and throughout the diaspora, there are vigils and acts of collective memory ensuring that the lives lost are not reduced to numbers, and that the truth of what happened is neither denied nor forgotten.
Rwanda, a small country in central East Africa.

And yet, alongside this profound mourning, there is also a recognition of what has followed. In the decades since 1994, Rwanda has undertaken a remarkable and intentional process of rebuilding. Through community-based justice systems such as Gacaca, national reconciliation efforts, and investments in education, healthcare, and infrastructure, the country has worked to restore a sense of unity and shared future. Today, Rwanda is often noted for its stability, its emphasis on collective identity over ethnic division, and its leadership in areas such as gender equity and sustainable development.

We visited many genocide memorials across Rwanda.

To remember Rwanda is to hold both truths at once: the depth of its loss, and the strength of its renewal. Today, I remember. I reach out. I stand in quiet solidarity with my friends and with a nation that continues, with dignity and determination, to carry its past while building its future.

My daughter conducted interviews in Rwanda, exploring why so many African American women are choosing it as their new home.
Rwanda is incredibly lush, its greenery constant and alive.

Feeling on top of the world!

My daughter reconnected with a friend from Stanford in Rwanda, and she graciously invited us to a beautiful Rwandan wedding.
We loved navigating the local markets.

Another dear friend opened his home to us, introducing us to his wife and family.

Poetry Across Borders: A Conversation with Kakuma’s Young Writers by Octavia McBride-Ahebee

2026-03-14T17:47:00.000-07:00

Explore the work of photographer Steve Kiza, a Kakuma resident whose images document his community not for the Western gaze, but to reveal its humanity, resilience, and vibrancy despite difficult circumstances. Here is the link: Kakuma Photographer Steve Kiza

Established in 1992, Kakuma has become one of the largest refugee camps in the world. It is home to tens of thousands of people who fled violence and instability in neighboring countries, particularly South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. For many residents, the camp is the only home they have ever known.

The poets I met are part of that generation. Their poems document life in the camp including its hardships, its long waiting, but also its communities of resilience, imagination, and artistic expression.

Other writers joined our gathering as well: the Somali -American writer Zainab Hassan, Ethiopian, London-based poet Alemu Tebeje and, of course, the London-based organizers of this event Ambrose Musiyiwa and Omobola Osamor, who convened us. Musiyiwa and Osamor are the force behind the Forced Migration and The Arts Poetry Project and the poetry anthologies complementing this project, of which my work is included along with other African writers based on the continent and throughout the diaspora. Last week’s gathering, poets shared their work and began discussing ways to continue supporting projects with the Kakuma poets, including helping them translate their work into Swahili so that their voices might reach wider audiences across East Africa.

The featured poets from Kakuma, Mamuch Bey and Mudadi Saidi, have lived most of their lives in the camp. Their work was striking. Their poetry was informed by displacement yet it was filled with clarity and courage.

Poet Mudadi Saidi

This reading was an extraordinary experience. It was one that reminded me how poetry continues to travel across borders, even when people cannot.

This reading was recorded, and I will share the link once it becomes available.

Poet Mamuch Bey

Beautiful Stranger, Come to The World; Who Built the Sound? by Octavia McBride-Ahebee

2026-02-16T17:52:00.000-08:00

Before the salons and symphonies, there were her hands, his mother, grooming, guiding, grounding Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges in a love no title could outrank.

In Beautiful Stranger, Come to the World, women do and will play prominently in shaping what we now call classical music. The documented record rarely centers them. The contributions of enslaved Africans to the formation and evolution of classical music are also seldom acknowledged. So I am imagining them here: women and enslaved Africans from across the world meeting, collaborating, and making music while moving through dark and complicated histories.

*Remember, this is an ongoing series where history slowly unfolds through many voices, so you can truly hear the world. If you would like to revisit the earlier installments before listening to Part III, all are accessible in the link below.

Actor Kelvin Harrison Jr. playing Chevalier in the 2022 movie.

And you must see the 2022 film Chevalier, which portrays the brilliance of Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges who was often called the “Black Mozart,” and he was a contemporary of Mozart. Though raised and groomed within a privileged, white, French world, he was never severed from his Black mother or the Black community that shaped him. What moved me most in the film were the tender depictions of those bonds.

Courtesy Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Frederick Douglass with his grandson.

I salute, too, Frederick Douglass (1818–1895), who was an amateur violinist and owned a copy of a Stradivarius. His grandson, Joseph Henry Douglass (1871–1935), became one of the first Black musicians to tour internationally as a concert violinist and later led Howard University’s School of Music.

And many of us learned, in school, about Solomon Northup (1808–1864), whose memoir Twelve Years a Slave documents his kidnapping into slavery. He was also a professional violinist.

While we honor these men, the women and the enslaved Africans who preceded them stand at the center of this musical genre. I am using this series, along with imagination and history, to raise the dead and restore their contributions.
Give a listen: If you feel moved to support this work as it unfolds, contributions are always appreciated.

Click link to listen:

https://open.substack.com/pub/octaviamcbride/p/beautiful-stranger-come-to-the-world-2c1?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

Who Gets to Declare Forgetting? On Judge A. Leon Higginbotham and Memory by Octavia McBride-Ahebee

2026-02-01T12:57:00.000-08:00

Artist Jerry Lynn- Discover more of his work: https://artbyjerrylynn.com/

Dear Malcolm Burnley and Philadelphia Magazine:

When headlines suggest local forgetting of Black icons like Judge A. Leon Higginbotham, they can unintentionally obscure the ways Black communities preserve and transmit their own histories, often without validation from mainstream platforms. Framing his legacy as lost and rediscovered risks centering absence rather than continuity.

That headline carries a quiet erasure, even if unintended. It frames local Black memory as absence, and centers the outsider’s gaze instead of the community that has long honored Judge Higginbotham.

I read this piece on him with great appreciation for your desire to underscore his phenomenal achievements. His legacy is urgently needed in this moment of legal and moral reckoning.

But I need to strongly push back on the framing suggested by the title, particularly the implication that Philadelphia “forgot” him. For a significant portion of Black Philadelphia, Judge Higginbotham has never been forgotten. He is known and taught. He is spoken of with reverence. His legacy has lived not only in institutions, but in community memory, classrooms, churches, and family conversations.

I wonder what it might have offered to lead instead with celebration, to foreground his contributions and his courage, and why his jurisprudence and moral witness matter so profoundly right now without first positioning him as forgotten.

I share this in the spirit of dialogue and care for how our city, and especially its Black communities, are represented. I’m grateful for the attention you’ve brought to Judge Higginbotham and hope future conversations continue to honor both his national stature and his deeply rooted place in Philadelphia’s Black civic life.

Here is the link to the article : Philadelphia Magazine-Philadelphia Forgot A. Leon Higginbotham. America Can’t Afford To : https://www.phillymag.com/news/2026/01/30/a-leon-higginbotham-history/

The Final Two Audio Installments of Mr. FiFi’s Summer by Octavia McBride-Ahebee

2026-01-23T10:19:00.000-08:00

I’m adding here the final two audio installments of Mr. FiFi’s Summer. At its heart, this is a story about how generosity travels: through the practice of craft, through friendships sustained across borders, and through the quiet, enduring acts that allow people to remain connected despite change and departure.

Thank you for listening and for staying with the story to its close. Stay tuned for the next stories. You never quite know where you might find yourself: Rwanda, Mauritania, North Philly and all points in between.

Comments are welcome for those who wish to respond. *The audio version is narrated by a voice artist. All installments are available here. Click link.

https://open.substack.com/pub/octaviamcbride/p/the-final-two-audio-installments?r=74n5p0&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Listen: Mr. FiFi’s Summer, a Serialized Audio Short Story by Octavia McBride-Ahebee

2026-01-21T14:39:00.000-08:00

Image-K. Addo

If you haven’t yet listened to the first two audio installments of Mr. FiFi’s Summer, they’re available on my first Substack post-located at the end of the post. The final two audio installments will be shared on Friday. And subscribe for future posts, for more stories and do leave some comments.

Here is the link:

https://substack.com/@octaviabmcbride/note/p-185217469?r=74n5p0&utm_source=notes-share-action&utm_medium=web

Strangers No More: Street Portraits Across Cultures-Yaprak Soysal at Plays and Players Theatre by Octavia McBride-Ahebee

2026-01-16T17:20:00.000-08:00

I have been following the work of Yaprak Soysal for some time now, encountering her street portraits as they surface on my social media feed, quietly, without fanfare, yet insistently asking to be seen. Again and again, I find myself pausing. These photographs do not clamor for attention; they bear witness. They invite recognition.

While the portraits shared here were first encountered online and may not be the same works presented in this new exhibition, they nonetheless offer a window into Soysal’s way of seeing which is one that makes the exhibition especially anticipated.

Strangers No More: Street Portraits Across Cultures-Photography by Yaprak Soysal will open tomorrow, Saturday, January 17, 2026, 4-6 p.m., at Plays and Players Theater, 1714 Delancey Street.

Soysal’s portraits present something essential about who we are as a city. They remind us that the soul of a city resides in its people. The ethnic and cultural diversity so often discussed in abstract terms comes into focus here as intimate, grounded, and dignified. Each face carries a story, but Soysal resists the urge to over-narrate. Instead, she allows presence to speak.

What strikes me most is her refusal to exoticize difference. These are not images that turn cultural markers into spectacle. Rather, each subject meets the camera with agency and calm authority. The photographs suggest a moment of mutual recognition; an exchange rather than an extraction. Even when I encounter these images digitally, I sense conversation behind them: a pause, an agreement, a shared curiosity.

Street portraiture can be fraught. It carries questions of power, consent, and representation. Yet Soysal’s work consistently conveys care. The viewer is not positioned above or outside the subject, but alongside them. The portraits feel collaborative, as if shaped by trust in the brief space where two strangers meet and decide, together, to make an image.

As someone who has lived, worked, and written within multicultural communities, I am especially attuned to how easily difference can be flattened or

misunderstood. Soysal’s portraits resist that flattening. They insist on complexity without drama, on individuality without isolation. Each photograph feels like a small act of civic faith.

In sharing some of these portraits here which are images I have encountered previously through Soysal's Facebook posts, I want to honor the way her work has already been moving through the world, touching viewers one at a time. Strangers No More is not only a title; it is a proposition. It asks us to slow down, to look carefully, and to reconsider how we see those we pass every day.

I know Soysal not only through her work but personally, and she photographed me during a project we were both a part of. That experience deepened my respect for her practice and resulted in one of my most cherished photographs.

Her photographs are worth seeing in person.

Strangers No More: Street Portraits Across Cultures-Photography by Yaprak Soysal will open tomorrow, Saturday, January 17, 2026, 4-6 p.m., at Plays and Players Theater, 1714 Delancey Street.

Listening Together: Poetry and Kora by Octavia McBride-Ahebee

2026-01-15T20:07:00.000-08:00

Shoutout to Larry Robin and the Moonstone Arts family for a deeply moving evening of poetry. It truly felt like a family reunion. The upstairs of the famed Irish pub Fergie’s was packed with young and old, representing every corner of our city, just as it should be.

In that space, we also acknowledged the crisis our country is in and the vital role poets play in bearing witness, speaking truth, and imagining change .

Octavia McBride-Ahebee reading her work as master kora musician, Youba Cissokho, weaves sound beneath the words.

Heartfelt thanks to master kora musician Youba Cissokho for accompanying my reading. I was honored to read alongside the other featured poets and inspired by the open mic, especially the phenomenal Adriann Just-the-Pen Bautista, Aaren Perry , Elijah B. Pringle III and Ray Garman. And thank you to the evening’s host Liz Allen.

72nd-Generation Kora Musician Youba Cissokho

Poet Adriann Just-the-Pen Bautista

I had the loveliest table mate for the evening, poet Anne-Adele Wight ! I am so looking forward to reading the collection she’s working on. Such a gentle and generous spirit.

My work is a kind of ode to migration not as a crisis, but an essential, enduring expression of human hope.

I am always uplifted by my dear friends Phyllis, Tony, Mona, my daughter Sojourner, and Sami, whose love and support over the years continue to carry me. Thank you. Thank you !

Letting the Kora Hold the Poem by Octavia McBride-Ahebee

2026-01-13T20:26:00.000-08:00

My literary work is shaped by the convergence of cultures and the many ways people move across the world be it by choice, by necessity, or by force. I write toward intimate relationships and everyday lives, even as they unfold within broader systems of global inequality. Aging, memory, and care sit at the center of this work, revealing how history quietly lives in the body and in shared spaces.

I’m deeply influenced by the West African tradition of the griot as represented by the kora player as historian, witness, and keeper of collective memory. Long before written archives, griots documented lineages, migrations, and lives through story and song. This is why master kora player, Youba Cissokho, will participate with me: he carries seventy-two generations of history, not simply as inheritance, but as living knowledge. In this collaboration, the kora does not merely accompany the poem, it remembers with it.

I invite you to join us for this poetry event.

A Poem to Share: An Audio Preview Ahead of My Upcoming Reading by Octavia McBride-Ahebee

2026-01-07T13:22:00.000-08:00

This poem, Where My Birthmark Dances, which also lends its name to a poetry collection of mine, is voiced by a Haitian child whose mother has left both her and Haiti to seek economic opportunity in North America as a nanny. The poem directly addresses the children now in her mother’s care, inviting them to consider who she is, where she comes from, what she has left behind, and the physical journey that brought her to them.

Where My Birthmark Dances is a direct appeal from a daughter, a child herself, to those children: an invitation to know her mother, and to love her mother in the daughter’s absence. Click below to listen to an audio rendering of this poem

Andrea Walls: Seeding Joy Through Art, Ritual, and Intention Jars by Octavia McBride-Ahebee

2026-01-04T20:04:00.000-08:00

Kudos to creator and curator Andrea Walls of the Museum of Black Joy, who once again facilitated a powerful workshop to usher in the new year. Hosted in one of the stunning open galleries of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, this intention-setting gathering was rooted in African diasporic spiritual practices of reflection, ritual, and care.

Playwright and Workshop Participant Mona R. Washington with Andrea Walls

Participants were invited to release what no longer served them-to name this- and to call into being what they desired for themselves, their families, and their communities using an amalgamation of herbs, oils, sacred objects, and spoken intention.

Workshop facilitator Andrea

Walls, creator and curator

of the Museum of Black Joy,

opens Seeding Joy by sharing

the intentions and goals for

the gathering.

Ahead of the workshop, participants received a list of herbs and the spiritual work associated with each. Hibiscus, red raspberry leaf, lavender, nettle, holy basil, Spanish moss, and dandelion were among them, along with cowrie shells and rose quartz. Oils such as sweet almond and sunflower were also introduced. In the open gallery space, surrounded by artwork created by young people, a long table was laid with an abundant offering of herbs. Each participant received a notebook and pencil, a mason jar, and squares of African fabric to later decorate the jar.

Participants Octavia McBride-Ahebee and Patricia Eads

We were then invited into the gallery where Zoe Leonard’s Strange Fruit is on exhibition. Our time there unfolded as a collective conversation shaped by individual responses. The installation, which consists of nearly 300 hand-sewn, slowly decaying fruit peels, commemorates losses from the AIDS crisis and takes its title from the anti-lynching song. Intended to decompose, the stitched skins challenge traditional ideas of preservation while evoking mortality, memory, and the dehumanization of the epidemic.

Hand-stitched fruit peels in
Zoe Leonard’s Strange Fruit,
holding grief, memory, and endurance.

The work asks us to bear witness to histories of endurance, grief, and presence. Like African diasporic spiritual traditions, Strange Fruit holds what is difficult without turning away and gestures toward care, survival, and transformation as collective possibilities.

Following our discussion, we returned to our workspace to create our intention jars.

We were given a sheet of paper with a line dividing it down the middle: on one side, we wrote what we did not wish to carry into the new year; on the other, what we hoped to bring forward. After tearing the paper in two, the list of what we were releasing was folded away from the body and collected to be burned later. The list of desires was folded toward the body and placed inside the mason jar.

The open gallery at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, filled with light, art, and shared intention.

We then filled our jars with chosen herbs and oils and offered prayers, each in our own way, to God, our ancestors, the natural world, or all three. The jars were sealed and taken home to be placed in our living spaces. Andrea also invited participants to consider creating additional jars for other meaningful places in their lives.

Poet and artist Victoria H. Peurifoy
shares words of wisdom for the new year.

Teddy Poneman, supporting creative programming that connects Drexel students and community neighbors.

Participants hold their New Year’s desires, sealed in intention jars.

Participants shared how deeply they enjoyed SEEDING JOY: An Intention-Setting Workshop, leaving with both a ritual object and a renewed sense of purpose for the year ahead.

*Special thanks to Teddy Poneman, Associate Director of Programs & Engagement at Drexel’s Writers Room.

Allan Steele-Dadzie’s Exhibition Brings New Depth to Black Portraiture by Octavia McBride-Ahebee

2025-12-23T16:13:00.000-08:00

I love when I am invited into unexpected gems in my city, and Unique Photo is certainly one, both for what it carries and for the building that holds it. A cornucopia of cameras, lenses, and photographic tools fills this old multi-floor space, which somehow feels contemporary against the historic backdrop of Philadelphia’s Old City.

Allan Steele-Dadzie, featured photographer, with writer Octavia McBride-Ahebee

This past Friday, I attended the opening exhibition of Allan Steele-Dadzie, a photographer of deep intention and respect for his subjects. His show, Pieces of a Man, sets its tone the moment the elevator doors open onto the fourth floor. The first thing I encountered was an energetic, youthful atmosphere. A DJ, full of joyful presence and command, played early-2000s hip-hop. The music stirred long-held memories, and as I moved through that hypnotic soundscape, I found myself smiling and even dancing a little, cane and all. The rhythm seemed to guide me directly into the main exhibition space.

Inside, I entered a large, warm constellation of dynamic Black and brown creatives, gathered in support and celebration. Surrounding this vibrant group were Steele-Dadzie’s photographs: unframed, uncontained, almost bursting from the walls. Each image felt as if it was reaching for the viewer, inviting us to step into these intimate vignettes.

The exhibition title, Pieces of a Man, honors Gil Scott-Heron’s first studio album, a work Steele-Dadzie has long admired. Both men share a connection to Lincoln University, and both explore, in different mediums, the layered beauty and complexity of Black life.

Steele-Dadzie’s philosophy is grounded in humility. He recognizes that each photograph captures only a moment from a much larger story. A proud Philadelphian, he is also mindful of the city’s high poverty rate, the second highest among the ten largest American cities. Yet within this reality, his photographs reveal something essential: Black people do more than struggle. They love. They dream. They persevere. They laugh. They create.

A barber shapes a young boy’s hair with tenderness and skill, holding the child’s head with an almost protective strength. A father embraces his son in a gesture of quiet authority and tender affection. An older woman stands with a poise that feels earned and unhurried, her gray afro forming a soft halo around her. A young Black couple sits on the back of a Cadillac Fleetwood, striking a bold, self-assured pose that radiates their deep affection reminiscent of the couple in the movie Queen and Slim.

And Philadelphia’s unmistakable flair shows up in fur coats, confident stances, gleaming, gold grillz and stoopside elegance.

The exhibition also includes work by José Camacho, whose images deepen the visual conversation across the gallery. His photographs offer another lens on the lives and narratives of our communities, expanding the emotional reach of the show.

Steele-Dadzie emphasized to me that the relationship between photographer and subject is reciprocal, a shared exchange where the aim is to bring light, joy, and the grounded self-possession that lives in each portrait.

As an elder creative, it brought me real delight to witness so many young, talented artists collaborating and supporting one another. Pieces of a Man at Unique Photo is not simply an exhibition. The portraits themselves are a kind of gathering of community and a shared testament as to how art can anchor and affirm us.

For viewing times and details, contact Unique Photo, 28 S. 2nd Street, 4th Floor, Philadelphia, PA 215-608-2222

To see more of Steele-Dadzie’s work, including recent opportunities such as photographing Philadelphia Eagles star A. J. Brown for a special project, follow him on Instagram at @allan.ali_

The Geography of Becoming by Octavia McBride-Ahebee

2025-11-16T15:37:00.000-08:00

Hot off the press. It’s here. I am so honored and awed that Furaha Youngblood’s work is also included in this collection. I met Furaha more than 30 years ago in Abidjan, where an extraordinary circle of women gathered monthly to write and critique one another’s work.

As part of this current project, Furaha and I contributed to The Africa Migration Report Poetry Anthology Series, which is a multi-year initiative exploring African and diasporic migration through poetry. Additionally, we are involved with Forced Migration and The Arts, an international network connecting artists, scholars, and those with lived experience to examine the intersection of forced migration and creative expression.

Here is a link if you wish to purchase the book: It is a British publisher.

https://amzn.eu/d/8t8VMnO

In the Hands That Hold Hope by Octavia McBride-Ahebee

2025-10-16T17:59:00.000-07:00

The hands in this photograph by Noemia Prada, weathered and strong, yet cradling the fragile beauty of a single Calla Lily, remind me of Yero.

Yero’s hearing is soon approaching, and like this image, his story holds both struggle and grace. Every day he waits, he continues to hold on to faith, to friendship, and to the fragile hope that justice still blooms in this country.

It’s important to know: asylum seekers represented by an attorney are five times more likely to be granted asylum than those forced to stand alone. Your support makes that representation and that hope possible.

Please consider contributing to Yero's legal defense fund. All funds go directly to his legal team. Let’s help ensure that Yero’s strength, like these hands, continues to hold something living, something full of promise.

Here is a link to his GoFundMe campaign. You can donate anonymously, if this feels more comfortable.

https://www.gofundme.com/.../community-support-for-yeros...