Octavia McBride-Ahebee: April 2025

Monday, April 28, 2025

The Historical Society of Pennsylvania and The 1838 Black Metropolis : A Public History Teach-In

Writer Octavia McBride-Ahebee outside of the Historical
Society of Pennsylvania

This past weekend ‘s Public History Teach-In , organized by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and the 1838 Black Metropolis, was a resounding success!

Historian and Artist Nell Irvin Painter with writer Octavia McBride-Ahebee

Public history artists, educators, museum preservationists, public historians, student activists, and even young elementary students—who are published authors of Black history as well—presented dynamic research and engaging stories throughout this unforgettable, two-day conference. The beloved historian and artist Nell Irwin Painter opened the gathering.

Students from the Jubilee School sharing their published history projects.

McBride-Ahebee reading her creative
fiction as Youba Cissokho accompanies
her, on his kora.

I was thrilled to share a creative short story—still a work in progress—inspired by the migration of 15,000 African Americans, many from Philadelphia, to Haiti following its revolution in the early 1800s. One of the most moving moments for me was reading this piece while accompanied by the incomparable Youba Cissokho, a 72nd-generation kora master from Senegal. His music gave the story

a soul-stirring depth.

Master Kora Musician Youba Cissokho

Michiko Quinones and Morgan Lloyd, founders of the phenomenal
The 1838 Black Metropolis. Do follow their amazing content, particularly
visually, on Instagram.

Kudos to Mona R. Washington and Anthony P. Kamani for their powerful collaborative theatrical work, and to all the other incredible panelists who

Playwright Mona R. Washington discussing
the project she presented with actor
Anthony P. Kamani.

Dear Friends-Mona and Desiree

contributed their voices and perspectives. Deep thanks to my dear friends and family—like Mrs. Eads, and the wonderful Renee and Desiree—for showing up and supporting this meaningful event. Much love. Thank you to Justina Barret and Brianna Quade from the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and Morgan Lloyd and Michiko Quinones from The 1838 Black Metropolis- you need to follow them.

Octavia McBride-Ahebee's -Migrations of Desire centered around the theme of
Creative Writers and the Art of Reimagining History.

Morgan Lloyd with participants from the
Creative Arts panel.

If you're organizing an event, classroom visit, or community program and would like a reading or artist talk, I’d love to connect. Feel free to reach out via email: octaviamcbrideahebee@gmail.com

Every cup of coffee helps fuel my writing, research, and community-based creative work. If you’ve enjoyed what you’ve read—or just want to support independent storytelling rooted in history, migration, and everyday beauty—consider contributing. It means the world.

Monday, April 21, 2025

Joyful Abundance: The Mendelssohn Chorus of Philadelphia Unites Voices, Poets, and Composers

I am incredibly excited about this project! Having my commissioned

poem performed by a chorus of over 120 voices will truly be an honor.

The Mendelssohn Chorus, with its rich history spanning more than 150

years, brings a depth of talent and tradition that makes this opportunity

all the more meaningful. I am thrilled to be a part of something so power-

ful and inspiring.

Click link to learn more: https://www.mcchorus.org/

I am equally honored to be collaborating with poet Kirwyn

Sutherland and composers Ted Babcock and Rollo A. Dilworth on this

project, a new initiative of the Mendelssohn Chorus which brings

together five teams of poets and composers to create original works for

the chorus.

Poets Octavia McBride-Ahebee and Kirwyn Sutherland

Monday, April 7, 2025

Kwibuka 31- Rwanda Commenorates the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi

Today, April 7th begins Kwibuka , in Rwanda, which is the annual commemorations of the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi and moderate Hutu. I also like to remember the Twa as well. Kwibuka in Kinyarwanda means to remember. This is the 31st anniversary. I had the honor of visiting Rwanda 2 years ago.

Visiting the Ethnographic Museum of Rwanda, in Butare.

Visiting the old King's Place where we saw these special

cows; descendants of the royal herd, in Nyanza.

Nyamata Genocide Memorial

I love Rwanda and I am forever grateful for the lessons learned there. The people are absolutely amazing and the geography of the country is stunning .

Nyandungu Urban Wetland Eco-Tourism Park in Kigali

The countryside of Rwanda is beautiful.

This was a Motown-themed birthday celebration, hosted in a Rwandan Club. Here

you can see some of many senior African-Americans who have made Rwanda home.

On our way to the bustling Kimironko Market !

Sojourner interviewing cross-cultural intelligence professional Justin Ngoga and
African-American Mentha Manning, who resides in Kigali, Rwanda.

One of Sojourner's friends from Stanford, who is from Rwanda, invited us to the most
beautiful wedding.

Entrance to wedding, in Kigali, Rwanda.

You know we had a phenomenal time.

So honored to have had these incredible experiences.

Standing on top of the building, with historian John Shyaka, where the "Campaign Against the Genocide Museum" is located. John is a top-notch guide. What an emotional journey.

Visiting the Kigali Genocide Memorial; " place of remembrance and learning dedicated to the victims of the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda."

Sojourner, with our dear friend Justin, reading some of names of the victims of the genocide.

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June 12, 2025 - Sept. 26, 2025 -Voices of the Community: Local Black Preservation at the HSP

This exhibition, at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, explores the history, migration, and preservation of African American communities in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Lawnside, New Jersey. Curated by community historians and activists, this exhibit uses archival documents such as personal papers, photographs, musical scores, and ephemera to highlight strategies Black individuals and communities utilize to preserve their heritage. The historical formation of organizations, creation of music, and building of communities have resulted in a cultural preservation movement based on principles of self-determination and collective action.*Click image to learn more.

Ongoing- Woodmere Art Museum-Free Admission This Summer

Bright and Beautiful is inspired by Woodmere’s splendid Meissen porcelain chandelier, which presents an array of flowers, canaries, and music-making cupids. Originally, twenty-one candles illuminated this joyous adornment. The contemporary Philadelphia artists featured in this exhibition explore brightness and beauty in multiple forms—in their bodies, in nature, and in the conceptual realm—giving expression to their subjects with the quality of shininess. Bright and Beautiful celebrates their visions and the life-giving power of art. *Click image to learn more.

Now through August 10, 2025 / Amy Sherald: American Sublime," will be the Whitney Museum

Amy Sherald is a storyteller. She creates precisely crafted narratives of American life, selecting, styling, and photographing her sitters as the foundation for her nuanced paintings. Thus, while Sherald (b. 1973; Columbus, Georgia) bases her works on specific people, they are more than traditional portraits. They center everyday Black Americans, compelling in their individuality and extraordinary in their ordinariness, inviting viewers to step into Sherald’s imagined worlds.* Click image to learn more

Now through Oct. 2025 / One of Philadelphia’s brightest culinary treasures

Now through October 2025 / Superfine: Tailoring Black Style at The Met

June 8, 2025/ Odunde's 50th Anniversary

A cultural legacy of 50 years returns this summer: the ODUNDE Festival, the largest African American street festival in North America, will celebrate its historic 50th anniversary from June 1 through June 8, 2025. The week-long festival will feature events from June 1st to June 7th and the celebration will culminate on Sunday, June 8, with an unforgettable street festival spanning 16 city blocks, featuring two stages of live entertainment, global cuisine, and over 150 vendors from around the world. *Click image to learn more.

June 7, 2025 / 2nd Annual Ultra Art in Bloom Children's Art Exhibition

Ultra Art in Bloom is an annual children’s art exhibition hosted by The Ultra Silk Gallery and Westside Framing Studio. The event celebrates the creativity of elementary and middle school students (ages 8–14) from across Philadelphia. This vibrant showcase gives young, budding artists the opportunity to present their work in a professional gallery setting—offering a meaningful platform for them to share their talents with family, friends, and the broader community, outside the classroom. *Click image to learn more.

MAY 30, 2025 /Kora at the Gardens: A Friday Night with Youba Cissokho

Jazz vocalist and community advocate Gretchen Elise has organized a vibrant series of pop-up music events this month and June at the Trolley Portal Gardens, located at 40th & Baltimore Avenue, just outside Renata’s Kitchen, in University City. This Friday’s concert features Youba Cissokho, a 72nd-generation master kora player from Senegal. The kora—a traditional West African string instrument—is renowned for its ethereal melodies and deep cultural roots. *Click the image to learn more.

May 24-25, 2025 Finding Joy! The Rebellion Circus - Rebel Arts Movement

Finding Joy is a groundbreaking and heartwarming circus show that transports audiences to a mesmerizing world where joy, love, and celebration abound for Black and Queer individuals. This vibrant and inclusive performance weaves together breathtaking acrobatics, evocative storytelling, and powerful visual artistry to create an unforgettable experience that both entertains and uplifts. Finding Joy is more than just a circus show; it is a powerful statement on the importance of representation, inclusion, and the universal human desire for joy.*Click image to learn more.

"You and I" by Malak Mattar

March 21, 2025- Love in The Time of Migration by Chelsea Abbas and Erin Kökdil

(USA/Guatemala, 2024, 21 minutes, Spanish with English subtitles) 1. Love in the Time of Migration is a documentary short that follows the love story of Ronny and Suly, a Guatemalan couple from a rural town deeply impacted by migration. They quickly fell in love despite Ronny being in the US and Suly in Guatemala. Set amidst the backdrop of the U.S. immigration system, this film asks the question: can love conquer all? 2. Second Film: Since You Arrived, My Heart Stopped Belonging to Me by Erin Semine Kökdil (USA, 2021, 21 minutes, Spanish with English subtitles) This film follows the journey of a group of Central American mothers traveling through Mexico in search of their children who disappeared while migrating to the United States. *Scribe Video Center 3908 Lancaster Avenue Philadelphia, PA 19104 215-222-4201, * Click link to learn more.

Nov.-March 2025Actress CCH Pounder’s art collection comes to the African American Museum

* Painting below by Nigerian artist Luke Agada ...Acting powerhouse CCH Pounder teams up with the African American Museum in Philadelphia for an exciting and exclusive look at her personal art collection. Shared Vision: Portraits from the CCH Pounder-Koné Collection, running through March 2025, features work that subverts old-school portraiture techniques that objectified the female subject or subjugated the Black one. Every portrait within this collection portrays Black female figures as socially significant—rather than looking down, each woman looks out and up. *Click image to learn more.

June 19, 2024 Collage as a Form of Resistance-At the Bok Bar /Philadelphia Celebrates Juneteenth

During this workshop, we will experiment with visuals to help curate our ideologies around pride, Black history, culture, and music. Through discussion and art making students will leave this course confident in the methods of collaging as a form of resistance. All materials will be provided but feel free to bring any of your own collaging materials as well (mats, exacto knives, scrap materials, photos, etc...) This class will be hosted by Doriana Diaz. Doriana Diaz is a multidimensional artist, archivist, and memory worker rooted in Philadelphia's soulful rhythms. She has hosted a wide array of collage and bookmaking workshops around the city in spaces like The African American Museum, Brandywine Museum of Art, United States Botanical Gardens, Mural Arts, and Fleisher Art Memorial, a variety of schools including Penn Charter, Delaware Valley Friends School, and Green Street Friends, along with places such as Express Newark, Ipade, and Bok Bar. Her work explores loss, memory, fantasy, utopia, formation, and identity through the archival documentation of visual imagery. Click the image to register for this event.

Now until July 14, 2024 /Joyce J. Scott-50-Year Retrospective at BAM

Don’t miss the Baltimore Museum of Art ‘s(BMA) 50-year career retrospective of artist Joyce J. Scott (b. 1948, Baltimore, MD), encompassing the full range and depth of her prolific and genre-defying practice. Joyce J. Scott: Walk a Mile in My Dreams features nearly 140 works from the 1970s to the present—including sculpture, jewelry, textiles, artwear garments, performance compilations, prints, mixed-media installations, and a new large-scale commission. The exhibition closes July 14, 2024. Click image to learn more.

A 106-year-old from the Philippines is Vogue's oldest ever cover model

Still Dancing by Johnathan Labillois

Mr. Labillois' Artist Statement: I donated this to the Montreal Native Women's Shelter to raise awareness of missing and murdered Native women in Canada. I hoped sharing it with others would bring this issue to the minds of many people, and hope that many of our sisters, mothers, aunts or daughters will never be forgotten. The idea for the title came from my little sister who said, "Dancers dance for those who cannot, the sick, the elders, and those who are gone. It's like all those women are still dancing thru her." * 2020 Collective vision.us - Postcards for Political Action; Click image to learn more.

March 9, 2020 7:30 p.m./ Maira Kalman | The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas Illustrated

Free Library of Phila./Central Branch-An illustrator, writer, artist, and designer, Maira Kalman is the author of a dozen children’s books, has designed fabric and accessories for Isaac Mizrahi and Kate Spade, created sets for stage productions, shown her work in nearly two dozen galleries, and, with her late husband, made accessories for the Museum of Modern Art. She has also designed several New Yorker covers, including the famed “Newyorkistan” absurdist map cover. Written by Gertrude Stein in the voice of her partner, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas is one of literary history’s cheekiest and most loved biographies. In this new illustrated edition, Kalman brings to life the shimmering lights and intellectual luminaries of Paris in the 1920s and ’30s. Click image to learn more.

Wed, March 11, 2020 7:30 p.m.- James McBride Free Library/Central Branch

“Boisterous, highly entertaining,” and “altogether original” (Washington Post), James McBride is the author of the National Book Award–winning The Good Lord Bird, in which a young boy born into slavery joins abolitionist John Brown’s doomed crusade. His nonfiction books include the New York Times bestselling memoir The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother and Kill ’Em and Leave: Searching for James Brown and the American Soul. His other fiction includes the novels Miracle at St. Anna and Song Yet Sung, and the short-story collection Five-Carat Soul. Also an award-winning composer, screenwriter, and saxophonist, he received the National Humanities Medal from President Obama in 2016. Deacon King Kong is a novel about a very public shooting in a 1960s Brooklyn housing project. To learn more, click photo.

Wed, March 11, 2020 6:00 p.m. One Book, Many Voices Community Dinner

Blanche A. Nixon/Cobbs Creek Library Gather for a family-style dinner of dishes from the Americas. Hear thoughts from the contributing chefs on Indigenous food traditions, as participants put text on the table and discuss passages from There There by Tommy Orange. Everyone will get to know their neighbors during this special evening, and explore together what identity and community-building mean in Lenapehoking past, present, and future. Join the party for a family-style dinner with dishes from across the Americas, in partnership with One Book, One Philadelphia. Participating restaurants include: El Merkury, Poi Dog Philly, South Philly Barbacoa and Chef Chris Paul. Registration for this FREE event is encouraged but not required; seating is first-come, first-served. Click image for more information.

Curtis Institute of Music Student Recitals-Mon., Wed., & Thu/Free

The Student Recital Series provides a platform for exceptional young musicians—and more than 100 free opportunities for audiences to indulge in a season-long showcase of artistry. Since Curtis was founded in 1924, some of history’s most important musicians have appeared on the stage of Field Concert Hall, and today the Student Recital Series continues this celebrated legacy. Students perform solo and chamber works on most Mondays at 6 p.m., and Wednesday and Friday evenings at 8 p.m. Additional dates and times are added throughout the year. Student Recitals are free and open to the public. Seating is general admission and first-come, first-served. Most recitals are about two hours long, with one intermission. Click image to learn more.

U-M anthropologist uses toe tags to highlight crisis at US-Mexico border

"Hostile Terrain 94", by anthropologist Jason De Leon, confronts viewers with a giant map of Arizona. The map is populated with 3,000 toe tags — cards used in morgues to identify the dead. Each toe tag represents a person who died attempting to cross the border through the Sonoran desert. As part of the exhibition, the viewer is invited to fill out the toe tags by hand, listing the person's corresponding name, date, location of death and condition of the body. Click image to read more of this article and to learn more about this project.

ReimaginedFLP: Free Library Opened Reimagined Spaces in the Parkway Central Library!

The Robert and Eileen Kennedy Heim Center for Cultural and Civic Engagement First Floor | 7,200 square feet An active gathering space for diverse programs and civic engagement. Marie and Joseph Field Teen Center Ground Floor | 4,000 square feet Special programming and a gaming area–exclusively for teens. Business Resource and Innovation Center Ground Floor | 8,200 square feet A new hub for Philadelphia's entrepreneurs, inventors, nonprofits, and job seekers./ Click image to learn more.

Open Archive: The Poetics of Anti-Slavery Protest- New York

Join Michelle Commander, associate director and curator of the Lapidus Center, who will explore archive material capturing the use of poetry and related arts in anti-slavery efforts in the Atlantic World. The Lapidus Center for the Historical Analysis of Transatlantic Slavery at the Schomburg Center is the only facility of its kind based in a public research library. The initial collection included 400 rare items of printed material — books and documents continue to be added to the collection — making the Schomburg Center home to one of the world’s premier collections of slavery material. The Center's mission is to generate and disseminate scholarly knowledge on the slave trade, slavery, and anti-slavery pertaining to the Atlantic World. Lapidus Center engages the public with a variety of programs, an annual nonfiction prize, exhibitions, and conferences./ Click image to learn more.

Raquel Salas Rivera

Written in response the PROMESA bill (Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act) bill, lo terciario/the tertiary offers a decolonial queer critique and reconsideration of Marx. The book’s titles come from Pedro Scaron’s, El Capital, the 1976 translation of Karl Marx’s classic. Published by Siglo Veintiuno Editores, this translation was commonly used by the Puerto Rican left as part of political formation programs. Lo terciario/the tertiary places this text in relation to the Puerto Rican debt crisis, forcing readers to reconsider old questions when facing colonialism’s newest horrors-Colette Arrand, author of Hold Me Gorilla Monsoon

Photos Of 1908 Japan, Before Wars And Devastation

Back in 1908, a German photographer Arnold Genthe (1869-1942) spent six months in Japan, documenting the everyday life of Japanese during the Meiji period. Genthe was known for his photo series, documenting San Francisco’s Chinatown. After his death, the Library of Congress acquired approximately 20,000 never before seen photographs from his studio, and buried in the collection were these rare photos from 1908 Japan, during the Meiji period. In these photos, you’ll see an almost idyllic everyday life that contrasts sharply with the soon-to-come destruction, brought by the wars. Click on image to learn more.

20 Amazing Writing Residencies You Should Apply for This Year

Leeway Foundation

The Leeway Foundation's grantmaking programs honor women and trans* artists for their ability to create social change through their artistic and cultural work. The Art and Change Grants and the Leeway Transformation Awards fund women and trans artists (including those identifying as transgender, transsexual, and/or genderqueer) living in the Delaware Valley region of Bucks, Camden, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia Counties, who engage in art and social change work and have financial need. To learn more, click image.

Hedgebrook; Women Authoring Change

Hedgebrook is a global community of women writers and people who seek extraordinary books, poetry, plays, films and music by women. A literary nonprofit, its mission is to support visionary women writers whose stories and ideas shape culture now and for generations to come. Hedgebrook offers writing residencies, master classes and salons at its 25-year-old retreat on Whidbey Island, and public programs that connect writers with readers and audiences around the world. Click image to learn more.

Rethinking Schools

Coming in early 2015 Rethinking Sexism, Gender, & Sexuality, a new book from Rethinking Schools How do you respond when a child asks, “Can a girl turn into a boy?” in the middle of circle time? What if your daughter brings home schoolbooks with sexist, racist stories? What does “queering the curriculum” really mean? What does it look like? What if parents complain? Rethinking Sexism, Gender, and Sexuality is filled with insightful, inspiring articles on these and dozens of other critical topics. Chapters include: creating safe and nurturing classrooms, coming out at school as a teacher or student, integrating feminist and LGBTQ content into curriculum, moving beyond the classroom to school and community teacher education Join our campaign to publish the book we wish our own teachers—and our children's teachers—had well-thumbed copies of in their classrooms.

The American Library in Paris Visiting Fellowship

The American Library in Paris Visiting Fellowship was created in 2013 to nurture and sustain a heritage as old as the Library itself – deepening French-American understanding. The Visiting Fellowship offer writers and researchers an opportunity to pursue a creative project in Paris for a month or longer while participating actively in the life of the American Library. The project may be a book (fiction or non-fiction), long-form journalism, film or music. The Fellowship award, a stipend of $5,000 is intended to cover travel and housing costs for the Visiting Fellow. He or she will be expected to present the work-in-progress to the public in a weekday evening talk at the Library, and to conduct one or two workshops for Library members on a subject of common interest. Click Image to learn more..

Ride a train across country and write a book. Welcome to the Amtrak Writer's Residency:

What began as a line in Alexander Chee's interview in PEN Ten and was fueled by Twitter, is now an official Amtrak program. As many of you may know by now, our test-run for Amtrak Residency was done by Manhattan-based writer Jessica Gross, whose piece, Writing The Lakeshore Limited was published in February by The Paris Review. What followed was overwhelming support on Twitter and in the media with #AmtrakResidency being featured in The Wire, The New Yorker, and Huffington Post among others. Today we are happy to announce that #AmtrakResidency will allow for up to 24 writers to take long-distance trains to work on their projects. Each writer's round-trip journey will include accommodations on board a sleeper car equipped with a bed, a desk and outlets. We hope this experience will inspire creativity and most importantly fuel your sense of adventure! Are you excited about #AmtrakResidency? Want to learn more and apply? Head over to our official entry form and good luck! Click image.

Where My Birthmark Dances is now available on Amazon

What's being said about Where My Birthmark Dances ?

The Ancient Romans used to call a person's creative spirit her "genius," and recognized the labor of setting it free as one of love and sacrifice. Octavia McBride-Ahebee's latest collection is just such a labor. Her poems depict human longing, love and dignity in the context of global inequality with fierce, uncompromising grace. As her characters speak, she creates indelible sensory images of loveliness and affection, profound misery and anger, letting each co-exist on the page. The resulting complexity of tone makes space for nuanced and compelling human voices that might otherwise be categorized as "victims" or "villains" of oppression. It takes the full use of genius to notice and capture these contradictions, and a deep social conscience to care so passionately about writing them down. This collection is one of McBride-Ahebee's "bighearted magnolia trees," its trunk scarred by the fire of sacrifice, its blossoms and branches so beautiful you don't want to leave their shade.

-Lillian Dunn, Editor of Apiary Literary Journal

Octavia McBride-Ahebee

Words without Borders; The Home of International Literature