Rooted and Rising: My Poetry on Diaspora and Belonging

Click link below to watch and listen to reading.

Octavia McBride-Ahebee reading her poetry on the theme of migration.

I have been actively involved in an ongoing project with writers and scholars from around the world, all focused on the theme of African migration. Our collaboration has unfolded through a series of Zoom conversations and a recent arts festival hosted in London.

This initiative is organized by Forced Migration and the Arts, a global network that brings together individuals with lived experience of forced migration, as well as refugee and non-refugee artists, scholars, and activists from across the globe.

It has been both humbling and inspiring to engage with such powerful work—especially from young African scholars and writers whose insights and creativity have deeply moved and challenged me. These conversations have pushed my thinking and expanded my understanding of migration as both a lived reality and a cultural force.

The creative output of this collaboration will be featured in an upcoming anthology titled Africa Migration Report: An Anthology of Poems. This collection is inspired by the second edition of the Africa Migration Report, jointly published by the African Union Commission (AUC) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Japa Fire: An Anthology of Poems on African and African Diasporic Migration is the inaugural publication in this powerful new series. Featuring 63 poems by 20 poets, the anthology explores themes of migration, (im)mobility, Blackness, Africanness, and the complexities of African diasporic identity. Here is a link to this collection:https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/japa-fire-ambrose-musiyiwa/1146732038?ean=9781916459397   

 My work will be published in an upcoming anthology.

Every coffee fuels not just my writing, but the workshops, conversations, and creative spaces I help nurture. If you’re able, I’d be grateful for your support.