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

 

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

 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

 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.