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

 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

 

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

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 Last King of Rwanda’s Final Years in a Black American Community by Octavia McBride-Ahebee

 

I’ve just completed a serialized audio story inspired by Jean-Baptiste Ndahindurwa, Rwanda’s last king, and his years living in a working-class Black community in Virginia. Give it a listen.

If you’re new to my work, begin here.

I’m a writer and educator drawn to stories that move across borders. My work sits at the intersection of migration, memory, and community, often tracing the quiet ways people carry one another through displacement and change.

I’m honored to have recently been selected for the PA Humanities’ Window Keeper: Civic Honors, which recognizes everyday leaders across Pennsylvania. For me, storytelling is part of that work which includes listening closely, honoring what is often overlooked, and making space for connection.

My most recent project is a serialized audio short story inspired by Jean-Baptiste Ndahindurwa, Rwanda’s last king, and his last years living in a working-class Black community in Virginia.

This is a story of:

• exile and belonging

• the long shadow of colonialism

• and the generosity of everyday people

It asks what happens when histories meet not in textbooks, but in living rooms, kitchens, and neighborhoods.

If this story resonates, I invite you to subscribe and stay with the work. Here is the link:

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

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.