Writer McBride-Ahebee Reads From Assuming Voices - A Poetry Collection Illuminating the Lives of the Dispossessed

McBride-Ahebee will read from Assuming Voices, an entrancing poetry collection illuminating, in small, personal vignettes, the lives of women who, too often , go unnoticed and rarely celebrated; African women, women in refugee camps, women who are victims of civil war and immigrant women attempting to find their place in newly adopted countries.

(PRWEB) January 14, 2005 -- Writer Octavia McBride-Ahebee will read at Robins Bookstore, Philadelphias oldest independent bookstore, on Monday, January 17, 2005, at 7:00 p.m. McBride-Ahebee will read from Assuming Voices, an entrancing poetry collection illuminating, in small, personal vignettes, the lives of women who, too often , go unnoticed and rarely celebrated; African women, women in refugee camps, women who are victims of civil war and immigrant women attempting to find their place in newly adopted countries.

Just a few lines from The Welcome, an engagingly long, intricate, narrative poem from Assuming Voices, conveys the fear, the lost and the desperation of a woman fleeing her homeland. The Haitian narrator states:

I fled home with 42 bodies of hope

in a boat built with none

a boat unfamiliar with the magnitude of sustained desire

spooked by the weighty fears

of those riding in it

and the moons promise of crazed retribution

if it failed to move to the cruel rhythm of the lunar beat.

We held on with our dread and our vomit

and the death grips they gave

when we thought of home

and heads of lovers

-faces full of lashes and hyssop-stained breath-

without bodies

that rolled

with no wind behind them

down hills that hollered even when the sun was hanging.

In Defense of Flowers, McBride-Ahebee brilliantly juxtaposes the beauty of nature with the brutal nature of human beings. A Liberian woman, a victim of a horrific civil war, flees her fellow countryman, and finds protection and sustenance from a flowering bush.

I run to hide in the voluminous fury of a jasmine shrub

in bloom

its pale butter blossoms shield me

from the bloodletting

bathing its roots

I snort, in silent gulps, which claim my dignity

the calming splendor of the jasmines bouquet

I am rescued

for an instance

from a hunter high

on the dizziness of his own deprivation

I am rescued

from my brother

by a perfumed bush

Assuming Voices, published by Lit Pot Press, is full of many tongues. You can hear a Sudanese girls chastisement of the world and her proud declaration of how she uses her own resources to care for her needs. You will hear a Rwandan mother, languishing in a refugee camp, still bold enough to dream of pineapples. There are many voices, from many places that call to be heard.

McBride-Ahebee will also read from her newest project, The Water God, a collection of short stories inspired by her nine years in Cote dIvoire, West Africa and her 24-year relationship with Africa. As McBride-Ahebee reads from this collection, Monica McIntyre, an innovative and daring cellist, will play.

I am especially thrilled by The Water God because the stories in this album of my heart, as I like to call it, show the many links that exist between seemingly unconnected groups. Artistically ,"she said, it is very exciting to create an interest, on the part of Philadelphias diverse communities, about each other and what shared linkages may exist."

Robins Bookstore is located at 108 South 13th Street, Philadelphia, PA. The phone number is 215-735-9600 and its web address is www.robinsbookstore.com

McBride-Ahebee will also read at The Kelly Writers House on Monday, January 31, 2005 at 8:00 p.m. This reading will be taped , for broadcast on WXPN-88.5 Radio, in the Arts Café. Pattie McCarthy, J.C. Ian Keenan and William Esposito will read as well. The Kelly Writers House is located at 3805 Locust Walk, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA. For more information call 215-573-WRIT. www.writing.upenn.edu/~wh/calendar/0105.html

She will also participate in the 21st Annual Celebration of Black Writing Festival, hosted by the Art Sanctuary. The Festival will run from February 4-20, 2005. McBride-Ahebee will be one of the featured writers at the Meet the Author Book Fair, on Saturday, February 12, 2005, from 2:00 p.m. -5:00 p.m., at Community College of Philadelphia, Winnett Hall in the Great Room, 17th and Spring Garden Streets, Philadelphia, PA. For a schedule of this festival's month-long events, please go to www.artsanctuary.org

Her work has appeared in the such books and journals as It Is Time For Change;Speeches of William R. Tolbert, The Beloit Poetry Journal, International Quarterly, and The Eagle Spirit

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