Octavia McBride-Ahebee

I am unequivocally a citizen of the world. Pieces of me are everywhere and somewhere – unfortunately, there is always war. Consequently, my writing is informed and consumed by this bleak fact. As an artist, who had until quite recently lived abroad and returned home to the States as a result of a civil war in my adopted country of Cote d'Ivoire, I am overwhelmed by a sense of urgency to share, with people who are privileged and protected from the realities of war, what those realities are. I am as equally besieged by a need to push to center stage the victims of war and affirm and give dimensions to their experiences.

My work addresses such themes as civil war, rape as a weapon of war, environmental exploitation, self-immolation,obstetric fistula, the challenges of immigration, etc