Meet Dahyo
Born and raised in Harlem, Dahyo Offord grew up in a Dunbar apartment in the 1970s. She and her three older siblings were raised to stand proud in their Blackness, to be educated about their history, and to be their own bosses. Her father Carl Offord was originally from Trinidad and her mother, Arlene Offord, was a lifelong Harlemite, “And they were the owners of Cool Magazine, which was a magazine located on 149th Street between 7th and 8th Avenue. Now it's called Adam Clayton Powell, and Frederick Douglass... And we lived right across the street in the Dunbar.” Her father was the first person in Harlem to have a weekly publication, later publishing The Black American Newspaper for over 30 years. Her father was a writer with stories appearing alongside James Baldwin and Zora Neale Hurston. Her mother had a non-profit called United Black Appeal, in which she helped women in Ethiopia sell their rugs and textiles in Harlem, sending all of the proceeds back to them and oversaw fundraising for African countries, especially Ethiopia. “And in addition to that, she helped Winnie Mandela, as Nelson Mandela was in prison. So she had a fundraiser for her, and she raised money, and Winnie Mandela wrote her a letter thanking her. And Winnie Mandela's niece was there to receive the money.” Her parents’ work can be seen in The Schomburg Cultural Center.
She and her family lived in a fifth floor walkup. “We… had to… take our shopping cart to the store and bump it up the steps as we went up to the fifth floor. We had a washing machine in our apartment, but we still… hung our clothes out to dry on the roof.” Harlem provided her with so many fond memories, “...It's the first place where I learned to jump Double Dutch. It's the first place where I went to see… the Black cowboys… [and] a Black beauty pageant and having, like, Miss Harlem. So for me, those were things that were really… ingrained in my memory. And… we went to this small church… I think they called it… The Church on the Hill. It was on 145th street and Convent Avenue. It was a yellow church. And going there on Saturdays, that's where we learned about the pride in Africa and Black Studies.”
“...It’s the first place where I learned to jump Double Dutch. It’s the first place where I went to see… the Black cowboys… [and] a Black beauty pageant and having, like, Miss Harlem. So for me, those were things that were really… ingrained in my memory.”
Dahyo remembers the first time she went to 8th Avenue, “Well, believe it or not… I wasn't supposed to go there… So… one time… instead of walking home on 7th Avenue, I walked up 8th Avenue… and took myself an extra five blocks and there I landed on 155th street and 8th Avenue. And that's when I was introduced to the Rucker Park… Seeing… these guys dribbling up and down on the courts and the fly girls with their bamboo earrings and their door knockers and… the cars and the drop tops and… I was just mind blown.” One of her favorite things to do was roller skating through the neighborhood and going to Willy’s Burger Stand, “...going there and not even realizing… right above it was… SNS lounge… It was a music studio, and that's where Teddy Riley was actually making beats and making music for Guy. So it's like, to just grow up and… know all of this stuff was just right there… and… knowing that… Harlem has produced a lot of good, talented people.”
After school, she would go to programs like dance and swimming or go to her parents' business to learn the trade, “I would go there after school... and actually... this was before computers, so I'm really telling my age, but… I'd be at the typewriter and… they had their mail order subscriptions... So I had to type up the labels with their name and address, then type up our name and address, put them in the envelopes, fold all the newspapers, stuff them in too.” She gained a variety of skills like learning how to do layout design and typesetting, “So I, hand by hand, helped to lay out a whole newspaper, and the newspaper had over, like, 30 pages in it. So that was… an incredible experience... And even my mom… being able to go to… Epcot Center when it first opened and having a press pass to be there to just cover that and just so many different events with Essence Magazine and different movies that came out to go to premieres and interview the different casts and actors and behind the scenes. So those experiences and that access was just something I'll always cherish.” Her childhood and experiences learning the family business influenced her as an adult, “I know that inspired me to make the game that I created, Hip Hop On The Rocks... I did a lot of the writing for it… So it made me think of my dad a lot because I put pen to paper to really write and just tap into that creative side and to work on it so hard. Like, I started this journey when my son was maybe about two years old, and now he's 17… I just really… stuck with it because it was just something for me that I was really passionate about… I wanted to have a game where… it included… our culture, but also had… a party feel to it.”
Harlem has left a huge impact on her, in terms of her strength and pride in her Blackness, seeing Black business owners and many cultures represented in the community. Although she has moved to Queens, Harlem is still home for her. She still goes to The Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem and makes sure to bring her children to Harlem to have the connection she was able to have when growing up, “When we do come to church, I bring my daughter over to 116th Street Market, and she'll get her cowrie shells and her beads. And it's just important that they know where they come from, that they have Trinidadian roots, but also Harlem roots as well.” Moving forward, she is excited for growth with her game, Hip Hop on the Rocks, and continuing the legacy of her parents.