Country

Jamaica

Jamaica's Soldier Girls

After being shot by anti-gay gunmen, a young lesbian from Jamaica was granted asylum in the Netherlands.

A Safe Haven in Holland

A former military base in the Netherlands is now home to refugees from all over the world, including Simone, who is fleeing homophobic oppression in Jamaica.

Jamaica: Baby Steps Towards Tolerance

Jamaican LGBT rights groups strive for acceptance and equality in the face of societal oppression and increasing hostility. More than 60 cases of anti-gay violence were reported in 2011.

Jamaica: Fresh Milk Down the Drain

Like many other Jamaican dairy farmers, Oral Rayson is dumping thousands of gallons of milk down the drain because imported powdered milk has become a cheaper alternative for locals.

A Sweet Flavor: Goat Farming in Jamaica

Goat farmers in Jamaica must compete against cheaper imported meat from the U.S., but Ray Woodrow Blake knows his goats are one of a kind. He prides himself on their supremely sweet flavor.

LiveHopeLove.com featured in SubmarineChannel's top 10 web documentaries

"Hope: Living and Loving with HIV in Jamaica" is featured in a list of the top 10 web documentaries according to SubmarineChannel, a visual culture platform in Amsterdam. SubmarineChannel calls "Hope" a "beautifully-designed reporting project by poet and writer Kwame Dawes sharing testimonies from Jamaican HIV victims, with cross-media contributions pulled together in a dramatically filmic visual style."

LiveHopeLove.com Wins an Emmy!

Pulitzer Center's multimedia website on the human face of HIV/AIDS in Jamaica has won an Emmy for new approaches to news and documentary programming, in the arts, lifestyle and culture category, announced Sept 21, at the 30th annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards at the Lincoln Center's Rose Theater in New York City.

Yes Weekly: Dawes and Simmonds’ genius elevates Hope Wisteria to unimaginable heights

Near the finale of Wisteria, a multimedia performance based on Kwame Dawes' poems about the memories and experiences of African-American women growing up in the segregated South, Dawes stepped away from the microphone inside Hanes Auditorium on the campus of Salem College. He then gazed upon the five singers, musical collaborator Kevin Simmonds and the seven-member ensemble that helped bring his poems to life with a look that could best be described as a mixture of reverence and pride.

"A feast for the eyes and ears," Wisteria & HOPE in the News and Observer

WINSTON-SALEM -- Poetry, music and photography combine to explore HIV/AIDS in Jamaica and the experiences of Southern black women in "Wisteria & HOPE," a dual production tonight at the National Black Theatre Festival.

The evening opens with "Wisteria," based on a series of poems that Kwame Dawes, the University of South Carolina distinguished poet, wrote in 1995 to document the lives of African-American women.

HOPE: Excerpts from the National Black Theatre Festival

HOPE is a multimedia performance based on poems by Kwame Dawes, poet in residence at the University of South Carolina and set to music by composer Kevin Simmonds. The work grew out of a Pulitzer Center commission to report on the impact of HIV/AIDS on Jamaica, the country where Kwame Dawes grew up. While in Jamaica Dawes wrote poems in response to the stories he heard.

Wisteria & HOPE on the cover of Winston-Salem Journal's Relish section

Published: July 30, 2009

Images, music and the words of poet Kwame Dawes will be featured in two multimedia productions being shown together as part of this year's National Black Theatre Festival.

Wisteria is about a group of women who grew up in the American South in the years before the civil rights movement. HOPE: Living & Loving With HIV in Jamaica follows people coping with HIV/AIDS in modern day.