Jamaica: Beenie Man Apologizes to the Gay Community
After years of singing and producing anti-gay music, Beenie Man publicly apologized to Jamaica's gay community in a video.
After years of singing and producing anti-gay music, Beenie Man publicly apologized to Jamaica's gay community in a video.
After being shot by anti-gay gunmen, a young lesbian from Jamaica was granted asylum in the Netherlands.
Simone, a refugee fleeing homophobia in her native Jamaica, attempts to heal from the wounds inflicted by violent oppression.
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.
AIDS-Free World is challenging the criminalization of homosexuality in Jamaica.
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 may be a land of abundance, but its reliance on cheap agricultural imports is driving local farmers out of business.
Nearly a fifth of working Jamaicans are employed in the country's agriculture sector, but farmers are struggling to make ends meet because cheap imported products are driving down local food costs.
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.
Imported food is cheap in Jamaica, benefiting consumers. But what is the costs for farmers who have lost their income?
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.
Three Jamaican gay men reveal their experiences living in secrecy, under the shadow of discrimination and threats of violence against the LGBT community.
"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."
"HOPE: Living & Loving With HIV in Jamaica" was featured on a list of "Must See: Videos Worth Watching" on The New York Times' Lens Blog for photography, video and visual journalism. Kassie Bracken described the site as follows:
Pulitzer Center journalists join funders, activists, and the community to discuss the impact of stigma on HIV prevention, the need for multi-sectoral action, and journalism's role.
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.
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.
Join us at a pre-performance private reception to honor the creators and cast of Wisteria & HOPE -- and to support the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, the innovative non-profit journalism organization dedicated to engaging the broadest possible public in critical global issues. Hear about upcoming projects on food insecurity, climate change and more!
Where: Rondthaler-Gramley House, Salem College
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 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.
PERFORMANCE DATES:
When: August 6 and 7, 8:00 p.m.
Where: Hanes Auditorium, Salem Fine Arts Center, Salem College, Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Sponsored by: Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, in partnership with the National Black Theatre Festival
PRIVATE RECEPTION:
featuring light supper, wine and beer
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.