Project

Hope: Living and Loving with HIV in Jamaica

Poet and writer Kwame Dawes travels to Jamaica to explore the experience of people living with HIV/AIDS and to examine the ways in which the disease has shaped their lives. The journey brings him in touch with people who tell their stories, share their lives and teach him about resilience, hope and possibility in the face of despair. Some are living with the disease; others have committed their lives to HIV/AIDS care.

Hope: Living and Loving with HIV in Jamaica is a multi-media reporting project: an extended essay by Kwame Dawes for The Virginia Quarterly Review (Spring 2008), two short documentaries for the public-television program Foreign Exchange, a collection of poetry inspired by his reporting, a performance of the poems set to music by composer Kevin Simmonds, and LiveHopeLove.com, an interactive web presentation that synthesizes audio and text versions of the poems, the Foreign Exchange videos, additional video interviews, the music, and photography by Joshua Cogan.

Launch the Emmy and Webby award-winning interactive site LiveHopeLove.com

The Pulitzer Center's reporting on HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean was made possible with support from the MAC AIDS Fund.

August 05, 2009 | The Root

HIV/AIDS in Jamaica: A Poet Responds

Kwame Dawes

In an interview on The Root, poet Kwame Dawes discusses his role and shares his experience in creating the multimedia project "Hope: Living and Loving with HIV in Jamaica," commissioned by the Pulitzer Center to document the human face of HIV in Jamaica, the country of Kwame's youth.

Learn more about the Emmy-winning LiveHopeLove.com

August 05, 2009 | YES! Weekly

Wisteria & HOPE featured in YES! Weekly

Article by Keith T. Barber for Yes! Weekly

Although it's called the Black Theatre Festival, this biennial gathering of African-American artists draws creative people from all over the nation working in a variety of mediums. Kwame Dawes, the poet in residence at the University of South Carolina, will present his multimedia productions titled Wisteria and Hope during the festival. [For complete performance listings, see page 20.] Wisteria and Hope are two separate pieces performed back to back.

May 20, 2010 | General news

Conversations with alumnus Kwame Dawes

Annie Paul, The Pelican

Just back from writing poems in India, internationally acclaimed poet and UWI alumnus Kwame Dawes sat down with Annie Paul for an engaging discussion about his life, his alma mater's role in shaping him as an artist and the Emmy Award-winning LiveHopeLove project.

April 23, 2010 | Project news

HOPE featured on Nieman Storyboard

Jacqueline Marino

Nieman Storyboard

Writing is part of the digital story: examples of powerful multimedia presentations that incorporate (not just link to) good nonfiction writing.

April 22, 2010 | News Points

Writer Kwame Dawes Discusses the Intersection of Poetry and Journalism

Ghanaian-Jamaican writer and poet Kwame Dawes is the author of over a dozen collections of verse, including the critically-acclaimed "Wisteria: Poems From the Swamp Country." He has worked on the Emmy Award-winning Pulitzer Center reporting project Hope: Living and Loving with HIV in Jamaica and is currently working on Resilience in a Ravaged Nation: Haiti, After the Earthquake.

In this interview, Dawes discusses his work in Jamaica and Haiti and his use of poetry in journalism projects.

February 24, 2010 | Awards

"Live Hope Love" Wins Gracie Award for Outstanding Radio Documentary

Produced by Stephanie Guyer-Stevens and Jack Chance of Outer Voices, and Nathalie Applewhite of the Pulitzer Center, the radio documentary, "LiveHopeLove: HIV/AIDS in Jamaica" is part of Hope: Living and Loving with HIV in Jamaica, the Pulitzer Center's award-winning multimedia reporting project that chronicles poet and writer Kwame Dawes' travels to Jamaica, where he explores the experiences of people living with HIV/AIDS and examines the ways in which the disease shapes their lives.