HIV in Jamaica: Kwame Dawes reading and multimedia presentation, Busboys and Poets, 9/22/08

Monday, September 22, 2008
Washington, D.C.

When: Monday, September 22, 2008, 6 PM to 8 PM

Where:
Busboys and Poets
2021 14th Street NW
Washington , DC 20009
202-387-7638

Description:

Poet Kwame Dawes and the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting introduce HOPE: Living and Loving with HIV in Jamaica, a multimedia exploration of the epidemic's human face.

The interactive website www.livehopelove.com combines Dawes's poetry with original music, essays, documentaries and personal video recollections from those living with the disease and those who care for them. The work has been featured in Virginia Quarterly Review, The Washington Post and public television's Foreign Exchange; it is also the subject of an hour-long radio documentary scheduled for release this December.

At Busboys & Poets Dawes will read poetry inspired by conversations with dozens of Jamaicans affected by HIV/AIDS. He will also discuss the genesis of this remarkable project with Jon Sawyer and Nathalie Applewhite of the Pulitzer Center.

Dawes is author of over a dozen collections of verse, including the critically-acclaimed "Wisteria: Poems From the Swamp Country." He is the Distinguished Poet in Residence, Louis Frye Scudder Professor of Liberal Art, founder and executive director of the South Carolina Poetry Initiative, and programming director of Jamaica's annual Calabash International Literary Festival.

HOPE received Honorable Mention in the 2008 Knight-Batten Awards for Innovations in Journalism. It is part of a Pulitzer Center series on HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean also selected as a Knight-Batten Notable Entry and supported in part by the MAC AIDS Fund. Event sponsored by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, a non-profit focusing on increasing and improving coverage of under-reported international issues. Free and open to all.