From Kwame Dawes—

Dear Friends,
This project, presented here in this interactive website, is what I have been doing for the past six months and what I expect to continue to do for the next little while. The performance of these poems and the music composed by Kevin Simmonds, will be on tour in the fall. The crew for this piece is the same that had such success with Wisteria. A long essay with stunning photographs appears in this month’s issue of The Virginia Quarterly Review and two short documentaries are appearing around the country on the program Foreign Exchange. I trust that you will be moved by this work.

Props to Kwame, Kevin, and all involved for going to Jamaica and documenting this history with their own art.

The multimedia site is spectacular. Everything moves effortlessly allowing the poem text, poet’s voice, music and images to come together in the finest tradition of orature. Equally impressive is the site’s ability to let the user personalize which combination of elements will allow them to best experience the narrative.

Multimedia Site— www.livehopelove.com
YouTube— InFocus: Talking HIV in Jamaica
Essay— Learning to Speak: The New Age of HIV/AIDS in the Other Jamaica

Intuitive Intertextuality - The online poetics journal of Oscar Bermeo