A discussion of a Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting project on Jamaica, that includes essays, poetry, stories, and four short documentaries to be aired on WNET’s WorldFocus.

DATE: Tuesday, Sept. 22
TIME: 4-6 p.m.
PLACE: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, Room 308

Open to students, alumni, faculty and staff of the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism and invited guests. Space is limited, so please RSVP to rsvp@pulitzercenter.org.

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The event will be a presentation of two of the Pulitzer Center’s reporting projects that explored HIV AIDs in Jamaica. The projects are rich examples of the use of multimedia in reporting and push the boundaries of traditional definitions of news.They explore the underreported crisis unfolding in this country, focuing on the ways in which stigma, discrimination, homophobia, and sexuality impact the epidemic.

Hope: Living and Loving with HIV in Jamaica is a multimedia reporting project that includes an extended essay by Kwame Dawes for The Virginia Quarterly Review (Spring 2008), a feature in The Washington Post’s Outlook section, two short documentaries for the public-television program Foreign Exchange, a collection of poetry inspired by Kwame’s reporting, a performance of the poems set to music by composer Kevin Simmonds (recently performed at the National Black Theatre Festival), 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. The site has won numerous awards, most recently a People’s Choice Webby, and was nominated for an Emmy (to be announced the day before the CUNY event.)

Glass Closet is a collaboration with WNET’s WorldFocus program, and will include short documentaries that will likely begin airing the week of the 21st. The complementary web site will feature the video shorts and provide a space for the public to upload their own stories about stigma and HIV in their communities.