Live Hope Love
Emmy: News & Documentary / Webby: People’s Choice
A synthesis of video, photographs, poetry, and music, all inspired by a poet’s journey 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.
A Human Face on HIV/AIDS 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.
"Most of my friends are dying -- the thing is, they know it, and the others are busy nursing the dying: God's cruel edits."
Vivid video, extraordinary photographs, haunting music
Dawes made five trips home in the fall of 2007, interviewing dozens of people affected by the epidemic. Over the course of the fall, Bluecadet sent videographers, a photographer, and a visual artist, to gather material for what became livehopelove.com.
The Emmy and Webby-winning website, commissioned by the Pulitzer Center, memorialized Dawes’ journey and the people he met. The design framed his poetry with stunning photography, video interviews with the subjects of his poems, and music commissioned for the project.
"So many saints frighten me, and I grow silent, this disease has a name: hiv/aids."
Reverence & Respect
Josh Goldblum and I worked together to make Kim Quinn’s visual designs a reality. We created an interactive experience that framed the material with the same reverence that Kwame Dawes’ poems framed the people he wrote about.
Letting the content speak for itself
Josh Cogan’s photography amplified the sentiment of the poems without distracting the viewer from them.
The author’s voice
The site paired the poems with recordings of the author.
Hope
By stepping back and letting the material speak for itself, the design created room for the full range of feelings expressed in Dawes’ poems.
In their own words
The product team went back to Jamaica and recorded the voices of the people featured in Dawes’ poems.
