Kofi, a Jamaican reggae musician, and Keisha, a social researcher from South Carolina, meet at a club where Kofi's band is playing on the tail end of a United States tour. Kofi and Keisha come together that night, seeking relief from the uneasy circumstances of their life--Keisha still trying to make up her mind about an ex-lover who keeps coming back into her life, and Kofi realizing that he is teetering on depression and the tyranny of his older lover in Jamaica. Something happens in their first meeting and Kofi convinces Keisha to take a chance and follow him to Jamaica.She's Gone delves into the psychology of desire and need as it contends with issues of culture and class. If it is a love story, it is one marked by the harsh realities of human existence that we see if the most revealing of Bob Marley's love songs, or the cool sensual intelligence of the best of Milan Kundera. Dawes is a poet but he never lets his poetry detract from the sheer pleasure of storytelling.
Kwame is also a contributor to the blog at the Poetry Foundation’s blog, and he will be reading at the following venues:
Sat., March 24, 1pm
Barnes & Noble
1125 Woodruff Road
Greenville, SC
Sat., March 31, 7pm
Hue Man
2319 Frederick Douglass Blvd.
New York, NY
Fri., April 13, 6pm
Embassy of Jamaica
1520 New Hampshire Ave. NW
Washington, DC
Sat., April 14, 3pm
Politics & Prose
5015 Connecticut Ave. NW
Washington, DC
*with Amiri Baraka and Juan de Recacoechea
Fri., May 4, Time TBA
A Different Booklist
746 Bathhurst St.
Toronto, ONT
*with Colin Channer
Sat., May 5, 7-9pm
Library and Archives Canada
Salon A
395 Wellington St.
Ottawa, ONT
*with Colin Channer
Mon., June 18, 7pm
Eso Won
4331 Degnan Blvd.
Los Angles, CA
*with Colin Channer
Wed., June 20, 7pm
City Lights
261 Columbus Ave.
San Francisco, CA
*with Colin Channer
Kwame Dawes is an award-winning Ghanaian-born Jamaican author of several books of poetry, nonfiction, and fiction. He teaches at the University of South Carolina, where he is Distinguished Poet in Residence and director of the USC Arts Institute and the SC Poetry Initiative. Dawes is the programmer for the annual Jamaican Calabash International Literary Festival.
2 comments:
I'm going to make an effort to see him at one of these DC venues. Thanks for the info! Geoffrey, how is life?
Yeah, see if you can check him out. It will be worth the trip.
Life right now is a bit hectic--we're going through a Gen. Ed. review at the College, so lots of re-thinking, brainstorming and meetings.
Luckily, things will slow down in the summer.
Blessings,
Geoffrey
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