Making Heard The Buried Cry: Yusef Komunyakaa and Friends visit Ghana Project Launch!

Professor Yusef Komunyakaa, Pulitzer Prize for Poetry 1994, joined the Board of Directors of the Ghana Education Project in 2000. Since that time, we have engaged in an ongoing dialogue about the potential for Professor Komunyaaka to motivate a number of colleagues to make an artistic exploration of Ghana, with a specific focus being the AIDS crisis in Africa. The resulting project was a collaborative effort between the GEP and the esteemed literary periodical, Rattapallax Magazine. Yusef visited Ghana in 2004, along with his fellow literary pundits Thomas Glave and Willie Perdomo.

The mission was designed to be as inclusive as possible, attempting to connect people whose minds and talents are open to generating creative and social responses to AIDS in Africa. Professor Komunyakaa sought to motivate those whose artistic credibility may be immediately appreciated by the American public. His and other noteworthy figures' participation will generate public interest in the mission and its products. However, young artists, photographers, and thinkers were also invited to participate, thus fostering an open, multi-generational, multi-ethnic effort. All told, the project has motivated American awareness of the AIDS crisis in Africa.