07bookfest_rowell

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Sheryl Cannady:

Hello, I'm Sheryl Cannady from the Library of Congress. The National
Book Festival is in its seventh year, and it has attracted tens of
thousands of book lovers of all ages to the nation's capital to
celebrate reading and lifelong literacy. This free event is sponsored
and organized by the Library of Congress and hosted by first lady Laura
Bush. This year the festival will take place on Saturday, Sept. 29, on
the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Festivalgoers will meet and
interact with 70 best-selling authors, illustrators and poets. There
will be activities for the entire family. If you are unable to attend in
person, we invite you to experience the festival online. Our podcast
interview series with well-known authors, along with Webcasts from the
festival, will be available through the National Book Festival's Web
site at loc.gov/bookfest.

Many people know today's guest from her roles in film and on television
as the feisty Drucilla Winters on the daytime drama "The Young and the
Restless," and smart Amanda Bentley on "Diagnosis Murder." Her talents
also extend to dancing professionally with several ballet companies.
However, to truly know the person behind the public face, you will need
to read her critically-acclaimed memoir, "The Women Who Raised Me,"
which is on the "New York Times" and "Essence" bestsellers' lists.

Welcome Victoria Rowell, award-winning actress,

Victoria Rowell:

Thank you so much.

Sheryl Cannady:

and now author. It's a pleasure to have you with us today. Now your book
is \--

Victoria Rowell:

Well I thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited about the
National Book Fair \[Festival\].

Sheryl Cannady:

Well, we are, too. Why do you think it was important for you to
participate? I know your fans are thrilled.

Victoria Rowell:

Well, it's important for me to participate because the book, of course,
for me was always about more than writing a book and selling books. I
have not only a domestic message, but an international one in that
mentoring, fostering, adopting children \-- which are at pandemic levels
I might add \-- is very necessary, and clearly American people have
stepped out, not only my strong supporters in the acting arena, but have
stepped out to purchase the book and support the message. And so I'm
cresting at 100 days on the road since April 11, and I just want to
thank everyone who has come out with flowers, and especially the hugs,
in support of my memoir, "The Women Who Raised Me.\"

Sheryl Cannady:

Now your book is a tribute to the women who played starring roles in
your life. You described it as self-journey and conduit actually for
your emancipation. What inspired you to take this journey?

Victoria Rowell:

Well, I mean what inspired me was that it was a goal of mine. I won't
even call it a dream because I had intended to write the book. But it's
an homage to these extraordinary women who you would look up and say,
"Well these are ordinary women." They were farmers. They were teachers.
They were social workers. They were respite caregivers, which is weekend
caregivers in the foster care system. They were mothers, wives, some
having ten children of their own. I wanted to write the book, and I
wanted it to be published while many of them were still alive so that we
could celebrate together. And also show that mentoring happens where you
sit or stand. You don't need a tremendous amount of money. You don't
need a lot of money at all. You just have to have willingness and really
the real estate in your heart for another person. And so I wanted people
to know that these people do exist, it's not always the dismal, it's not
always about the dismal headlines we read about, about foster care. I
wanted to show the positive side of what happens. And my story is not
unique. There are many, there are thousands upon thousands of people
that have also benefited from this kind of mentoring.

Sheryl Cannady:

How did you become a ward of the state of Maine?

Victoria Rowell:

I became a ward of the state of Maine by virtue of my mother's illness.
She suffered from schizophrenia. And she never thought that she would be
separated from her children because of her illness. She had not been
diagnosed at that time. But she was about to give birth to me. I would
have been \-- I was her fourth child at that time. And she \-- I'm
sorry, I was her fifth child. I apologize, I was her fifth child at that
time, which goes to show how long she was suffering as a mother. But it
was made apparent that I would be immediately placed into care, which I
was, at the hospital.

Sheryl Cannady:

Now, I gather that your foster mother wanted to adopt you but she
couldn't because you were of another race?

Victoria Rowell:

Yes, state law in the state of Maine dictated that children who were of
a brown race could not be raised/adopted/fostered or otherwise by a
white family. And I, from the beginning, was met with very intrepid, you
know, indomitable women who broke the law, essentially. There were three
women who banded together in Gray, Maine, European women. And they took
care of me for two and half years. Government later swooped in, the
Department of Human Services swooped in, and moved me from that
household when they found a black family. All of it, of course, was
unfair and very painful. I remained in touch with those families
directly and indirectly. Some of the women had passed on.

One of the women in particular had passed on, my first mother, Bertha
Taylor. But the other two women, remarkably, were still alive and we
were reunited over 30 years later.

It brought closure for all of us because they all tried; one failed in
adoption, the other picked up. They thought they could perhaps convince
the system. They appealed to the governor at that time. The year that I
was born there were four governors. \[audio skip\] I think unprecedented
that there were four different governors in one year. And they appealed
to the governor, and they, they really kicked up some dust in Augusta,
but to no avail. But it was, I think, the beginnings of, you know, the
fight that still remains in me for equality.

Sheryl Cannady:

How did you deal with racism and prejudice growing up, especially when
it came from your own family?

Victoria Rowell:

I dealt with racism and injustice, especially having to deal with it in
my own family, for that very reason, because I think when a child is, I
mean, everyone is born with openness and hope. And when you're shown in
very short order that you are not included, there is a very obvious
exclusionary behavior, I think one of two things can happen: a child can
feel defeated, or a child can rise up against it, given the mentoring
framing \-- and I was given tremendous mentoring and I was given a sense
of self by my primary foster mother Agatha Armstead, and so she gave,
she told me and taught me my importance and significance. And you know,
that was, I think, my mindfulness because she said regardless if you're
not included in a circumstance, you just certainly go around it. Create
your own. And so I learned that from her, to create my own world, which
I did.

Sheryl Cannady:

How did the women who raised you prepare you for your own children, for
motherhood?

Victoria Rowell:

The women who raised me prepared me to raise my own children by virtue
of their example. And they were all mothers themselves, as I mentioned,
and they all had a sense of humor, they were all wise. They were all
businesswomen in their own right, whether they were canning vegetables,
or whether they were teaching ballet classes, or staying at home, head
of household. They all had their own ingredients, if you will, that they
imparted to me. And foster children typically are not left in the will.
My inheritance, most assuredly, is all of the gifts that these women
imparted to me by way of the lessons.

I took all of that and of course I imparted that to my children the best
way that I have known how to. And I have a very strong relationship with
my two children. My daughter is 18, and my son is 11. They understand
that I grew up in foster care, but they, I told them they don't ever
have to understand my life, because my life is not their life. We are
all individuals. They understand the importance of the work that I do in
foster care, and that's all that I can ask of them, and to be
considerate of those who have less. And I think by virtue of what I
demonstrated in my involvement in foster care and adoption, they are
young humanitarians, no question about it, today.

Sheryl Cannady:

Did they talk to you about your book? Did they tell you \--

Victoria Rowell:

Well, my son's 11, so we're, you know, he saw me working away on the
book. I dedicated two rooms in our house to the book: our breakfast room
which was completely filled with all of my research material, of course
my computer was set up there, it was where I took meetings; and my
office. My daughter, well she knows a lot of the history, it made her,
you know, it made her cry because it's one thing to tell my children the
stories, it's another thing to read the fine detail in your own time.
And she's very, they are both very proud of me, and they told me that
they're proud of me. And it's given them, especially my daughter,
another level of awareness in reading this book as an 18-year-old young
lady, because at 17, I was living in New York on my own. And no matter
how many times she's heard that, it has a whole other relevance to her,
reading this story, because it's framed with so much else.

Sheryl Cannady:

Well it's certainly a wonderful legacy to give your children.

Victoria Rowell:

Thank you.

Sheryl Cannady:

What enabled you to finally embrace your mother, Dorothy?

Victoria Rowell:

I'm sorry, what enabled me \--

Sheryl Cannady:

To finally embrace \-- what enabled you to finally embrace your mother,
Dorothy?

Victoria Rowell:

Oh, oh I always embraced Dorothy, my natural mother. I held no
resentment against her whatsoever. And that is due to the miracle of the
mentoring that I got from my foster mother Agatha Armstead. Agatha
Armstead, long before the Administration of Children and Family
Services, or the Department of Human Services, came to the phrase
"wrap-around services," was doing so. And so, without any permission
whatsoever, she invited, after many conversations and a lot of planning,
she allowed for Dorothy Mabel Collins Rowell to visit us and stay with
us in our house in Maine for short periods of time, and also organized
other visitations, and also definitely encouraged correspondence. And
that's how I began to write. She encouraged us to write our mother
because she believed no matter what \-- I don't care if a mother is in
prison or a mother is ill, or a mother is trying to recover from any
kind of an addiction \-- a mother wants to know where her children are.
And she explained that to me at six.

Sheryl Cannady:

Hmmm.

Victoria Rowell:

And I learned very early, because she had the courage to know that her
own mothering was secure enough that she would have no \-- I'm trying to
think of the word \-- she would have no concerns about me becoming
perhaps adverse to her mothering me, even at the age of six. Many people
have, they feel a bit intimidated in opening up that door to finding the
natural parent or introducing the child to the natural parent, but not
Agatha. She felt it was essential to my growth to know my natural mother
and to understand, to witness, to see her, to understand, this is why
you are in my care. And when I laid eyes on Dorothy, I understood
instantly that I was in the right place, and that Dorothy had done the
right thing, because Dorothy, I won't give away the book, but Dorothy
always wanted me to be with Agatha.

Sheryl Cannady:

Of all the women you talk about in your book, who had the most dramatic
influence in your development? Was it Agatha Armstead?

Victoria Rowell:

Agatha Armstead was the most dramatic in my development. It was
certainly because of the long-term mentoring that she gave me, and the
love, and just the continuous years of care that she provided. The
length that she went to \-- because she was born in 1903, she was a
senior citizen when she was taking care of me. She did go back to work
for the social security office in Massachusetts, in Roxbury, Mass., at
Dudley Station, so that she could bring in extra income to keep me and
to provide the things for my sisters and I that we needed as growing
teens. She was just the most selfless, committed person that I have ever
met. I have met other people who have been also very, very influential
in my life, have been very caring in my life, and people that I turn to,
to this day. But Agatha Wooten Armstead was by far the most influential.

Sheryl Cannady:

You describe LaTanya Richardson Jackson -- a fellow actor, and wife of
actor Samuel L. Jackson \-- as not only a close friend, but an
enlightened mentor, earth mother, and soul sister. I understand from
reading your book that she was there at a critical time in your life.
Can you tell me about that?

Victoria Rowell:

Yes. LaTanya Richardson Jackson is an extraordinary actress from public
theater in New York City with Joe Papp to Broadway. And we share that
most definitely, and we also share the love of our children and love for
each other in that wonderful sisterhood that comes about as adult women.
She is someone that I can lean into, who I refer to as "not stick
furniture." And when I allowed myself to, as I describe, to become
still, it was a time of tremendous reflection. I had not allowed myself
to feel my life, this life that I had lived. I'd always been working and
running, and perhaps running away from my reality, not really assessing
what all had happened. And I think that that has its place as well
because children like myself that do have a focus, as was my anchor in
classical ballet, that is a survival element in our existence, certainly
was for me. When I allowed myself to become still, I became terribly
depressed. And it was LaTanya that, it was her voice that I heard. She's
very sure-footed, she doesn't mince words, she gets to the point, and
she not only offers comfort, but she also insists on doing the work, the
physical labor. And it was her voice, and it was her strength that I
leaned into during this very difficult period.

Sheryl Cannady:

Before people read your book, they probably look at you and say, "She
has it all. She's been blessed." But you've also had struggles. How have
you dealt with the good and the

bad?

Victoria Rowell:

Well the good and the bad are necessary. The good and the bad, it's part
of life. And you can't have all good. It's not realistic. When the bad
comes, that's when you have to walk the pathless path and walk through
the gateless gate, as I define it. And you do, you do walk in faith. And
so it is the faith that I hold that sustains me and sustained me in the
past. That is not to say that we don't fall upon times where faith is
thin and hope is anorexic. But, I have had it, and I still do. And it is
my faith, and faith comes in all, an assortment of colors and shapes and
beliefs. And I'm not going to go into that, but it is simply that thing
inside of us. And sometimes it's just a flicker of light. You just have
to keep the flicker of light burning, and it has been the tiniest of
flames that has kept me afloat. And I reached out to friends. I had to
learn to trust, and coming out of foster care that's very hard to do
because we trust very little. And it does affect our adult
relationships, but I've had to work through that. None of us can survive
living in a silo. None of us, no matter how strong we believe we are or
people say we are. We have to know that, as I say, none of us does it
alone or can do it alone living in a silo.

Sheryl Cannady:

You have expressed yourself through your acting, dancing \-- how is
writing different?

Victoria Rowell:

Oh, I love that question. Well dancing is my first passion. It's
something that's been in me innately since I can remember, since the age
of six, which I described, how I bore holes my sneakers trying to stand
on toe living on that farm in Maine. It is still the greatest expression
of my artistic self. I have had these other incarnations that have been
so incredibly cathartic for me \-- teaching classical ballet to inner
city students, and then of course, acting has been an enormous gift, and
now writing in a published sense. As I said, I have been writing for a
long time.

Writing is, you just go on this journey and it's circuitous, it's never
linear, and you're just writing, and now I'm writing fiction, and it
gives me an outlet to express another voice within this gift that God
has given me, which is art. And I don't believe it's an accident that I
have been given this abundance of artistic expression, because I believe
Mother Earth, God, the universe, knows that I am a conduit for a bigger
message, not only my own, but the importance of literacy, the importance
of artistic expression for children who come to this country \-- let's
say, for example, in truth, to Portland, Maine, from Senegal, from
Darfur \-- who go to Maine, cannot even speak English, but look to art
in public schools so they can express their sorrow.

And it was that very truth for me in classical ballet, to be able to
show up to a ballet class underwritten by the Ford Foundation or the
National Endowment for the Arts, but to be able to go every day, have my
carfare underwritten. There was no way I could go without the carfare
even underwritten, and know that I could hold onto a ballet bar for dear
life, and know that that was my temporary haven. And so the writing is
just an extension for me to say one more time, that yes, no matter what
walk of life you come from, honor what gifts you have. We all are
ordained when we are born. You have to hold onto it.

Sheryl Cannady:

Well that's certainly very inspirational. Now what advice do you, would
you give inspiring writers interested in composing their own memoirs?

Victoria Rowell:

Well beginner writers first of all, I would say, reconcile any part of
\-- especially with a memoir, we're talking about nonfiction \--
reconcile any discrepancies or any unsettled internal battles you may
have so that you can write liberally, because honesty is tantamount to
telling the best story that you possibly can. That's number one. Number
two; write even, most definitely, without a publishing deal. I certainly
did. It took me a very long time to bring this book full circle, and I
registered a story about the women who raised me in the early 1990s with
the Writer's Guild of America. And you just file away your story and
hold onto hope, share your stories with people that you know have a love
for the literary so that you might get some criticism along the way. And
all along ask questions: "Who do you recommend as a literary agent?" "Is
there someone that might be able to plug me into the publishing world?"

And then of course, if you're going to self-publish, you really must do
the research and do it well, because it's one thing to self-publish,
it's another thing to distribute. Understand that self-publishing and
self-distribution must be a marriage, because who wants to self-publish
5,000 books that never go anywhere? Anyone who is serious about writing
a book \-- and yes, I'm an actress, and yes, people might have had a
misconception, "Oh, this is a celebrity that's writing a book, and you
know, she'll do her three weeks with television press and be gone,"
which of course, we all know is not the case with me. I'm passionate
about whatever I do. I put a lifetime of study behind classical ballet,
I've treated nothing, nothing else that I've been interested in any
different. And so with my writing, which I've been doing since I was
nine years old, I have put the same level of passion behind it. Some
people have been surprised. "My God, you're a television and film
actress; we weren't expecting this." But I became an actress in my late
20s. It's not all that I have done, and it certainly does not define who
I am.

And so I say all that to say, when you write a book, you have to plan
out for the integrity of your intellectual property, to go on the road
with your intellectual property. You are married. Once you put pen to
paper, you are married not only to telling the story, but then promoting
the story. And I got behind my book tour, which has now taken me out to
2008, and that is, I know, unprecedented. But as I say, it's very
important for the author to show up physically with their intellectual
property, and I can't implore of future writers \-- and writers who have
books already, don't throw your hands up and say, "Oh, you know, I don't
know why my book didn't do well."

Well, you have to ask yourself, "Why are you sitting in Martha's
Vineyard at a barbecue, when maybe you should be on the road?" You have
to ask yourself, "Why are you sitting home instead of being on a \--?"
You have to reconcile with that fact, that if you are not there to do
the press behind your book, and I'm not talking about flashy, "CBS This
Morning*,* "The View," "Oprah" press, I'm talking about getting into
public libraries, going into schools. Think outside the box, get people
to underwrite a hundred books at a time before you go on a speaking
engagement. Go into prisons, do things that are civic-minded that grow
the spectrum of literacy and move the book at the same time.

Sheryl Cannady:

Well I'm sure your fans are really glad that you feel the way that you
feel, that you're out there promoting your intellectual property.

Your Web site says, "Courage, hope, inspiration, strength." Are those
the words that best describe you?

Victoria Rowell:

I would have to absolutely say yes. You have to be courageous in life.
And courage doesn't mean, you know, fighting. Courage means standing for
what you believe in when no one else is flanking you with that same
spirit. Courage means walking alone if necessary. There's no room, you
know, for fear. One has to believe in what one believes in. And I \--
you know, I'm going to paraphrase, because I don't believe that \--
there's a quote out of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's book, "Living
History," and she says fear is always with us, but we just don't have
time for it, not now. And I love that quote because it's true. I mean,
Marian Wright Edelman with the Children's Defense Fund, Dr. Dorothy
Height, you \-- just so many intrepid women who have fought the good
fight, and I'm certain, in the beginning, alone. So yeah, I'd have to
say my Web site defines who I am, what I stand for. And I want to
encourage our listeners and our readers to log on to
www.victoriarowell.com to see where I'm going next on the book tour,
"The Women Who Raised Me" book tour. I have had it up since April 11,
I've received around three million hits already, and I really appreciate
the outpouring of support around the issue that is defined in my book,
and the courage. My story is an American story, my story is about what
we can do if the willingness is there.

Sheryl Cannady:

Well Victoria, thank you so much for being with us. We look forward to
hearing more from you in the Home and Family Pavilion at the National
Book Festival on Saturday, Sept. 29, on the National Mall from 10:00
a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. For more
details and a list of participating authors, visit loc.gov/bookfest.
Thank you for listening.

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