Victoria Rowell has had many memorable moments in her career as a dancer, actress, and writer. But before she was any of those things, her first artistic endeavor involved shovels, flowers and soil.
“We had a 60-acre farm, so gardening and the design of the garden was very important,” said Rowell of the home where she was raised as a foster child. Her passion for the arts, encouraged by that early experience, would prove a saving grace in her very nomadic life.
On Thursday, the part-time Atlanta resident will host the annual Fine Art + Fashion fundraiser to benefit the National Black Arts Festival’s education and family programs. The event, now in its fourth year, includes a VIP reception, a program and fashion show sponsored by Saks Fifth Avenue and an after party with celebrity guests.
Rowell feels it is particularly important to support the event.
“The importance of NBAF is that it preserves our art. It preserves our literary jewels. Art is not only art, but art is a way of life,” she said.
After her horticulturalist beginnings, Rowell took up ballet -- learning the basic positions from a book. When she showed promise, her foster mother pursued scholarship opportunities including one which led to a stint in the junior company of the American Ballet Theater. Rowell later pursued modeling and acting earning her most widely recognized role on the television soap opera, The Young and the Restless. She also had two children, a daughter from a previous marriage and a son with jazz musician Wynton Marsalis, and just last summer, Rowell was married to Atlanta-based artist Radcliffe Bailey.
If it seems her life has been charmed, Rowell makes clear that there was also struggle. Her journey through the foster care system is documented in her writing debut, a 2007 memoir and tribute to the women who raised her.
“Most people are meant to be raised by one mother, I had many. I never looked at it as a deficit, I looked at it as a positive. Each woman was a piece of the quilt for me and I was threading the pieces together,” she said.
Still, Rowell says she suffered upon emancipation from foster care at age 18 without health care, housing or much of anything. Compelled to help other foster children, two decades ago she launched The Rowell Foster Children's Positive Plan, a scholarship fund to help children in foster care study arts and benefit from cultural enrichment.
Recently, she even took her campaign to the red carpet. The homemade dress she wore to the Emmy's, an African print with President Obama's likeness, was bashed on blogs but Rowell was making a statement.
“I wanted to ride up the red carpet with a message that we do need medical care for all Americans,” she said.
Lately, it is through writing that she has continued to spread her message. In her forthcoming novel, "Secrets of a Soap Opera Diva," Rowell tackles yet another aspect of her diverse life as one of few African-American women in the world of daytime dramas. The protagonist is a black woman who takes the soap opera world by storm and quickly sees the disparities.
Rowell has also recorded a song, and will star in 30 webisodes to accompany the book's release. She is also talking to Bravo about the possibility of appearing on the "Real Housewives" franchise.
“I’ll just say there is a lot of interest,” Rowell said.
While there have been many inordinately difficult moments in her journey from young horticulturalist to potential television Housewife, Rowell remains philosophical about it all.
“This isn’t an easy life for any of us," she said. "I just feel like, if I didn’t live the life I lived, I couldn’t do the work that I do.”
Event Preview
NBAF presents, Fine Art + Fashion -- A benefit for the National Black Arts Festival. 6:30 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 25. $125-$500, AmericasMart, 2 West Wing, 2nd floor, 235 Williams Street. 404-372-4572, www.nbaf.org
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