TV Star Victoria Rowell to Speak at UA About Her Memoir of a Childhood in Foster Care

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Victoria Rowell, best-selling author, former star of the daytime drama “The Young and the Restless” and advocate for foster children, will speak at 7 p.m. Monday, March 30, at Sellers Auditorium in the Paul Bryant Conference Center on The University of Alabama campus.

The event is free. Tickets are required and may be obtained by visiting http://www.as.ua.edu/rowelltickets or by phoning 205/348-7007.

Rowell will speak about her memoir, “The Women Who Raised Me,” which is published by William Morrow/An Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. The memoir received The African American Literary Award and two NAACP Image Award nominations in the literary category, and she walked away with a statuette for Outstanding Literary Work/Debut Author.

She also will present an 18-minute film. The memoir is a tribute to the women who cared for Rowell when her birth mother could not as well as the foster-care system that brought them into her life.

“I was never meant to be raised by one mother, but by many,” Rowell says.

Born in Portland, Maine, Rowell was raised in foster care for 18 years. She trained as a dancer and went on to become a top model as well as a film and television actress. For several years, she played Drucilla Winters on the top-rated CBS drama “The Young and the Restless” and also appeared on “The Cosby Show” and “Diagnosis Murder.”

Her Web site can be found at http://www.victoriarowell.com/. In 1990, she founded the Rowell Foster Children’s Positive Plan, which enriches the lives of foster children through artistic and athletic expression.

Her appearance is part of the Paul R. Jones Artist Lectures. The series is connected with the October 2008 gift of 1,700 pieces of art to UA by Jones, an Atlanta collector. The collection, which was valued at $4.8 million, includes one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of 20th century African-American art in the world. UA’s art and art history department in the College of Arts and Sciences received the gift.

The lectures are sponsored by the department of art and art history and the Office of the Dean with additional support from the Amelia Gayle Gorgas Library, African American studies and the Black Faculty and Staff Association.

UA’s College of Arts and Sciences is the University’s largest division and the largest liberal arts college in the state. Students from the College have won numerous national awards including Rhodes Scholarships, Goldwater Scholarships and memberships on the USA Today All-USA College Academic Team.