RI’s Woman of the Year
Friday, January 11, 2019
Rose Weaver is an accomplished actress, singer, and producer. She graced the stage at Trinity Rep for many years, cementing her status in Rhode Island theater, and made her mark in film and TV, living and working in Los Angeles for a period of time as well.
It is not just her life’s journey and experiences that she has shared through performance that has made her outstanding in her field, but her continued generosity in giving back to the community, that has made her a true legend, and GoLocal’s 2018 Woman of the Year.
Weaver was everywhere in 2018.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTShe received the Wheeler School’s Community Spirit Award in January.
She was part of the celebration the life and legacy of the Rosa Parks House when it was presented in Providence in April.
After graduating from Wheaton College in 1973, she was presented with an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from her alma mater in May.
She feted Bastille Day at Pot au Feu in June with her La Vie en Rose Band.
However, it was Weaver’s continued role in supporting the community in Rhode Island that proved invaluable to those who were fortunate enough to be present to learn from her life and lessons learned.
Weaver was one of seven leading women who presented “Note to Self” at Moses Brown in the fall; sharing advice from their “childhood selves.”
In December, she joined GoLocal LIVE to discuss her latest performance at the SouthSide Cultural Center in Providence — “Sally: A Black Woman’s Journey from Africa to Enslavement in Rhode Island” and “Black Women Taking Off Masks.”
As GoLocal reported:
“I’ve always tried to write about things that are important to me and hopefully important to the community,” said Weaver. “I’ve done ‘Menopause Mama’ — everybody knows that — I’ve done ‘Skips the Record’ about Alzheimer’s Disease — and this is about slavery and living in Rhode Island.”
“Sally [was] a slave ship that the Brown University brothers sent to West Africa to pick up slaves, one of the most disastrous slave journeys in the history of slavery,” said Weaver. “I based it on materials that are in the John Carter Brown Library. There’s this wonderful book called ‘Black Mechanics’ — this is [at] the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice at Brown University, so they’ve really done a lot to educate us and that’s what it’s all about, education through arts, from my perspective.”
“And so Heritage Harbor Commission was kind enough to award me a grant to be able to put this together, I’ve got a group of ten actresses,” said Weaver.
Weaver spoke to the second reading, “Women Taking of Their Masks.”
“My feeling is that black women have often bitten their tongues when they want to say one thing, they said another. We’ve often been called the ‘angry black woman’ - even Michelle Obama was called an angry black woman, even though she was just speaking her mind and being assertive.”
“You have to ask the question why? So underneath, is it maybe we haven’t been loved enough? Maybe we haven’t been cared for enough? Maybe there’s stuff like that, that's the cause — so I’m exploring that with my actresses,” said Weaver.
Latest Accolades — and More to Come
Weaver was selected in 2018 to be honored as part of Rhode Island’s Heritage Hall of Fame — but she is far from done.
Expect to see Weaver take part in a number of community initiatives in 2019, which GoLocal will continue to feature for Rhode Islanders — and more — to know more about, as Weaver’s contributions to the arts and history are nearly unparalleled.
And as such, she is our 2018 Woman of the Year.
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