Frequently Asked Questions

The Dear Rosa Project is an oral history project dedicated to amplifying the voices of women. We conduct 1-on-1 90-minute interviews using the letters of our dear and very missed Rosa as a guide for the questions we ask. During the interview, we invite each woman to tell her own story by reflecting on Rosa’s letters.

You, girl! We use an expansive, inclusive definition of the word “woman.” If you identify with that word in any way, you are welcome to participate in this project.

The 90-minute interview can be the only phase you participate in with The Dear Rosa Project, and that’s ok!

But, once you complete your interview, you’ll be invited to become a part of our community, which includes:

• A Monthly Support Group: we invite experts in the field to come to a virtual support group on the third Sunday of the month at 5pm. We learn skills and share experiences of self-love, grief and bereavement, creativity, aging, womanhood, love and relationships, and community. The participants of this group are all women who have completed their Dear Rosa interview.

• The Rosa Logues: Once per year, we offer a 6-week workshop where you can learn from theater professionals how to build your own monologue! We think of a monologue as an autobiographical story that you share out loud. You can use material from your interview or any experience in your life. The group is creative, safe, silly, and teaches you all kinds of theatrical skills to tell your story with confidence.

• The Rosa Logues Festival: Our 6-week Rosa Logues Workshop culminates in The Rosa Logues Festival! We invite community, friends, family, loved ones, and elders to come and hear the monologues created during the workshop. Participation is completely optional.

• Rose Gold: is our forthcoming jewelry line. We work with local artist Kristina Bivona who leads jewelry making workshop using organic roses. In the workshop, you create one necklace for yourself and donate one to the project. We either donate the necklaces back to our participants who can’t attend a workshop, or sell them on our online page. All proceeds go directly back to the community.

• My Voice, Our Stories: If you’re a woman living in NJ, you’ll be invited to join an MVOS cycle. MVOS works with cohorts of women who have completed their Dear Rosa interviews and holds creative workshops that teach you how to transform your interview transcript into photography, collage, and poetry.

• Local Artist Collaborations: The Dear Rosa Project works with local artists to hold creative workshops on how to transform your interview and story into new kinds of art. No previous experience is ever required, all are welcome.

• But There Will Be Joy: is the docu-play we are making out of the interview transcripts of our community. Set to premier in 2025, But There Will Be Joy has 7 central characters, but is made up of the stories of hundreds of women from our community. You can elect to have stories from your transcript included, there’s still time!

You’ll meet one-on-one with either Dr. Harte or Angela Vivar who are our two interviewers. Angela is Spanish-speaking, so if you prefer to have your interview in Spanish or bilingually, we’ll schedule you with her.

We meet for a maximum of 90-minutes at one time usually over Zoom, but we often meet in-person at community partner locations who donate their space to us.

Either way, the interview will be recorded. You have the right to tell us how to use your interview, which includes keeping it private. We give each person a waiver after their interview where you can indicate your preferences. More on that below.

We advise a few things to prepare for your interview:

1. Keep in mind that there are no right or wrong answers. We read 24 passages from Rosa’s letters and ask you to introduce yourself. We encourage everyone to speak from their heart. Whatever comes up, comes up. And don’t be worried about following a memory or story that a question inspires, we love when that happens!

2. There is nothing in this interview that you are required to say, and nothing that you can’t say. We’re not “looking,” for anything, just to learn about who you are. That being said, women often find it powerful to share experiences that they’re proud of, that they’ve survived, and that they are still overcoming. Rosa lived at the intersection of HIV/AIDS and domestic violence, and Dr. Harte and Angela are practiced in having conversations around those and other topics about traumatic experience. We can take breaks, we can laugh, we can cry, we can schedule a follow-up..

3. You are far more than the worst things that have happened to you. This project is a legacy project in memory of a special woman, and the goal is that we invite others to reflect on the legacies that they are making today. Please feel free to focus this interview on the life that you are creating, the woman you are today, and the messages you want to share intergenerationally.

Our primary methodology is sisterhood. We believe that you telling your story will make it more possible for the next woman to share hers. We also believe that sharing your story is a tender, open-hearted act and we love to connect our storytellers with each other through our monthly support group.

Rosa’s letters cover a range of topics including: joy, pain, loss, spirit, sisterhood, self-love, and faith.

We currently offer The Dear Rosa Interview in both English and Spanish. If you would like to participate in another language, please reach out and we will have a translator present at your interview.

It’s up to you! We have many creative opportunities to share your story or have your story be shared (see above) but this is your story. If you choose to share it, we can give you opportunities to do that. If you want to keep your story private, we will keep your interview private. It’s entirely up to you.

You are not alone in that feeling. All women we work with have either overcome or are currently in the process of overcoming silence. Usually, that silence is not inherent, it comes from societal or familial pressure and that takes time to break through. We can guarantee that we will create a safe space for your interview and respect your privacy wishes. If you feel that you can get to a private area and log on to Zoom for 90-minutes, you can try out this experience. We can pause or take breaks at any time.

We do want to encourage: the most common feedback we get is the same sentence: “This project reminded me who I am.” Most if not all of our community members have found a positive benefit to sharing their story with us, and we hope this will true for you as well.

If you are a woman living in New Jersey, we offer a $150 Visa gift card as an incentive to participate.

If you are living outside of New Jersey, we do not currently offer an incentive. BUT, we can. If you have a community of women (10+) we can work with your local arts council or community providers and local businesses to find a pathway to give each woman the $150 incentive.

Sign-up by our Calendly: https://www.dearrosa.com/schedule

Contact Us: jerseyharte@gmail.com

Our Mission is that we work to bring women through and/or bear witness to women that have been on a journey from silence, to safety, to self-expression.

The Dear Rosa Project began as an oral history project dedicated to amplifying the voices of women living with HIV/AIDS. But we’ve learned from our experience that Rosa’s words are a powerful source of strength and joy to all women working to break cycles of silence and take ownership of their narratives. In addition to growing our oral history, we:

Work with the New Jersey Department of health to bring Dear Rosa to HIV+ and high risk women in New Jersey and are currently funded to work with 25 women per month

Recently launched Querida Rosa, our initiative to amplify the stories of Hispanic women. We use Rosa’s same letters and questions, but open conversations to topics including cultural strengths and barriers, marianismo, magic and folktales, and family.

Have been commissioned to create a full-length documentary about our experience bringing Dear Rosa to Camden, New Jersey. This documentary is set to debut at a film festival in Texas in May 2025.