The Rosalogues Storytelling Festival
We are thrilled to welcome you to a night of powerful storytelling, resilience, and connection. The Rosalogues Storytelling Festival is more than just an event—it’s a movement, a space where powerful people share powerful stories.
For the past three months, our participants have embarked on a transformative journey—engaging in oral history interviews, forging deep connections, and discovering the power of self-expression. Guided by dedicated facilitators, artists, and community members, they have crafted deeply personal narratives in their native languages, exploring their paths from silence to safety to self-discovery.
Now, they take the stage in a one-of-a-kind story slam, sharing their truths—stories of survival, connection, and triumph. We invite you to witness their courage, celebrate their voices, and be part of an evening filled with inspiration, authenticity, and the unifying power of storytelling.
With Gratitude
This event is made possible through the generous support of the New Jersey Council for the Humanities and The New Jersey Department of Health. We also extend our sincere thanks to St. Clare’s and Saint Elizabeth University for the use of their theater, providing a space where these important stories can be shared.
About FIREWORX
FIREWORX is a landmark intervention led by the New Jersey Department of Health to use storytelling to end the HIV epidemic. The State advises FIREWORX about communities who have often been labeled "hard-to-reach" and through this guidance we create empowered spaces where people can choose the stories they tell, and how they tell them.
Our team develops cohorts of participants to generate oral histories, expressive art, and stories in a trauma-informed and culturally sensitive manner. FIREWORX consists of 3 key initiatives, The Dear Rosa Project (oral history), My Voice Our Stories (group storytelling workshops & Story Slams), and the endhivnj.org website. Collectively, our work utilizes anonymous data-linking to document trends and patterns in people's experiences navigating their lives and their care through adverse social determinants of health.
About Dear Rosa
The Dear Rosa Project is a legacy project dedicated to Rosa, an incredible, vibrant woman who lived at the intersection of HIV and domestic violence. After she passed, a mutual friend sent Project Lead Dr. Harte the letters Rosa had been writing to herself—letters that became the beginning of a legacy. Using passages from these letters—ones she loved to share—and oral history practices, we facilitate interviews that invite women to reflect on their own life experiences.
We use the letters of our dear (and deeply missed) friend Rosa to construct the interview questions, which include topics like love, faith, getting back on our feet, friendship, courage, hope, and spirituality.
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