Rose Liberté Bio

Rosanna Piazza aka Rosa Rios aka Rose Liberté grew up in the Black Ghetto of Omaha, Nebraska, where her mother was active in NAACP and Civil Rights during the '60's while a Nurse at the School for deaf, dumb and blind children. Rosanna grew up in a Liberal Unitarian household while also receiving Catholicism from her Italian grandmother.

She met Martin Luther King in Chicago, 1967 at the National Convention for New Politics when he was running for Vice President, and Robert Kennedy a few months before his assassination in March 1968 at his campaign speech at Nebraska University. In High School, she and her best friend organized a Human Relations Club, and she was chosen to serve as Vice-president on the Mayor's Youth Committee in Omaha in the wake of the Chicago Riots and explosive rioting following a rally for George Wallace (summer 1968). She became involved in Antiwar Protests in Lawrence, Kansas, having petitions signed to end the War in Viet Nam. (Kansas U.)

In 1969 she relocated to Santa Barbara, California where Antiwar protests and demonstrations escalated so that she dropped out of UCSB (Honor's Hall) and lived in Haight-Ashbury/Berkeley area till 1970, involved in Anti War Protests at People's Park and Marching against the War across the Bay Bridge with 1/2 million people.

She was involved in organic gardening and health foods, and on a spiritual quest that led her thru Roman Catholicism, Meher Baba, Bahai World Faith, Sai Baba, Baba Muktananda, SRF (Yogananda), Ananda Marga, Satchitananda, Yoga, Summit Lighthouse, Brotherhood of the Sun, Hare Krishna, Buddhism (studying under monk Miyuki), Nicheren Shoshu Buddhism, Gnosticism, Essene Gospels, Mystic Christianity and Vedanta, Liberal Catholicism, Vajrana Buddhism (Nyingma Tradition), Tara Dances, Dances of Universal Peace, Sikh followers of Kirpal Singh, Church Universal and Temple of the Presence, Theosophy, Unity Church, Art of Living (Sri Sri Ravi Shankar). She celebrates the Universal path of LOVE under all denominations, creeds, sects, paradigms, etc.

In 1972 she married Pennell Spencer, a black surrealist artist (follower of Dali) from Warren, Ohio whom she met in Kenneth Rexroth (beat poet's) class in Creative Studies. From 1975 to present she has been raising her "rainbow family" of six multiracial children as a mother against War and a mother against genetic engineering of foods. They lived around the U.S., up and down the coast of California, Little Rock, AK, Topeka, KS, Rock Island, IL, St. Louis, Mo., Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Honolulu, Hawaii.

In 1976 Rosanna's poetry was published in the Liberal Catholic UBIQUE and she was called the Poet Laureate of the Liberal Catholic Church (LCC). A volume of her poetry "THE MAGICAL MYSTICAL MIRACLE IN WHICH WE LIVE" was self published by her husband Artist Pennell Spencer, Illustrator.

She also worked as a Counselor for the Developmentally Disabled, Cerebral Palsy Victims, Emotionally Disturbed children, and contributed to Special Travel for Special Olympics.

A Religious studies scholar (as a hobby) she obtained her BA in Psychology (Cognitive Psych) and BA in Sociology (Social Welfare/Social Psychology) in 1987. Her favorite professor Richard "Dick" Flacks was one of the organizers of S.D.S. (Students for a Democratic Society), and a friend of Tom Hayden. She was accepted into UCSB Sociology Department's, Ph.D. program, but after two years towards her M.A. thesis she took a leave of absence due to stress as a single mother and moved to Montana.

In 1993, Rosanna started THE VENUS FOUNDATION, an Art Gallery and Children in the Arts program for Children at Risk, coordinating Bozeman United Artists to teach classes in their varied hands-on arts to children. It was also a network promoting the interconnection of poets, artists and musicians to work together, and received a small grant from a United Way Children's Organization.

At various times she spent months in Mexico, learning from the poverty in various Colonias without running water, bare dirt floors, living on beans and tortillas. She also spent several summers living outdoors in nature, and has a deep appreciation and love of nature.

She became a member of Natural Law Party in 1994 as a meditator, and due to her deep commitment to the preservation of nature, slow growth, and living in harmony with spirit and nature, organic gardening, alternative energy, alternative healing, and sustainable agriculture, causes supported by the Natural Law Party, as well as her deep commitment to creative conflict involving the mediation of various sides of the issues, instead of warfare, synchronizing and utilizing the best of both parties. In 1998 she won 2% of the vote as Senate District 14 Candidate and in 2000 she went to the primaries as Candidate for Clerk of Montana Supreme Court. Her campaign was endorsed by Montana Conservation Voters.

She is presently running Topnotch Secretarial Services out of her home doing desktop publishing, typing legal and medical papers, legal transcription, academic papers and manuscripts, working as a 24 hour notary public.

Rose wrote two wonderful stories entitled Advent of the Butterfly Rainbow Millennium and A Week Out of Time with the Butterfly Man. I hope you get a chance to read them.

See also

Rose Liberte
Rose Liberte Memorial