From the Publisher
"With unmatched wit, humor, and charm, Bevy takes us through the ups and downs of her multi-hyphenate career, spilling gems along the way. Her book offers a timely reminder that the path forward is not necessarily straight and there is always room for transformation, redemption and growth." --Elaine Welteroth
"Bevy's story is as original and resilient as her place of birth, Harlem. The experience and advice she shares in Bevelations will lift you up and set you on your own two feet, empowered and moving with purpose in the long and rich tradition of strong Black women." --Dapper Dan "Of all the great and amazing women I know, Bevy Smith is one I honor and cherish. She is real and honest and I never question her integrity. AND she makes me laugh. Bevy knows what's what, and she is the kind of woman you want in your corner. If you don't believe me . . . buy the book." --Whoopi Goldberg "Most people are pretty singular in the way they see the world and themselves. Not Bevy. She's magnanimous in the way she looks at things. The clarity in her perspective really highlights how magical she is. Funny, wise, well-experienced, empathetic, colorful--Bevy brings the spirit of humanity wherever she goes. I want to be more like her, we should all want to be more like her." --Pharrell Williams
Library Journal
08/01/2020
Author of the New York Times best-selling The Still Point of the Turning World, about parenting terminally ill son Ronan, Black uses Sanctuary to reconsider the concept of resilience, for which she was roundly praised when she rebuilt her life—another husband, another child, a booming career—after Ronan died. In Walking with Ghosts, celebrated actor Byrne recalls his formative first 12 years in a large Dublin family, interspersed with career highlights from acting opposite Richard Burton to winning a Golden Globe. As related in The Secret Life of Dorothy Soames, Cowan learned after her mother died that she had been raised in London's Foundling Hospital, a brutal institution that originated solitary confinement even as it helped create important cultural institutions (40,000-copy first printing). Abandoned young by his eccentric poet father and adopted by his stepfather, David Gilmour of Pink Floyd, Gilmour bonded with a magpie he rescued (named Benzene for its glistening black feathers). With Featherhood, he relates his subsequent immersion in a poem his biological father wrote about effecting a similar rescue and explains what Benzene taught him about parenting (60,000-copy first printing). In Blindfold, award-winning journalist Padnos relates what it's like to be kidnapped and tortured in Syria by Al-Qaeda for two years; originally scheduled for July 2020. In Aftershocks, Whiting Award winner Owusu limns a crisscrossed coming-of-age (she moved from Rome and London to Dar-es-Salaam, Kampala, and finally the United States for college) and subsequent assured sense of self; originally scheduled for May 2020. Fashion and beauty editor at Vibe, then Rolling Stone, the high-powered Smith collapsed in tears one day and, as Bevelations explains, completely remade her life (75,000-copy first printing). Tichenor's The Night Lake explains that as a young Episcopal priest, she had to learn how to integrate into her vocation twin tragedies: the death of her five-week-old son less than a year after her alcoholic mother's suicide. Tony Award winner, three-time Emmy Award winner, the first black woman to win an honorary Oscar, and the first black woman to host Saturday Night Live: Tyson has some story to tell in Just As I Am.
