*Meredith Kopald’s memoir about her late sister Bev Luther has taken on new dimensions now that Matty Rich and Andrea Williams have turned it into the novel titled “Bev,” published by Simon and Schuster.
Bev was a young white radical from New York, who left the comforts and privilege granted her by her race alone, in order to join the civil rights movement in 1965. Bev was outraged by the way that blacks and non-Anglicans were regarded and she took the mission to heart. Bev was bound and determined to head to Mississippi to help register black voters, and the fact that she put her life at stake did not deter her one bit. Bev escaped death at the hands of a racist America, instead it was cancer that took her to an early grave years later. Her older sister Meredith witnessed her sister’s unsung heroism and decided to write a book so that Bev’s children would get to know who their mother really was.
That book eventually landed in the hands of film writer/producer & director Matty Rich (Straight Out of Brooklyn, Inkwell) and he fell in love with the project declaring: “It’s a story that needs to be told.” Earlier in the week Matty asked his good friend Antwone Fisher to moderate a panel discussion with him, Meredith Kopald and Andrea Williams at a book signing at Barnes and Noble in the ritzy Grove shopping plaza in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles. From the sound of it, a screen play is forthcoming from Matty Rich, although Antwone Fisher joked about being a part of the project as well.
EURweb was there, along with actor Glyn Turman, Joann Turman, Reid J. Rich, Bev’s stepson and two children as well as other family, fans and friends. Thankfully justice will be served for Bev (albeit literary justice) because one sister took the time to document her sister’s bravery. The jury is still out on just when Bev will get her just due on the silver screen but EURweb will be there ready and waiting.
