Meet Beverly Bantom, Co-Author of Maxine Powell: Motown’s Maven of Class, Style, and Refinement
Thursday, August 27 • 6:30–8:00 PM at Book Beat • Free Admission
• Signed copies of Maxine Powell: Motown’s Maven of Class, Style, and Refinement are available now in our backroom gallery, and each copy comes with a special Maxine pink tassel bookmark.
Most people know the sound of Motown. Fewer know the woman who helped create its image.
Before Diana Ross stepped onto the stage with effortless elegance, before Smokey Robinson charmed television audiences, and before Martha Reeves represented Detroit around the world, they all spent time in the classroom of Maxine Powell.
As director of Motown’s Artist Development Department, Powell transformed talented young singers into polished performers. She taught artists how to walk onstage, greet an audience, sit for interviews, exit a limousine, and carry themselves with confidence. Berry Gordy believed that Motown artists should be prepared to perform anywhere—from neighborhood theaters to the White House—and Maxine Powell made sure they were.
Some of her lessons have become legendary. She convinced Marvin Gaye to keep his eyes open while singing, coached Diana Ross to rely on grace rather than exaggerated expressions, and had artists practice posture by balancing books on their heads. Her famous advice—”Do not protrude the buttocks”—became one of the many sayings Berry Gordy never forgot.
Long before Motown, Powell was a pioneering entrepreneur in Detroit. She operated one of the city’s first successful modeling schools for African Americans, helped open opportunities for Black models at Detroit’s auto shows, and demonstrated that elegance, professionalism, and confidence could challenge barriers as effectively as protest.
We’re pleased to welcome Beverly Bantom, Maxine Powell’s goddaughter and niece, who worked closely with Powell to complete Maxine Powell: Motown’s Maven of Class, Style, and Refinement before Maxine’s passing. Drawing on family archives, interviews with Berry Gordy, Martha Reeves, and many of the artists whose lives she influenced, the book tells the remarkable story of a woman whose contribution to Motown has too often remained behind the curtain.
If you love Detroit history, Motown, fashion, or stories about the remarkable people who shaped American culture without always receiving the spotlight, this promises to be a memorable evening.
We hope you’ll join us for this special conversation, book signing, and celebration of one of Detroit’s most influential—and most elegant—cultural figures.