Finding Me: The Grammy-winning memoir

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Overall, Viola is such a strong woman, but she also shares her struggles and vulnerabilities, and how she made it to this point of stability, peace and understanding. Viola Davis is an internationally acclaimed actress and producer, known for her exceptional performances in television shows such as How to Get Away with Murder and movies such as Fences and The Help. Instead she simply tells the facts - the truth - the ugly stories — unapologetic stories from early childhood to present day. After getting past the early(nightmare) childhood years —-Viola began her career (so damn interesting of even how she got from A to B), in Central Falls, Rhode Island….

Can we all exude a bit more kindness and compassion and freaking assistance when someone is struggling? She is not trying to make you feel sorry for her; she is merely baring her soul and allowing you, as the reader, into her introspection of how she became the spectacular woman she is today. Overall, this was a beautiful, heart-wrenching book and I'm so glad that Viola Davis felt comfortable enough to share her story: the good, the bad, and the ugly. I see people-the way they walk, talk, laugh, and grieve, and their silence-in a way that is hyperfocused because of my past.

Viola also details the events of her rise to where she is now and like her childhood, it is extremely upsetting but also very inspiring. Sometimes we just want more time to bask in the experience of a magnificent book —- of an magnificent human being - a powerful Black Woman…. All the attributes that are attached to being a woman-desirable, vulnerable, needing to be rescued-don't apply to us.

The descriptions of the living conditions of her home are hard to wrap one’s head around, but despite her parents having their hands full with their own demons, Viola managed to get some support from siblings and programs offered to her which helped to build her self-esteem, incentivized her to change the course of her life, propelling her toward achieving her dreams. I was fighting an ideology about what an actor was, and it was all born in the depth of white superiority. Davis is also the founder and CEO of JuVee Productions, an artist-driven production company that develops and produces in- dependent film, theatre, television, and digital content.I know much of these facts - our 40 year old daughter is a steady working actor in Hollywood since childhood]…. She also goes into how she became an actress and all of the hurdles she had to face as a dark skinned, black woman that’s not considered either beautiful, petite or fragile.

For anyone who needs reminding that a life worth living can only be born from radical honesty and the courage to shed facades and be.

Beautifully told, incredibly personal, emotional narrative of overcoming, surviving and thriving not in spite of, but because of the hardships endured. Growing up without the tools needed to heal from her trauma, Viola struggled a lot throughout her career, From attending Juilliard, to winning her first Tony, and then to winning her first Oscar, Viola carried that broken little girl with her everywhere. As I wrote Finding Me, my eyes were open to the truth of how our stories are often not given close examination.