About ​me.
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AUTHOR | SPIRITUAL GUIDE | LITERARY AGENT 
​The author of the award-winning inspirational book SACRED LANDSCAPES of the SOUL,  KAREN BRAILSFORD is a literary agent with Aevitas Creative Management where she has represented the Pulitzer Prize-winning His Name is George Floyd by Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa. She has worked on staff at Newsweek, Elle, People, In Touch and E! Entertainment covering arts and culture, Hollywood, fashion, beauty and human interest. Her writing has also appeared in The New York Times Book Review, Black Enterprise, Interview and Unity magazine. She is a contributor editor to Spirituality & Health. The mother of actress Amandla Stenberg, Karen served as her de facto manager for several years, employing the expertise she gleaned from interviewing celebrities, covering Fashion Week in New York and Los Angeles, and negotiating with Hollywood publicists, all the while deflecting the momager stigma. 

A licensed spiritual practitioner at the Agape International Spiritual Center founded by Michael Bernard Beckwith since 2009, Karen serves as the coordinator of its pastoral care ministry, One From the Heart, and writes for Inner Visions: A Guide for Daily Inspiration. For five years, she hosted a monthly gathering for congregants in her home and is featured in Agape's 31 Ways in 31 Days Transformational Challenge. Bucket list check item:  Karen sang with Agape's choir backing up John Legend, will.i.am, Mary J. Blige, Seal and Faith Hill at various events, including Oprah Winfrey's broadcast from the Kennedy Center, leading up to President Obama’s first inauguration.
 
​The native New Yorker is a graduate of The Brearley School and Yale where she majored in English literature. Her paintings have been exhibited at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica, CA, and other galleries. She cites Paris, the City of Light, as her go-to landscape.
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​Gallery of highlights.

Paris passion

Hello, halo! With Eckhart Tolle at an Oprah dinner

Agape pulpit prayer

Once upon a Fashion Week

Ready for my close-up on the Mexico set of "Colombiana"

Lounging at Coco Chanel's Paris apartment

A holy-moly, laying-of-hands moment on the dance floor with family

Jamming with Jimmy

Sporting matchy-matchy black garb and grins with Gloria Steinem

Reunion: Beaming with sis and Spike Lee 26 years after I interviewed him about "Malcolm X"

Brown Girls Dreaming: Anika Noni Rose and Jacqueline Woodson at the NAACP Image Awards

Back at Sundance in 2018 after covering the festival in the 1990s

More than enough: Surprising The Talk's Elaine Welteroth at her book signing in MA

A full circle moment at Essence's Oscar Week luncheon with Beyoncé's mama, Tina Knowles, in 2019. She gave me advice at the start of Amandla's career, and now here Amandla was being honored.

On retreat at the Peace Village with Sister Jenna and some very special friends

Agape's Rev. Michael Beckwith + Amandla: When your master teachers run into one another at a Hollywood event

If you blink...I'm at 3:31 in this video featuring John Legend and the Agape choir at the 2008 Democratic National Convention

ELLE magazine editors, 1990s style

A post-concert moment with "my pal Al"- my nickname for my favorite singer of all time, Al Jarreau

ELLE reunion to celebrate Robinne Lee's can't-put-it-down novel, "The Idea of You"

A reading with former ELLE colleague Matt Berman upon the pub of his JFK Jr. memoir

Posing with Bogie backstage at the Saban theater (pre-Covid) before an Agape service

Meeting CARE OF THE SOUL author Thomas Moore for the first time five years after he blurbed SACRED LANDSCAPES.

With my favorite actress at THE ACOLYTE Special Screening in NYC

Click thumbnails to expand photos and read captions.

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​Dedication.

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