Salon@615 with Cyntoia Brown author of Free Cyntoia

Salon@615 is pleased to present Cyntoia Brown in her first public event in Nashville since her release from prison in August 2019. Brown will discuss her memoir, Free Cyntoia. This event will take place on October 23rd at 6:15pm at Christ Church Cathedral. No signing line will follow the program, but Parnassus Books will have presigned books available for purchase at the event.​​​​​​​

All advanced tickets for this event have been reserved, and the waitlist is full. Waitlist tickets will be automatically released as they are returned by ticketholders no longer able to attend, and we do not expect to be able to accommodate the full wait list through returned tickets. If you are a waitlist guest and do not get a ticket made available to you, we encourage you to join the on-site ticket line the day of the event.

To join the on-site ticket line, plan to arrive early. We will not know how many additional guests we will be able to accommodate until just prior to the event, and unfortunately, we can't guarantee that everyone will get a seat. However, we do expect to be able to accommodate many people via the on-site ticket line. There will not be alternative viewing locations once seats have been filled.

 

About the book:

Cyntoia Brown was sentenced to life in prison for a murder she committed at the age of sixteen. Her case became national news when celebrities and activists made the hashtag #FreeCyntoia go viral in 2017. She was granted full clemency after having served fifteen years, walking out a free woman on August 7, 2019.

This is her story, in her own words.

In these pages, written over the fifteen years she was incarcerated, Cyntoia shares the difficult early life that lead to that fateful night and how she found the strength to not only survive, but thrive, in prison.

A coming-of-age memoir set against the shocking backdrop of a life behind bars, Free Cyntoia takes you on a spiritual journey as Cyntoia struggles to overcome a legacy of family addiction and a lifetime of feeling ostracized and abandoned by society.

Born to a teenage alcoholic mother who was also a victim of sex trafficking, Brown reflects on the isolation, low self-esteem, and sense of alienation that drove her straight into the hands of a predator.

Though she attempts to build a positive path and honor the values her beloved adoptive mother taught her, Cyntoia succumbs to harmful influences that drive her to a cycle of promise and despair. After a fateful meeting with a prison educator turned mentor, Cyntoia makes the pivotal decision to take classes at Lipscomb University and strive for a better future, even if she’s never freed.

For the first time ever, Cyntoia shares the details of her transformation, including a profound encounter with God, an unlikely romance, and an unprecedented outpouring of support from social media advocates and A-list celebrities, which ultimately lead to clemency and her release from prison.

Giving a rare look at the power of love, forgiveness, and self-discovery in the darkest of places, Free Cyntoia is a deeply personal portrait of one woman’s journey for redemption within a system that had failed her from childhood.

About the author:

Cyntoia Brown-Long was sentenced to life in prison for killing a forty-three-year-old man after he bought her for sex when she was only sixteen years old. In January 2019, after she served nearly fifteen years at Tennessee Prison for Women, Tennessee governor Bill Haslam granted her full clemency. During her time in prison, Cyntoia earned an associate’s and bachelor’s degree from Lipscomb University, a prestigious Christian institution. She also counseled other inmates and started the GLITTER (Grassroots Learning Initiative on Teen Trafficking, Exploitation, and Rape) Project. After her release in August 2019, she hopes to be a voice for justice and victims of sexual violence, and looks forward to starting her life as recently married woman.

Ticket Cancellations:

Reserving a ticket is a commitment to attend. In order to keep tickets to events like this one free, we need for the number of free tickets reserved to accurately reflect the expected crowd. If your plans change after you have reserved a ticket, please cancel your reservation or email us at least 48 hours in advance so we can give the ticket to another patron. If you reserve a ticket, but are unable to attend, you will be leaving an empty seat that could have been reserved by someone else. The success of this program and future ones relies on your cooperation.

On-Site Tickets:

This Salon@615 is a free, ticketed event. Ticket holders should be in their seats no later than 6:10pm. Any seats that remain available at that time will be filled via an on-site ticket line on a first-come, first-served basis. Arrive early for the on-site ticket line. There will not be alternative viewing locations once seats have been filled.

Parking information at Christ Cathedral:

Parking is available in the following locations:

Cathedral Lots A & B (9th & Broadway)
Cathedral Lot C (9th & Commerce)
10th & Commerce Premier Lot

A map can be accessed by visiting this link.

 
Event date: 
Wednesday, October 23, 2019 - 6:15pm
Event address: 
Christ Church Cathedral
900 Broadway
Nashville, TN 37203
Books: 
Free Cyntoia: My Search for Redemption in the American Prison System By Cyntoia Brown-Long Cover Image
$26.00
ISBN: 9781982141103
Availability: Availability to be confirmed
Published: Atria Books - October 15th, 2019