In Tonacity: The Tona Brown Story, readers are offered an unfiltered, emotionally resonant, and deeply inspiring look into the life of one of America's most trailblazing artists, Tona Brown. This compelling collection of interviews, compiled over four years by St. Louis-based writer and musician Chris King, presents not only the raw and riveting narrative of Tona's journey as a transgender musician of color but also serves as a vital cultural artifact documenting the resilience, complexity, and brilliance of Black transgender women in America.
Tona Brown, a classically trained violinist and mezzo-soprano, is a history-maker: the first transgender woman to perform at Carnegie Hall and the first African American transgender woman to perform for a U.S. president. Yet Tonacity reveals that behind these milestones lies a woman whose journey has been shaped by profound pain, hard-won triumphs, and a relentless drive to uplift others. Structured around interview transcriptions, the book captures Tona’s voice with exceptional authenticity. The format allows her story to unfold naturally, raw, reflective, and powerfully human. Chris King’s role is more than that of an interviewer; he is a thoughtful curator who knows when to step back and let Tona speak, and when to frame her words with valuable context drawn from academic research, cultural commentary, and lived experiences of the broader transgender community.
