Child sex trafficking expert Kate Price joins us to discuss her new memoir in conversation with Boston Globe reporter/author Chris Price.About this Event
If you would prefer to buy your ticket by phone, you may call Wellesley Books at 781-431-1160.
About ticketing:
- Admission to the event is $5.
- To purchase the book with your admission, choose Admission + Book and we will waive your admission fee.
- If you decide to purchase the book at the event, we will discount your book purchase by $5.
Please note that you must purchase your copy of the book from Wellesley Books in order to have the author sign it at the event.
Please also note that we cannot issue ticket refunds within 48 hours of the event.
Lastly, please be aware of our new parking system for the lot behind the store. Parking is free, but you must check in with Vend Park. We recommend doing this before you leave for the event.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Kate Price grew up in a small mill town in central Pennsylvania with her sister and parents in northern Appalachia. At the insistence of her mother, and through her academic accomplishments, Price escaped the unbroken cycles of poverty, violence, addiction, mental illness, and abuse that had plagued her family for generations. She started a new life in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in pursuit of her master’s and PhD. But despite having left this dark world behind, it still kept a firm grip on her.
Overcome with unexplainable grief and sadness and having sustained a series of hazy flashbacks accompanied by a “chilling of her blood and uncomfortable feeling in her bones,” Price sought out Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, a trauma specialist to help heal her constant emotional pain through EMDR therapy. He went on to write the bestselling book, The Body Keeps the Score, which features Price's story, as the two worked together to find out about her past. When Price, whose brain had been protecting her by shutting out these horrific memories, felt safe enough, she along with van der Kolk as her guide, discovered what that darkness that lay within her was. Her father had abused and trafficked her as a child.
Price grappled with what had been revealed. Did this really happen to her? How could a parent do this to a child? A dedicated researcher and academic, she knew she needed confirmation, proof that what she had remembered had happened. And so began a 10-year quest alongside a journalist, to prove what Price knew to be her truth. With many trips back to the hometown she thought she had left forever, the two eventually found the hard-earned evidence Price had been searching for.
In this exquisitely rendered, transformative memoir, Price describes how she broke free of that which had defined her childhood and went on to create a purpose-driven life and family, on her own terms. Eventually returning to the same Appalachian community to use her education and advocacy to help ensure children are given the attention, protection, and services that she never received.
From victim to advocate, from fearful child to empowered adult, and from despair to triumph, This Happened to Me is a story of astonishing resilience and breathtaking determination.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kate Price is an associate research scientist at the Wellesley Centers for Women, a research institute at Wellesley College. She is also an advisor for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s Child Sex Trafficking Expert Working Group and Global Platform for Child Exploitation Policy, and an alumni scholar at the Brandeis University Women’s Studies Research Center. An internationally recognized child sex trafficking expert and lecturer, Price has influenced the passage of state-level children’s human rights legislation and United Nations policy. Price is the recipient of a My Life, My Choice Beacon of Light Award, a Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize medal, a Mariam K. Chamberlain Dissertation Award from the International Centers for Research on Women, and an American Association of University Women Dissertation Fellowship. She has worked extensively with trauma pioneers Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, author of the New York Times bestselling book, The Body Keeps the Score, in which Price is featured, and Dr. Judith Herman. Price received her MA in gender/cultural studies from Simmons College and earned her PhD in sociology from the University of Massachusetts Boston. She lives in Massachusetts with her family. (Photo credit: Erin Clark)
ABOUT THE MODERATOR
An award-winning writer and author, Christopher Price joined the Boston Globe staff in 2019 after having covered college and professional sports in Boston for over two decades. He's written several books on New England sports, including Bleeding Green: A History of the Hartford Whalers, The Blueprint: How the New England Patriots Beat the System to Create the Last Great NFL Superpower, Drive For Five: The Remarkable Run of the 2016 Patriots, The Complete Illustrated History of the New England Patriots, and Baseball by the Beach: A History of America's Pastime on Cape Cod. In addition, Price has been honored by Northeastern University, New England Press Association, and the North Carolina Press Association for his work.
Event Venue
Wellesley Books, 82 Central Street, Wellesley, United States
USD 0.00 to USD 34.45
