Tanqueray

May 30, 2022
Two years after Johnson shared her story on Stanton’s popular Instagram account Humans of New York, she commands the spotlight again in this hypnotizing account of her past as a Black burlesque dancer. Of their first encounter in 2020, Stanton writes in the foreword that the septuagenarian immediately captivated him—and later more than three million Instagram users—with tales of dancing in New York City in the 1970s under her stage name, Tanqueray. With help from Stanton, Johnson returns to those stories to bare it all on the page. Recalling the many travails she faced before finally running away to New York City, Johnson details her childhood growing up with an abusive mother in 1940s Albany, N.Y.; a teenage pregnancy with a married man; and a prison stint for burglary. Forced to give up the baby for adoption, Johnson moved to the city with dreams of dancing on Broadway and eventually started performing in adult theaters. Johnson’s storytelling skills are undeniable as she dispenses tantalizing anecdotes, from bumping elbows with James Brown to hustling side gigs, like sewing custom sequined G-strings from dental floss. While her exploits are titillating, Johnson reminds readers that “underneath all the laughs and the gags, it was always about one thing: survival.” This has it all: humor, intrigue, and heart.

November 10, 2023
In 2019, New York City photoblog Humans of New York ran a story about burlesque dancer Stephanie Johnson, stage name Tanqueray, and she instantly became a star. She would say for the second time. Johnson told her interviewer, HONY curator Brandon Stanton, that she had many more stories to share, and the two started meeting every week. This book is the result of those conversations. Johnson's life is one of self-reliance. She ran away from her Albany, New York, home and landed in New York City in the 1970s, finding work as a dancer, stripper, and costume designer--one of few Black women working and making money in the clubs. Her stories are filled with drugs, mobsters, and sex, all against a backdrop of gritty, pre-sanitized NYC. Tanqueray's signature style is studded with profanity and completely at ease with sexual descriptions: she has no filter and a great sense of humor, all of which readers will love. Lots of pictures are included, many that ran with the original piece, as well as lovely illustrations by Henry Sene Yee. Read this in one sitting and fall in love with Tanqueray.

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