THE WITCH’S DAUGHTER | Kirkus Reviews

A former New York dancer looks back on her heyday in the 1970s.

Discovered on a Manhattan street in 2020 and profiled on Stanton’s Humans of New York Instagram page, Johnson, then 76, shares her vibrant story as a “fiercely independent” black burlesque dancer who used the stage name Tanqueray and became a celebrated figure in downtown adult theaters. “I was the only black girl making money as a white girl,” she boasts, telling a vibrant tale of sex and the struggles of a bygone era. Candid and unapologetic, Johnson vividly captures aspects of her former life as a stage seductress, swaying to blues tunes during 18-minute sets or sewing lingerie for plus-size dancers. Though her work was far from the Broadway shows she dreamed of, she eventually focused on night work to simply survive. Her anecdotes are humorous, candid, and wildly captivating, told with the passion of a true survivor and the acerbic wit of a seasoned, savvy New Yorker. She tells stories about growing up in an abusive home in Albany in the 1940s, a teenage pregnancy, and a prison sentence for theft with the same casualness that she recalls selling rhinestone G-strings to prostitutes to make them sparkle in the headlights of passing cars. Complemented by a series of revealing personal photographs, the narrative alternates between candid nostalgia for the seedier side of Manhattan’s go-go scene and amusing banter about her unconventional stage performances. Encounters with a variety of hard-working dancers, drag queens, and pimps, as well as an account of the complexities of first love with a drug-addicted hustler, fill the memoir with personality and candor. With Stanton’s narrative assistance, the result is a consistently exciting and often moving story of human struggle and a glimpse into the days when Times Square was considered the gloriously raw underbelly of the Big Apple. The book also features Yee’s lush watercolor illustrations.

A blissfully indirect and candid glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.