A thoughtful account of personal discovery and the pursuit of dancing dreams in ’70s and ’80s America.
Colón offers an inspirational memoir about escaping a dreadful childhood to become a successful entertainer in the late 20th century.
The author’s family was from Puerto Rico, but she felt estranged from any Latine identity while growing up in the Bronx. When she was not yet 4 years old, her father put her in an orphanage and had her mother committed. Colón unsuccessfully tried to run away from the institution and lived at the home until she was a teenager. She reports enduring both physical abuse and cruel punishments; when she wet the bed, she remembers having to kneel on the floor with the wet sheet wrapped around her head. The author was able to see the Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall and take dance classes, which put her on a path to becoming a performer. She was accepted into the High School of Performing Arts and was able to live with a foster family starting in 1970. Colón began performing, and, to escape her status of being a ward of the state (which would have continued until she was 21), she married her boyfriend when she turned 18. She left him due to his violent behavior and went on tour for six months with the No, No, Nanette company. By 1983, Colón had returned to New York, where she worked her way up to being a Rockette for the 1990 Christmas Spectacular. The author’s story is dramatic and compelling, boasting many twists and appearances by celebrities such as Freddie Prinze and Chita Rivera. Colón engagingly describes dancing at lunchtime in high school (as in the movie Fame) and auditioning for Bob Fosse (“He stared up at the balcony, arms crossed, cigarette still in his right hand, as he said, ‘Would you ask her to do a double pirouette, please?’”); she also nicely conveys how she acquired a strong sense of self-preservation as well as a Latine identity (while dancing with The Latins). Each hardship brought a new realization that propelled her on to success—she describes her heartbreaking mistakes and inspiring developments honestly and movingly.
A thoughtful account of personal discovery and the pursuit of dancing dreams in ’70s and ’80s America.Pub Date: Dec. 28, 2021
ISBN: 978-1737971818
Page Count: 216
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.
A noted actor turns to verse: “Poems are a Saturday in the middle of the week.”
McConaughey, author of the gracefully written memoir Greenlights, has been writing poems since his teens, closing with one “written in an Australian bathtub” that reads just as a poem by an 18-year-old (Rimbaud excepted) should read: “Ignorant minds of the fortunate man / Blind of the fate shaping every land.” McConaughey is fearless in his commitment to the rhyme, no matter how slight the result (“Oops, took a quick peek at the sky before I got my glasses, / now I can’t see shit, sure hope this passes”). And, sad to say, the slight is what is most on display throughout, punctuated by some odd koanlike aperçus: “Eating all we can / at the all-we-can-eat buffet, / gives us a 3.8 education / and a 4.2 GPA.” “Never give up your right to do the next right thing. This is how we find our way home.” “Memory never forgets. Even though we do.” The prayer portion of the program is deeply felt, but it’s just as sentimental; only when he writes of life-changing events—a court appearance to file a restraining order against a stalker, his decision to quit smoking weed—do we catch a glimpse of the effortlessly fluent, effortlessly charming McConaughey as exemplified by the David Wooderson (“alright, alright, alright”) of Dazed and Confused. The rest is mostly a soufflé in verse. McConaughey’s heart is very clearly in the right place, but on the whole the book suggests an old saw: Don’t give up your day job.
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781984862105
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.
A former New York City dancer reflects on her zesty heyday in the 1970s.
Discovered on a Manhattan street in 2020 and introduced on Stanton’s Humans of New York Instagram page, Johnson, then 76, shares her dynamic history as a “fiercely independent” Black burlesque dancer who used the stage name Tanqueray and became a celebrated fixture in midtown adult theaters. “I was the only black girl making white girl money,” she boasts, telling a vibrant story about sex and struggle in a bygone era. Frank and unapologetic, Johnson vividly captures aspects of her former life as a stage seductress shimmying to blues tracks during 18-minute sets or sewing lingerie for plus-sized dancers. Though her work was far from the Broadway shows she dreamed about, it eventually became all about the nightly hustle to simply survive. Her anecdotes are humorous, heartfelt, and supremely captivating, recounted with the passion of a true survivor and the acerbic wit of a weathered, street-wise New Yorker. She shares stories of growing up in an abusive household in Albany in the 1940s, a teenage pregnancy, and prison time for robbery as nonchalantly as she recalls selling rhinestone G-strings to prostitutes to make them sparkle in the headlights of passing cars. Complemented by an array of revealing personal photographs, the narrative alternates between heartfelt nostalgia about the seedier side of Manhattan’s go-go scene and funny quips about her unconventional stage performances. Encounters with a variety of hardworking dancers, drag queens, and pimps, plus an account of the complexities of a first love with a drug-addled hustler, fill out the memoir with personality and candor. With a narrative assist from Stanton, the result is a consistently titillating and often moving story of human struggle as well as an insider glimpse into the days when Times Square was considered the Big Apple’s gloriously unpolished underbelly. The book also includes Yee’s lush watercolor illustrations.
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.Pub Date: July 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-27827-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2022
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