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Singer, songwriter, and Tony-nominated performer MX. JUSTIN VIVIAN BOND is an Obie, Bessie, and Ethyl Eichelberger Award winner. As one half of the performance duo Kiki and Herb, Bond has toured the world, headlining at Carnegie Hall, the Sydney Opera House, and London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, and starring in Kiki and Herb on Broadway.

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Tango

My Childhood, Backwards and in High Heels
Justin Vivian Bond

Hailed as “the greatest cabaret artist of [V’s] generation” in the New Yorker, Mx. Justin Vivian Bond makes a brilliant literary debut with this candid and hilarious coming-of-age tale.

Bond recalls in vivid detail how it looked and felt to first discover Mom's lipstick (Iced Watermelon by Revlon), and how dreary it could be for a trans/queer kid to join the Cub Scouts. Always haunted by the knowledge of being "different," Bond began to create intimate friendships with girls, and to feel increasingly at risk with boys. But when the bully next door wanted to meet secretly, Bond couldn't resist. Their trysts went on for years, making Bond acutely aware of how sexual power and vulnerability can be experienced at the same time. With inimitable style, Bond raises issues about LBGTQ adolescence, parenting trans/queer children, and bullying, while being utterly entertaining.

"Tango is a raw nerve touching an electric soul, a beautiful book, written with honesty, pain, and joy from one of our great modern day shamans."

—Sandra Bernhard

“Justin Bond has written a very important book for all of us to read.
Thank you, Justin, for your courage in writing the truth of what you went through as a transgender child in this society. Thank you, also, for your sense of humor. It made the book fun to read as well.”

—Yoko Ono

"Tango should be in the hands of every child who can read, and of every adult who cares about that child."

—Michael Warner, professor of English at Yale University

“Bond’s fabulosity is matched by a trenchant wit, and [V’s] over-the-top stories are smartly edged with politics, sexual or otherwise.”

—New York Times

"Reading Tango is like listening to your favorite eccentric cousin or auntie tell you hair-dressing tales of innocence lost and found, friendships forged of adversity, and bullies bewildered by their own perversity. Justin Vivian spins a one-of-a-kind story that you won't be able to put down."

—Kate Bornstein, author of Gender Outlaw

"When I say Justin Vivian is a true original, what I mean is, Justin doesn't resemble anyone else on the face of the planet. When I say Justin Vivian Bond is touched by genius, I mean exactly that."

—Michael Cunningham, author of The Hours

"Justin Vivian Bond is a lighting rod, a solid steel structure hin heels that attracts burning chaos and disciplines it into orderly submission. Am I allowed to say that Justin is a God?"

—Rufus Wainwright

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