For six months, these dancers have been striking outside their former bar. They're picketing, putting on runway shows, and talking customers out of entering a space that they say failed to protect them.
The strippers who have worked at Star Garden describe it as a Lynchian dive bar full of personality and dancer camaraderie. They say that's why they're willing to fight so hard for better working conditions there.The strippers who have worked at Star Garden describe it as a Lynchian dive bar full of personality and dancer camaraderie. They say that's why they're willing to fight so hard for better working conditions there.
NPR spoke to eight dancers for this story, all of whom said that they were contract employees and that they were unfairly terminated for raising safety and privacy concerns with management. They spoke to NPR on the condition that they be identified by only their stage names to protect their safety and privacy. All the dancers said they use the term"stripper" to describe their work and often use the label interchangeably with"dancer.
"Safety onstage, safe backstage areas, sanitary backstage areas, having the employer take some responsibility for the behavior of audience members, making sure people aren't filmed or harassed by audience members, and that when any of those problems arise, that there is accountability on the part of the employer," Hoeschen told NPR.
The Star Garden dancers' effort is part of a larger movement in recent months by workers who are seeking unionization for better labor protections. Online, she said, the talent ran the show. The performers could block a customer if they were being harassed, instead of waiting around for security to step in.
And for a while, she truly was. Star Garden hired her in July 2021, and for her first eight weeks, she said, she danced in the club alone. As more strippers got brought on board, she held out hope that club conditions would improve. After two dancers were fired in the span of a couple of days, the Star Garden strippers felt they were running out of options. They presented their petition to management and took to the picket line when barred from reentering the club.
"I could take a week off dancing because I was focused on [finals] week, and I've never had any job do that before," she said."I'm very masc outside of being a stripper," she explained."As soon as I step into the strip club, I can be as femme as I want. It's really liberating and really beautiful to be in an environment where that's appreciated."
Striking and organizing takes a huge toll, especially as one of the few people of color on the team, she said. "That wasn't up to us. It's not our fault that the club hired light-skinned and white women, because that's what they wanted," Tess said.
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