BY SCOTT STIFFLER | Ah, New York City—where our early evening weeknight events sparkle, shine, snap, and clap louder than most other places can manage at Saturday night’s apex. Icons and legends abound at 7pm on Tuesday, November 7, when NYC’s storied Strand Book Store gives its 3rd floor Rare Book Room over to something rare, indeed: A bubbling cauldron of drag artistry, authorship, dishy conversation, and recipes for success in the many realms of everyday life.

Call it a book launch if you must, but that’s just a, well, launching point from which well-earned wit and wisdom will flow like silk taffeta let loose in a wind tunnel. Ginger Minj + Miss Peppermint: Southern Fried Sass is the in-person event that invites you to join RuPaul’s Drag Race superstar Ginger Minj fto celebrate the release of Southern Fried Sass: A Queen’s Guide to Cooking, Decorating, and Living Just a Little “Extra.”

And what pairs exceedingly well with Ginger? Why, Miss Peppermint, of course.  The runner-up on the ninth season of Drag Race, the first trans woman to originate a principal role on Broadway, longtime human rights activist, and prolific singer/songwriter will engage debut cookbook author Minj in an anything-goes conversation where the levels of sass and sincerity are sure to strike the pitch-perfect tone both performers perfected through oodles of hours spent performing live, long before the came to the mass notoriety that comes from being cast on RuPaul’s Drag Race.

As for the main reason for Tuesday night’s Strand event: As the book’s page on the website of publisher Simon and Schuster notes, Southern Fried Sass: A Queen’s Guide to Cooking, Decorating, and Living Just a Little “Extra” walks the line between the memoir and cookbook genres. It features dozens of “Ginger’s favorite Southern-inspired recipes” while bringing to the front burner “some of her most vulnerable and celebratory moments…and the pearls of wisdom she’s gleaned from her grandmother’s personal brand of Southern resilience.”

And as any good comedic performer will tell you, it’s all in the timing. Ginger’s book release lands that task with aplomb, as one of the book’s better living tips includes a guide to “cooking and setting the table for a full-on Southern-style Thanksgiving dinner.” Elsewhere, the recipes include The Minx’s Sick’ning Scalloped Pineapple Paradise, Red Barn BBQ Ribs platter, Better Than Sex cake, and “countless other decadent desserts.” Count us in!

Tuesday, November 7, 7pm at the Strand Book Store (12th Street & Broadway, NYC). Tickets are $13.81 for general admission for one. $42.92 gets you the same, plus a signed copy of the book. To order, click here. Can’t make the event? Purchase a signed copy ofSouthern Fried Sass. Masks and vaccination checks are not required for entry. Attendees are welcome to wear a mask if they choose. If you do not have a mask and would like one, The Strand will provide masks at the door. Please ask a Strand employee upon arrival for directions to accessible seating if preferred. For further information on accessibility in this space, or to make a request, please contact events@strandbooks.com.

BIOS (provided on the event page of the Strand website)

Ginger Minj is the stage name of Joshua Allen Eads, an American drag queen, actor, singer-songwriter, and reality television personality. After achieving recognition for placing as runner-up on the seventh season of the reality television competition series RuPaul’s Drag Race, Minj returned to compete on the second and sixth seasons of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars.

Minj has acted in three Netflix productions: Dumplin’, Super Drags, and AJ and the Queen; made an appearance in Disney’s Hocus Pocus 2; and has released three studio albums. Southern Fried Sass is her first book. Click here to visit Ginger’s website.

A longtime key figure in queer nightlife, actress & singer Peppermint regularly performs to sold-out crowds around the world. She has released six albums; Hardcore Glamour, Servin’ It Up, Sugar & Spiked, Black Pepper, A Girl Like Me: Letters To My Lovers and Moment of Weakness: Letters To My Lovers available on all streaming platforms – https://bio.to/PEPPERMINT.

Recent projects: Guest starred in Hulu’s hit rom-com movie Fire Island alongside Saturday Night Live’s Bowen Yang, Joel Kim Booster & Margaret Cho, co-hosting Amazon Prime talk show Translation, and hosting/moderating Black Queer Town Hall with co-creator Bob The Drag Queen. The ACLU’s first-ever Artist Ambassador for Trans Justice HERE has raised six-figure sums for prominent LGBT rights groups, partnered with MAC Cosmetics’ “M.A.C. AIDS Fund” and is involved in the HIV Vaccine trials network. Check out Peppermint in all her fabulous glory HERE.

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