V. M. Johnson
Quick Facts
Biography
V. M. Johnson, also known as Viola Johnson, born in 1950, is a leatherwoman,leather activist, and author.
Life
Johnson claims that when she was seventeen years old a vampire gave her some of his own blood to drink and thus she became a vampire.
In the early 1970s she joined the BDSM and leather scenes.
In 1988 she became an honorary member of Tulsa Uniform Leather Seekers Association (T.U.L.S.A).
In 2005 she started The Carter/Johnson Library & Collection, a "collection of thousands of books, magazines, posters, art, club and event pins, newspapers, event programs and ephemera showing leather, fetish, S/M erotic history."
She served as a judge for many leather-related contests, including Ms. World Leather.
She was on the board of directors of the Leather Archives & Museum.
She is a member of the Lesbian Sex Mafia.
She is married to Jill Carter.
Notable awards
- 1995: National Leather Association’s Jan Lyon Award for Regional or Local Work
- 1995: National Leather Association Lifetime Achievement Award
- 1995: Pantheon of Leather Lifetime Achievement Award (Johnson was the first person to receive the National Leather Association Lifetime Achievement Award and the Pantheon of Leather Lifetime Achievement Award in the same year.)
- 2000: Pantheon of Leather Woman of the Year
- 2005: SouthEast LeatherFest Jack Stice Memorial Community Service Award
- 2005: Master/slave Conference slave Heart Award
- 2005: Pantheon of Leather Forebear Award (tied for the win with David S. Kloss)
- 2007: Black Beat Lifetime Achievement Award (This was the first Lifetime Achievement Award given by Black Beat.)
- 2012: Master/slave Conference Guy Baldwin Master/slave Heritage Award
- 2012: National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Leather Leadership Award (Johnson was the first woman to be given this award.)
- Unknown date: Induction into the Society of Janus Hall of Fame
Works
All books
- V. M. Johnson. Dhampir: Child of the Blood. Mystic Rose Books, 1995. ISBN 978-0-9645960-1-6
- V. M. Johnson. To Love, to Obey, to Serve: Diary of an Old Guard Slave Mystic Rose Books, 1999. ISBN 978-0-9645960-2-3
Other publications
- Contributing author, all anthologies
- 1995: Some Women, ed. Laura Antoniou (contributed “Journal entries”)
- Contributing author, notable periodicals
- Black Leather in Color
- Black Mistress Review