We caught up with the brilliant and insightful May Hemmer a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

May, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about the best boss, mentor, or leader you’ve ever worked with.

Honestly the best boss I’ve ever had is a woman I consider a dear friend now. She is a the owner for a small quilting and sewing machine shop. She pushed me to expand my skills and support me in my sewing endeavors. Not once did she judge me for being a burlesque dancer in addition to being a costumer. She gave me the push to step away from doing burlesque full-time now (I’ve been performing for over 10-11 years now) to going part-time and shifting my focus back on my sewing craft.

May, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Let’s see! My aunt began teaching me how to sew when I was just five years old! Needless to say now I’ve been actively sewing for 30 years now. I thought I wanted to go to school for design but it wasn’t in the cards for me. I instead got my bachelor’s in Finance and worked in the financial industry actively for almost ten years. After that well…I had the chance to begin doing burlesque. I hadn’t done ballet or anything for a long time due to a knee injury but after learning the art form, I went for it! It was then I realized I could bring back my love of costuming. I was a cosplayer all throughout primary school up until college and when I went corporate, I didn’t have that time anymore. Now I had a chance to bring my nerdy love on stage in a different way.

As a young Afro-Latina woman, I never saw the representation of someone that looked like me for a very long time. Now that I am in my mid-thirties, I had to reflect. I wanted to be an example for my kids that it’s okay to be you no matter what your ethnicity or racial background. It was hard but I decided to start my plan of going to the behind-the-scenes side of burlesque (producing, stage managing, etc) and to go full into costuming, education at conventions, and character at conventions. My five-year plan has now accelerated and I’m proud to say I’m the producer of the DragonCon Burlesque show in Atlanta, GA (one of the biggest nerdlesque shows in the southeast) as well as getting cast as a fairy queen at the Shepherdstown Fairy Festival. This has opened so many doors and I can’t wait to continue to be a face that makes little brown children go: look she looks like me!!

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

My mission is to be another face for BIPOC children in the nerd culture. I want them to be able to think “gee she looks like me…maybe I can do this” and not be afraid. As a child, I was always told that I could never dress in 18th-century garb because “black folks don’t dress like that” or “they didn’t wear things like that back in that era”. It was disheartening and discouraging. It was in my twenties that I decided to go against that grain and sew the things that I love. I absolutely love historical fashion and have begun to actively incorporate it into cosplay and the costumes I wear today.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Goodness, it took time. It can be very time-consuming but the one thing I will always tell people: your success is not measured by likes and followers. For the longest time, my Instagram and the likes were very small however I am still actively on panels at large conventions and judging some really amazing costume contests. I will be honest I always hated to brag about myself…still kind of do. I think of my socials as well to continue to show that BIPOCs are out here doing the things that some may be shy or not realize they can do.

My advice is to be patient and not compare yourself to others. You will only drive yourself crazy and remember that you just must find your own niche.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.mayhemmer.com
• Instagram: @themayhemmer
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/may.hemmer
• Twitter: @themayhemmer

Image Credits
Duchess of Wakanda – Gabby Q. Bessie Coleman Tribute – Libby McGowan Studios Water Nymph – Libby McGowan Studios Zestari the Elf – Gabby Q. Yennefer – Dany Lofgren Cardcaptor Sakura – Dany Lofgren