Today we’d like to introduce you to Cedkecia Crockett.
Hi Cedkecia, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I am a Cosplayer in Memphis, TN. Cosplay means costume-play and that is when a person dresses up as a character. They can cosplay whoever they want, whatever they want and whenever they want to. Specifically known to cosplay at conventions or photoshoots.
I have been watching anime since I was a little girl, maybe around the age of three. My parents told me when I was younger, I would not want to watch anything unless it was sailor moon or Disney. My mom said she used to dressed me up one Halloween as sailor-moon and I thought it was absolutely hilarious. Along with sailor moon, I eventually grew into Dragon Ball Z that my uncles introduced me to and it became a routine for me. Every weekend I would go to my grandma house on my father side of the family and watch Dragonball Z with my uncles and pretend like I knew what was going on but had absolutely no idea what was happening except knowing Goku and Vegeta was absolutely amazing! Haha.
Of course at that young age I had no idea what anime was, I just thought they were all cartoons. It was when I was 12 years old I woke up one night, couldn’t go to sleep and wanted to watch some cartoons. I put it on Cartoon Network that was really toonami at nighttime and I came across a man in a red kimono with silver hair with dog ears and a girl with a green school uniform was traveling with him. I’ll never forget that episode (soul piper and the mischievous little soul) because although I was so fascinated, I was so scared because of the ominous music and demons in the show. It was so amazing I was like “wow! I don’t know what this is but I like it and wanna see more.” I became obsessed! It was then I started printing out pictures of the character name “Inuyasha” from the show and put him in the front of my school binder back in the day when it was “cool” to do. Old classmates at that time noticed him and told me they watch the show as well and corrected me saying “that’s not called cartoon. The genre is called anime.” And Behold, that’s when they taught me about anime and introduced me to more anime. Haha.
At that time, it was 2006, I watched tons of anime’s like Naruto, cowboy bebop, Big O, trigun, bleach, hellsing, blood plus, death note, the list goes on but because I was so fascinated with it, I soon learned that there were nerd conventions called “anime conventions” that was held all across the United States. It consisted of people dressing up in cosplay, participating in panels, dancing at raves, making new friends, and meeting voice actors. At that time, it wasn’t super popular. It wasn’t known to be “cool” In society like it is now, but it was honestly the coolest thing ever. I didn’t attend my first con until 2013 I believe. It was here in Memphis, TN called the Anime Blues Con and I’m so proud of everyone and the con chair George Min because it’s still around and held every year and they all are doing such an amazing job!
I started my cosplay journey in 2016 and my first cosplay was Jirachi the wish maker from Pokémon. I made it myself and looking back it today I looked a hot mess! Hahaha. But it was my first time and I had so much fun dressing up as my favorite legendary Pokémon so it was fine. Ever since that day I have been cosplaying and perfecting my craft. There are some I designed on my own, or I get them commission from other pros that is bit better than me in challenging areas I am still trying to perfect such as armory design and sword prop making.
This journey has been a long and beautiful one, but I am not even close to putting a close on this journey. I have been in magazines, cosplay contests, other podcast platforms discussing my craft, and tons of photoshoots and a couple of them have went viral.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
As a black Cosplayer this road has NOT been smooth. Unfortunately, we still live in a time where racism exist and as much as I want it to go away, it won’t.
I have been called all types of names, racial slurs and made fun of because of the color of my skin and body size because the Japanese animation character skin is “white.” There are people who feel that in order to cosplay “correctly” you have to be the exact skin type, body size, basically an exact replica. It is giving cosplay a bad reputation and can discourage people from wanting to do it. I am here to say that cosplay is literally all about HAVING FUN. We are all nerds, geeks, otaku’s, whatever you want to call yourself. We were all brought together to share our love and passion about anime. We have the exact same common interest and there are characters that really touched our hearts because we relate to them in a way. I think that is the most beautiful thing about Japanese animation because it is very different from American animation. And to hear and get some hateful comments about the color of my skin and called racial slurs is really offensive that a lot of my black and brown brothers and sisters face in the community today. Cosplay is for EVERYONE. No matter the color of your skin, religion, body type, sexual preference, gender, age, anyone and everyone can cosplay!
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am a Cosplayer in Memphis, TN. Cosplay means costume play and I travel to conventions in cosplay designed by me or commissioned for me. I am mostly known for my Kaneda cosplay from the nostalgic anime movie name “Akira”. That cosplay went viral pretty quickly. I have also done cosplays such as Dabi and Hawks, from “My Hero Academia”, Chun-Li from “Street fighter, Joker, the list goes on.
I wanna say the work I am most proud of his my Dabi cosplay. That whole process with the makeup, hair, special effects, and photoshoot took 8 hours to do, but it was absolutely beautiful and I thank my friend so much for her help with the makeup. I was so exhausted after that. I didn’t get done until 4 am when I had to get ready for work at 5 am so that was some strong commitment and dedication to my craft!
Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
I want to thank my friends and family! I have a cosplay family that I love dearly so much! Trying to Cosplay professionally is not easy. You have to stay consistent and stay on top of content. When I have my days when I feel like I want to just give up or take a mental break my cosplay family are my first responders and my go to people for motivation and love that I need. Decies, Raine, Tina, stellara, Avery, Laila, Des, those are my people for life. I also want to mention my friends Keierra and Ashley. They are an amazing help and motivators as well when it comes to my photoshoots and advice on hair and makeup. I cherish them so much for their help.
These group of people saw something in me that took me a moment time to see. I cosplayed for fun but my passion for it got so much bigger than just wanting to do it every once in a while. My friends believed in me and encouraged me to continue on this journey. They support me a lot along with many other people that I haven’t mentioned but they know who they are. It’s a list of love and support from people that are dear to me.
Contact Info:
- Email: ccrockett042517@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hayami_angelcosplay/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hayamiangel18/
- Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/hayamiangel
Image Credits
Photographers: Courtney Crawford, Cashmere photography, and Arkitech Photography
