For artist and advocate Sarita Drew (aka Ms. Lavendar Lovesgood), EveryBody Burlesque, was meant to be. She explains, “I got into burlesque when I was living in California and recovering from an abusive relationship.”

She was done feeling the way she was and asked herself: “What can I do to heal the toxic beliefs I’d developed around my body and self-worth?” She decided to put herself in intentional and constructive, but vulnerable, spaces to challenge those beliefs, like figure modeling and burlesque. What came from it was “well-being and community support and creativity and self-care. I was like, ‘Wow, okay, this is how to do it,’” she describes.

Then, Sarita was asked by a friend, Melinda Miller Klopfer of Les Filles Rouge, to emcee for a burlesque troupe performing for around 400 people, just three weeks before its big production. Her answer: “I’m totally in.” She says it was beautiful to be up on stage “dressed in what I was dressed in and using the words of empowerment and agency…I just had never had the vocabulary the way I was educated. It’s not the way society made me feel about being a woman.”

Sarita says that experience changed her life and sparked her dream of using art to provide recovery resources to victims of sexual assault. Back on the East Coast, her small business ideas began to coalesce into what is now EveryBody Burlesque. It’s designed to encourage all bodies to celebrate their erotic sovereignty, beauty, and radiance. And for Sarita, it’s a chance to “serve the community in a really playful, joyful, supportive, healing way.”

Ready to pour so much heart into this venture, Sarita wanted to do it right. Through her network, she heard about the Hannah Grimes Center for Entrepreneurship (HGC) and reached out to find out what resources might be available for locals with small business ideas. She ended up applying to be part of HGC’s Business Lab and says, “It’s been delightful.”

“I mean, you get to meet fellow entrepreneurs, have creative input, and just really learn a lot. It’s awesome.” She has found the content highly engaging and describes: “I definitely sped up my business a lot because of this course. Where am I going? What do I want? How do I want to get there? Who’s my target audience?”

While in the process of fleshing out plans, EveryBody Burlesque is already in full swing. Sarita has participated in multiple large-scale events, including partnering with Keene Pride, who shared resources and support despite the business being brand-new. 

She also collaborates with SideStream Studio in Brattleboro, where she hosts a movement-focused support group for survivors of assault monthly. In addition, she leads a class for the 50+ community at the Keene Senior Center, who welcomed her to teach when she had just moved back from the West Coast.

Across the board, the clear response from people has been gratitude. “I’m very intentional with my messaging. And I’ve had a lot of people come up and be like, ‘Thank you for talking about domestic violence on stage in a way that was palatable and I could understand and was still playful,’” Sarita says.

In productions and classes, she focuses on showcasing what it looks like to talk about sexuality in a healthy way and love yourself first. “We’re all adults. How can we have open communication about this in order to raise awareness, educate, and the ultimate mission—help trauma not happen around sex?” she poses. 

One goal is to create a traveling show that visits colleges as part of freshman orientation to set a culture of consent and communication. Sarita hopes to collaborate with vibrant, local burlesque production company, Flambé Cabaret to make this a reality. 

Sarita has big small business ideas and with help from Hannah Grimes, she’s ready to make them happen. “Not only is it like passionate, supportive people, but it’s a whole community of: ‘Let’s do this!” she says of HGC.

Written by Caroline Tremblay, founder of Owl & Pen.