Essence Festival of Culture is back with a purpose!
5th July 2022 · 0 Comments
By C.C. Campbell-Rock
Contributing Writer
The Essence Festival is back! After a two-year COVID hiatus, the “Party with a Purpose” returns to its ancestral home: New Orleans. The biggest Black cultural festival in the world runs from June 30 through July 3, 2022. It features the crème de la crème of Black entertainers, entrepreneurs, civil rights leaders, authors, politicians, professionals, and culture keepers.
The night concerts featured the Isley Brothers, The Roots & Friends, Method Man, Ghostface Killah, and Raekwon. Other performers include City Girls, Tems, and a special appearance from Wizkid, Janet Jackson, Nikki Minaj, New Edition, Jazmine Sullivan, Stephanie Mills, Chloe x Halle, Dru Hill, Ashanti, The Lox, and New Orleans own Lucky Daye, among others.
The 26th anniversary of “the party with a purpose,” played host to a cadre of Black movers and shakers, entertainers, entrepreneurs, civil rights leaders, politicians, educators, health and wellness professionals, beauty experts, and culture keepers to celebrate “It’s The Black Joy for Me,” The Essence Festival of Culture 2022’s theme.
“Given what we have collectively experienced over the last two years, the opportunity to convene and uplift in the spirit of culture, equity, celebration – and joy – is more of a privilege and honor than it has ever been,” said Caroline Wanga, CEO, Essence Communications, Inc. Wanga is a Kenyan native.
Connecting the Black diaspora through the Essence Culture Festival is Wanga’s mission.
“We know what the Transat-lantic Slave Trade did to take us away from the continent and around the world. We were a whole community before that moment. We’ve always been a verbal, a visual, storytelling culture. We still have all the things necessary to codify the Black global diasporic culture. So, we’re going to do our part.,” Wanga explains.
“Reconnecting the African diaspora is to reconnect the power that is who we are. Our culture, how we influence the world, what we are capable of has not gone away. It has been dissected. What we are excited to do is to bring it together, remind it how great it is, tell the story of before we were enslaved and colonized and return people back to the greatness that was what they were and what the greatness of this future is going to be,” she continues.
Indeed, the challenges confronting Black Americans are formidable. From killer cops to gerrymandered political disenfranchisement, attacks on voting rights, and a Supreme Court striking down constitutional rights that threatened the privacy and sanctity of Black women’s body autonomy, the struggle to not be thrown back to the 19th century Jim Crow is monumental.
This year, Essence Festival went all out to make participating easy. The festival was entirely physical and digital, from virtual and on-site vendors to in-person venues citywide and streamed on HULU.
The Essence Festival, the most significant global Black cultural event, began in New Orleans in 1995 as a one-time event to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Essence, a magazine celebrating African-American women. The first Essence Festival showcased leading Black entertainers. Unlike other festivals, the organizers brought the ancestral African village to life to share wisdom, hope, inspiration, and calls for action in repairing, supporting, uplifting, and protecting the Black collective.
The Essence Festival has always been an experience. Still, this year organizers and partners are offering a dizzying array of Experiences: Essence Beauty Carnival, E Suite, Essence Center Stage, Essence Evening Concert Stage, Essence Health Hub, Essence Eats Food & Wine Festival, Essence Tech Summit, Essence Wealth & Power – Featuring the Global Economic Forum, Essence Get Lifting Gospel Celebration, and the Essence Marketplace, among other experiences.
“The City of New Orleans and the ESSENCE Festival are inextricably linked through our remarkable history and our steadfast focus on and commitment to culture, community, and economic inclusion. We look forward to continuing this partnership to create an even deeper legacy of impact and inclusion for our city and for all who will join us in July to make this experience the best yet,” New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said.
“It’s a sentiment echoed by Wanga, who told the media during a press conference, “People can stop asking me if the Essence Festival will be held somewhere else,” the answer is no, Wanga confirms. She thanked Houston for hosting the festival in 2006 after Hurricane Katrina but said, “New Orleans is the foremost African-centered city in the United States” and a major cultural center, “New Orleans is the home of the Essence Festival,” she explained.
Among the many Essence Festival of Culture events was a three-day celebration of the signing of The CROWN Act. National Crown Day 2022 celebrates Black hair independence.
“We are so excited to celebrate National Crown Day in New Orleans this year,” says Esi Eggleston Bracey, CEO of Unilever North America Personal Care and president of Unilever USA. We want to celebrate the CROWN Act enacted in 16 states, 43 municipalities, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.”
CROWN Day activities included a CROWN Mural Unveiling, CROWN Conversations: The Making of the CROWN Movement, and CROWN Awards presented by DOVE. Among confirmed guests at the Awards are Mayor Latoya Cantrell, Kym Whitley, Issa Rae, Tabitha Brown, Mickey Guyton, and Tashara Parker.
Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards recently signed HB 1033 into law. State Representative Candace Newell wrote the anti-hair discrimination legislation. The CROWN Act addresses unfair grooming policies tantamount to racial discrimination in schools and workplaces.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in an anti-abortion case prompted the immediate need for civil rights advocates to gather at the Essence Festival to discuss the high court’s ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade. The Reverend Al Sharpton’s National Action Network convened a panel to discuss the decision’s impact and other Supreme Court actions that negatively impact black and brown communities, including rollbacks on gun safety and Miranda Rights and gerrymandered attacks on voting rights.
In January 2018, Essence Communications returned to a Black-owned corporation after its acquisition by Richelieu Dennis, the founder of Sundial Brands. So, it is totally appropriate that the Essence Festival of Culture launched a brand-new feature this year focusing on men.
“In His Zone: Men’s Experience” recognizes the spectrum of Black men expanding their horizons and reaching new heights in a brotherly atmosphere while promoting fun, freedom, and fellowship,” organizers announced. . New Orleans native Wendell Pierce, an actor, and businessman, led one of the experience’s discussions.
Essence Communications is a media, technology, and commerce company dedicated to Black women and communities.
This article originally published in the July 4, 2022 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
