Local businesswoman brings local spirit and culture to Essence Fest

25th June 2018   ·   0 Comments

By Kelly Parker
Contributing Writer

The Essence Festival is like a lively, beautifully-spirited relative who comes to town to celebrate and embrace all that is good about African-American music and culture every July 4th weekend. The event, which blends music and the message, is now more than concerts; it’s a movement.

Since its inception in 1994, the Essence Festival has grown phenomenally, drawing over 200,000 people to the city, and reaching over 15 million by way of digital platforms, with one of the highlights being its popular empowerment seminars.

The seminars have grown into an experience, providing a platform for renowned change agents and speakers such as Deepak Chopra, Oprah Winfrey, Ava DuVernay, Iyanla Vanzant and Hillary Rodham Clinton, all with the help of a New Orleans native.

Since 2007, Gina Charbonnet, and her company GeChar Inc., has served as the Executive Producer of Empowerment Programming. Charbonnet, an entertainment and production veteran of over two decades is responsible for the ideation and implementation of all aspects of editorial franchise programming, which includes the Empowerment Experience, the Gospel Industry’s acclaimed All Star Gospel Tribute and the experiential Beauty & Style, Path to Power and Essence Eats Expo Stages.

Established in 1999, GeChar is a premier resource in multi-media production, specializing in empowering cultural content and programming.

The GeChar team works with the Essence editorial staff on different articles, and/or columns produced throughout the year, taking the stories and content from the pages of the magazine to the empowerment stage. An example is the mayor’s panel, basically, stemming from the recent Magazine piece on African-American female mayors. Charbonnet hopes many will be on hand for this event as newly elected mayor LaToya Cantrell is the most recent addition to this distinct group of women.

“I’m excited about that. I’m looking forward to her (Cantrell) being a part of this,” she says. “This will focus on the strength of the Black woman’s voice, politically.”

Charbonnet is equally excited about Sunday’s events — the annual All-star Gospel tribute, which will honor legend Dottie Peoples this year.

“We have [a] mega church — it’s like, 6,000 seats,” she says.

The experience will once again feature a variety of curated panels, discussions, workshops and podcasts, headlined by some of the most influential voices in our culture. The 2018 lineup includes Maxine Waters, Angela Rye, Sybrina Fulton, Tarana Burke, Michael Eric Dyson, Symone Sanders, Vivica A. Fox, Luvvie Ajayi, Mona Scott Young and more.

The brainstorming and preparation for the experience begins for Essence and GeChar months before the July 4th weekend.

“We start to work with them, usually in December or January, discussing talent, who to pitch to. We negotiate, and handle all talent relations,” the Cabrini High graduate explains. “We’re like a talent/booking agency, creative content producer, and we also manage logistics on site. You have to manage each talent in a different way — and it takes a special je ne sais quoi to do that. We want to make our talent feel really special. We direct the show.”

“They are really engaged, and it’s not just a gig for them,” Charbonnet tells The Louisiana Weekly. “What’s happened (since the death of Trayvon Martin) is that many entertainers want to engage more on an advocacy level. They’ve become more conscious and they want to be more involved.”

Despite the overwhelming success, the event was originally launched as a one-time celebration of the anniversary of Essence Magazine. Charbonnet has been involved with the Essence Festival since its inception.

“I’ve been working with the Essence Fest for 23 years,” she says. “Working as a production assistant, many moons ago. I got hired while doing film production work on a series called Orleans, on Bayou Road. I got a job as PA, working at the convention center in 1996 — that’s how it all got started.”

To say Charbonnet had a full plate would be an understatement. From 2002 to 2004, she worked as Community Arts Management Director and Instructor at Xavier University, worked seasonally with the Essence Fest, all while running GeChar. Eventually, she began working directly with (former Essence Editor-in-Chief) Susan Taylor.

“Which sacred me, be-cause… she’s Susan Taylor,” Charbonnet admits. “She’s iconic. I would read ‘In the Spirit’ articles, and I would cry. She, to me, was the creator of women’s empowerment.”

“Once Katrina hit, Susan and I connected more,” she adds. ‘And when Essence came back to the city in 2007, I got the offer do the seminars.”

Charbonnet was between the Big Apple and the Big Easy for about 13 years, but has returned home and resides in Treme’, an area she knows quite well.

“I’m just a few blocks off Claiborne Ave., near St. Peter Claver Church. I grew up on second lining on St. Philip Street, near my family’s funeral home,” she says.

Her family is one of the most celebrated lineages in local business. Her father, the late Armand Charbonnet, was vice president of the family’s funeral home. The Charbonnet Labat Glapion funeral home has served as a Treme community mainstay for over 130 years.

However, Charbonnet tells The Louisiana Weekly that it was her late mother’s drive and ambition as an entrepreneur that motivated her to start her own business. Deanna Bernal Charbonnet established DeChar Creations.

“I come from a family of entrepreneurs, and my mom started designing clothes while she was in high school,” she shares. “She always had a dream to open her design company. She really worked hard to start her own company, and did so while she worked and raised three children. That’s what really inspired me.”

Charbonnet, a self-proclaimed late bloomer, has found her purpose. GeChar has allowed her to use her creativity to inspire others.

“I didn’t have any idea what my purpose was,” she says. “But I knew when I reached my 30s that I wouldn’t be working in someone’s office, working a nine to five. I was always creating. I knew I was going to do something that was very different. I am blessed. I am a woman in this space that can do work that changes the way people feel and think. And that’s important to me. Susan always stressed we can party and party, but there should be a purpose behind it. We had to give food for the soul. We have so many people here, why not give them something to take that will encourage them to be change agents when they leave?”

Back in April, Charbonnet was recognized as the 2018 Trailblazer by TheBlackProfessional.com for her commitment and contributions to the community, as she is working to help feed the souls of local creatives as well.

“I just want to give people like me a voice,” she told The Louisiana Weekly. “The big thing about what I do is that I can pass this on. It’s really important for me to have young people here that I can mold and mentor – give them a sense of what it feels like to do something herculean. Living back here allows me to help continue to tell the true story of the city’s culture. It’s time that people of color really have ownership of our culture and what’s being put out there. That’s why I’m here.”

To register for this year’s empowerment experience, go to https://essencefest2018.fishsoftware.com/register/.

This article originally published in the June 25, 2018 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.