NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — As the ESSENCE Festival of Culture continues, organizers share their thoughts on the festival’s evolution and empowerment seminars.
“It is an opportunity to have the biggest Black family reunion we’ve ever had but what I mean by that is we now have BeautyCon here so everybody who loves BeautyCon throughout the year will come to the only Black BeautyCon. We have Afro Punk, who does all kinds of things around the world. In fact, our Afro Punk team is here. When we talk about what’s Essence? Essence is now the community and cultural family reunion of the diaspora,” said Essence Ventures president and CEO Caroline A. Wanga.
The empowerment seminars at the Convention Center have always existed, but now have expanded to include more experiences.
“Now the Black woman is the CEO of home, culture, and community. So, what’s the biggest change from when this festival started? The girl who was a princess is now a queen and now what we get to do is teach her how to own her throne,” Wanga said.
New Orleans Native Hakeem Holmes was named Vice President of the Essence Festival of Culture. In doing so, the festival hopes to solidify its ties to the city and showcase its beauty, culture, and diversity to all who visit.
“I think what we’re working towards is deepening our engagement with the city of New Orleans in a better way and talking through ways that we’re listening to the community. Making sure that a lot of what we’re bringing to light is representative of both New Orleans, is representative of both the Black community and it’s a bunch of different subspaces, for our culture because Black is not a monolith,” said Holmes.
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