Essence Magazine:
By Kiara Byrd ·
The post The Black Girl’s Guide To Travel: How To Slay Your First ESSENCE Festival appeared first on Essence.
Author: Shelby Stewart
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The Black Girl’s Guide To Travel: Where To Stay In New Orleans Based On Your Vibe
Essence Magazine:
The post The Black Girl’s Guide To Travel: Where To Stay In New Orleans Based On Your Vibe appeared first on Essence.
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A Guide To Juneteenth Celebrations Across The Country
Essence Magazine:
By Shelby Stewart ·Updated May 8, 2026 Getting your Trinity Audio player ready…
As long as I can remember, Juneteenth was always celebrated in my house growing up. Maybe because my family on both sides are generationally Texan, and on my father’s side, those roots trace back to Jack Yates himself — the man who, alongside other formerly enslaved Black men, purchased land in Houston so Black people could gather and
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Can You Expense Essence Fest? Asking For A (Creative) Professional Friend
Essence Magazine:
By Kimberly Wilson ·Updated May 7, 2026 Getting your Trinity Audio player ready…
Every June, my DMs start flooding with the same questions. The first: Do I have any extra tickets for ESSENCE Festival of Culture? The answer, always no. Sorry, ya’ll!
But the second question comes from creative professionals, entrepreneurs, and even corporate folks. And they’re all some variation of: “Girl, can I expense ESSENCE Fest?”
Look, I work for ESSENCE, so
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Leon Thomas, Babyface And Public Enemy Added To ESSENCE Festival 2026 Lineup
Essence Magazine:
(Photo by Erika Goldring/Getty Images) By ESSENCE Editors ·Updated May 7, 2026 Getting your Trinity Audio player ready…
For more than three decades, the ESSENCE Festival of Culture has returned to New Orleans as something bigger than a music festival. It’s a family reunion. A place where Black music across generations shares the same stage and somehow still feels in conversation with itself. You hear it in the hallways of
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‘Heart & Hustle: Houston’ Season 2 Turns Up the Drama
Essence Magazine:
Courtesy OWN By Shelby Stewart ·Updated May 5, 2026 Getting your Trinity Audio player ready…
In a city where ambition moves as fast as the traffic on 610, OWN’s Heart & Hustle: Houston returns with a second season that digs deeper—past the picture-perfect versions of success and into the complicated terrain of friendship, love and self-worth. Produced by the Emmy Award–winning Jesse Collins Entertainment for OWN, the reality series reintroduces
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Want To Be On Stage At ESSENCE Fest? Here’s The Real Way In
Essence Magazine:
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA – JULY 05: Keshia Knight Pulliam attends a panel discussion at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center during the Essence Festival of Culture on July 05, 2024 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Josh Brasted/FilmMagic) By Kimberly Wilson ·Updated May 5, 2026 Getting your Trinity Audio player ready…
Every July, New Orleans >ESSENCE Festival of Culture.
While the main stage will light up this year with artists such
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How My Fear Of The Single Black Mother Stereotype Kept Me In An Abusive Marriage
Essence Magazine:
Getty Images By Ama K. Karikari, Esq. ·Updated May 5, 2026 Getting your Trinity Audio player ready…
I was born a Black girl in New York City in the 1980s. It was a time when graffiti graced walls, Lojacks secured steering wheels, unsheltered people with substance abuse problems roamed the streets, and flashy drug dealers ruled corners. Who was responsible for this sordid state of affairs? Well if you watched
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On ‘Real Housewives’ Performance Comes At A Price
Essence Magazine:
By Shelby Stewart ·Updated April 21, 2026 Getting your Trinity Audio player ready…
The Real Housewives franchise has always been about the performance of wealth—aspirational, excessive, and just believable enough to keep us watching. When The Real Housewives of Orange County debuted in 2006, it wasn’t quite the high-gloss machine it is now. The women were adjacent to wealth, not entirely consumed by it. That distinction didn’t last long.
As Housewives expanded,