Essence Magazine:
Courtesy of Create To Heal By India Espy-Jones ·Updated May 5, 2026 Getting your Trinity Audio player ready…
On a rainy April day in Los Angeles, Ms. Carolyn Smith decided she was ready to release decades worth of grief. The longtime Altadena resident and survivor of the Los Angeles fires in January 2025, sat inside North Hollywood’s Braidhouse with the hum of blow dryers and the buzzing of styling toolssrc=”https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/05/Candace-Interview1.heic”
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