The Official Response To The Essence Festival Of Culture Backlash

DISCLAIMER: This open letter is not from an Essence employee but from a licensed and certified international journalist who attended and covered the 31st Annual Essence Festival of Culture from July 3-6, 2025. I write this response to all doubters of the greatness this event embodies and to the media conglomerates that chose to weaponize technology to critique, distort, or misrepresent what truly occurred. To everyone who spoke or wrote about the Essences Festival in a disparaging and unfactual manner, this is for you.

As a fellow journalist, I have a good understanding of the profession. Some reporters are on assignment to find flaws. Others, like myself, report the truth—unfiltered, unapologetic, and urgent. I write this for two reasons:

To correct the record, the Essence Festival of Culture in New Orleans is America’s Premier celebration of “Black” music, creativity, food, art, and culture. It didn’t say that the festival was exclusively for ‘Black Americans’ as it covers the African Diaspora (Afro-Latinos, Afro-Asians, Africans, Afro-Caribbeaners, Afro-Americans, and more). This year’s theme, "Made Like This," is fitting for this open letter because without Africa, there would not be a United States made like this, which includes this global phenomenon called the Essence Festival. I am not here to boast, but to give readers context about who this writer is: I am likely the only journalist at the festival pressroom with nearly 25 years of collegiate history teaching experience. I’ve served as Vice Commander (Honorary) for the 314th Airlift Wing at Little Rock Air Force Base, advising college presidents, the FBI, and law enforcement. I am a global authority on the Tuskegee Airmen, a published author, an NBC acting credit holder, and the founder of America’s first National HBCU Black Wall Street Career Fest. My foundation is not based on entertainment—it’s built on Jesus, family, health, education, historical accuracy, and socio-political awareness.

To extend an apology to our African brothers and sisters who may have felt disrespected or excluded. There is already far too much disregard for Africa and African leadership. Just days before the festival, Donald Trump mocked President Joseph Boakai of Liberia, a nation founded by African Americans. Trump’s comments about the Liberian leader's English revealed a condescension rooted in ignorance. Liberia’s first language is English. Yet these disrespectful remarks got little media attention. It's the same reason Africa has sustained an Olympic avoidance at any point in ancient or modern world history. This proves the point that Africans and African Americans can help each other. Africa is not just great for labor, gold, diamonds, and cobalt, but it's also greater with unity.

And still, while music legends graced the Superdome, criticisms flew. According to BET, R&B icon Stephanie Mills voiced frustrations about sound issues, which may have been valid. Yet, Jill Scott—performing during the same “Philly Jawn” segment—smiled through it, gave subtle cues, and reminded us: this was live music. Patti LaBelle took the stage at 1 a.m.—and while critics questioned her age, I respond with this: when Sir Paul McCartney performs at 83, no one asks why. Because legends show up, regardless of the hour. Black women deserve the same grace we give to aging white male artists.

We must stop holding our Black-owned institutions to impossible standards we never apply elsewhere. You’ll gladly pay $5 extra for cold fries at McDonald’s or accept being ignored at Walmart or Amazon. But when Jerome and Shae’s BBQ mess up your order twice in a year, you’re ready to write scathing Yelp reviews and tell everyone to “never support this Black business again.” That’s internalized oppression. That’s self-hate in disguise. It is high time we recognize that Black businesses are not only worthy of our support but also of our patience.

The Essence Festival is more than a concert—it’s a cultural mechanism that brings every shade of Black to New Orleans. From Atlanta to Accra, Jackson, Mississippi, to Johannesburg, Essence is the bridge between African Americans and the greater African diaspora. And yes, it matters that the current owner of Essence, Richelieu Dennis, is Liberian-American. That’s not a coincidence—that’s destiny. The same destiny that gave birth to a cultural gathering that is both spiritual and strategic. Davido and the afrobeats nation did well. He was welcomed as if he were Bruno Mars. I would embrace Bruno Mars just the way I embrace Tina Marie, John B, Blondie, Michael Bolton, Michael McDonald, Beastie Boys, and Eminem at the Essence Festival. Yes, African Americans invented all popular genres of music, and Black people are contagious. All of these legendary artist, like everyone else, is infected. They are all, like Davido, welcomed, and we groove to their music just like the others. The Essence Festival of Culture is cultivated around the “melanated mania” globally, but especially in the United States. We are living in perilous times right now. Let’s not get distracted because unity and love are the key. Bruno Mars loves making music, and I love listening to it.

Blackness is not monolithic, but it is unified by our shared resistance and superpower called melanin. Whether it is the scars of slavery in Mississippi or the colonial wounds of Sierra Leone, we are connected. Essence is one of the few platforms that affirms that connection. It allows us to celebrate while still being conscious. To dance while still being deliberate. And to convene without compromise. Firery darts will come, we just have to be mindful of who’s casting them at us, us or them?

To help celebrate the 31st anniversary of the Essence Festival, here are 31 raw and unfiltered truths that prove why greater unity between Africans and African Americans is more urgent and necessary now more than ever:

ECONOMIC & RESOURCE TRUTHS

1. The Brookings Institute data says, Black Americans possess over $1.8 billion in annual spending power but own less than 2% of U.S. wealth.
2. Africa holds 30% of the world’s mineral wealth, but remains exploited and impoverished.
3. The Congo alone supplies over 60% of global cobalt, powering tech products while its children mine under duress.
4. Chinese and European interests have colonized African economies under “development” deals.
5. Diasporic Black influence in the West is strong but remains politically and intentionally underleveraged.
6. Corporations exploit Black culture without reinvesting in Black liberation or unity.
7. Essence Fest has pumped well over $3 billion into the New Orleans economy since 2015. Some reports suggest that it was nearly a $1 billion boost for the 30th in 2024.

CULTURAL & PSYCHOLOGICAL TRUTHS 8. Divide-and-conquer tactics still separate African Americans and continental Africans. 9. Africans taught to view African Americans as lazy; African Americans taught to see Africans as primitive. 10. These are colonial lies reinforced by the media and education. 11. Our trauma is shared, shaped by different systems, but rooted in the same white supremacy. 12. Black beauty globally is filtered through Eurocentric standards.

13. We are often foreigners in the nations we helped build or defend. 14. Pan-Africanism was criminalized because it posed a threat to white supremacy. 15. Leaders like Sankara, Lumumba, and Malcolm X were assassinated to prevent Black unity. 16. Slavery didn’t just steal labor—it stole scholars, architects, and spiritual leaders.

SPIRITUAL & IDENTITY TRUTHS 17. Most African Americans descend from West African bloodlines—Ghana, Benin, Nigeria. 18. Diasporic religions are African spiritual systems in disguise. 19. Our youth are disconnected from their indigenous knowledge. 20. Africans lost dignity under colonization; African Americans lost land and language.

POLITICAL & RESISTANCE TRUTHS 21. African and African American resistance leaders were targeted, imprisoned, or killed. 22. U.S. foreign policy destabilized African nations for decades. 23. Black soldiers fought in wars only to be denied full citizenship. 24. Black bodies are devalued from Ferguson to Libya. 25. Anti-Blackness is global—it just wears different disguises. 26. Structural racism in Arkansas = loitering laws; in Kenya = neocolonial wealth gaps. 27. Poor Black people in the U.S. are criminalized for surviving, penalized for being poor.

28. U.S. AGs target the unhoused while ignoring the root causes of poverty.

TRUTH 31 – THE CALL TO UNITY 29. When Africans and African Americans unite, no system can contain our collective power. Our oppressors know it. That’s why they fuel our divisions, magnify our petty differences geographically and linguistically.

A CALL TO ACTION

In 2025, we didn’t just witness Black joy—we experienced Black strategy. The 31st Annual Essence Festival of Culture was a masterclass in resilience. It is no accident that nearly 500,000 people attended, and no homicides or major incidents were reported. That reality bothers the oppressor. It defies every stereotype.

We must protect and expand this blueprint. Let Essence be the model for a new era of Pan-African partnerships. Essence's leaders, please consider your 2026 theme “From Employees to Employers: The Rise of Black Wall Streets.”

Let Essence become more than a festival—let it be the birthplace of a global Black strategy. Let this be a beacon for diasporic visionaries to build schools, fund media, and own production globally.

To Richelieu Dennis and the entire Essence team, thank you. Your leadership is proof that the culture is in divine hands. You’ve given Black America not just a window to its past, but a passport to its future—and a bridge back to its roots.

This isn’t just Essence. This is Black Wall Street Relived, and for that, we thank you. Please share this true story turned op-ed that’s The Official Response to the Essence Festival of Culture Backlash’ to a publication that invests in human capital.

Sincerely,
Edmond W. Davis
International Journalist, History Professor & Author