Essence Festival Faces Backlash After Shifting Away From Black American Roots
The 2025 Essence Festival of Culture, typically a joyful celebration of Black American identity, faced intense criticism this year after low turnout, logistical missteps, and a programming shift toward Pan-Africanism left many longtime attendees feeling alienated. Tensions between African Americans and Africans were pushed to the forefront, igniting conversations about cultural representation, diaspora unity, and the future of the festival.
Essence Festival of Culture is a yearly celebration of Black culture that people look forward to every July 4 weekend. It’s so popular that the movie “Girls Trip” made it a plot point in the film. Usually, attendees leave raving about how much fun they had…but not this year.
First there was a difference that people noticed when they arrived at the convention center. Hardly anyone was there.
Then there was drama with the music. First Lauryn Hill performed nearly two hours late and came out to a very small crowd… though for a change, the tardy performance wasn’t actually Miss Hill’s fault.
Then there was the Stephanie Mills debacle. She was so underwhelmed by the professionalism of the festival that she wrote an open letter decrying the organizers.
But let’s be real…we all know what everyone is talking about: The tension between Black Americans and Africans that the festival put on Front Street this year.
I’ve written about this before. For years there has been a rift between Black Americans (the descendants of slaves) and Africans (first or second generation immigrants from the continent.) To African Americans, the rift is mostly one-sided because we pay little attention to the negative comments from our brothers and sisters from the Motherland.
But this year’s Essence Festival has many talking about it, because what was once a celebration of Black American culture this year turned into something else.
Many have rightfully pointed out that Caroline A. Wanga, a Kenyan citizen, is the current president & CEO of Essence Ventures. They imply (well, say with their chest) that her being at the helm of the company is why the festival took a more Pan-African turn and tried to celebrate global Blackness instead of the distinctly American version of it.
There is certainly a need to try and unite Africans and Black Americans. We are more alike than we are dissimilar. And we would be wise to remember that.
Marcus Garvey, Stokely Carmichael and W.E.B. Du Bois all talked passionately about the need for Africans and Black people in America to see their destinies intertwined. Du Bois wrote that neither community would overcome anti-Blackness without the help of the other.
I’m the associate director of a Center for Africana Studies at a university, so I agree with the notion of trying to unite Africans and Black Americans. But the Essence Festival is not the place to try to accomplish this.
This festival has historically been a place where the culture of Black Americans is celebrated. The hard left turn into celebrating all Blackness is fine if you do not pull back on the celebration of Black people in this country. That’s where this year’s festival went wrong.
The noble effort to try to have a festival that celebrates the beautiful complexity of the people in the African Diaspora fell short. Black Americans felt left out. Many are claiming they will never go again.
Essence better get its act together and learn from what went wrong this year. People are writing obituaries for the quintessential July 4 cookout. If they don’t fix it quick, fast and in a hurry, this celebration of Blackness will be little more than a memory.
This piece was originally published in The Root. For more information, visit www.theroot.com.