The Weekly: My Top 11 ESSENCE Fest Moments
#1: Keith Lee loves a list! PLUS: your actual last chance to attend my Love Island watch party (for real) at Eaton DC, what I'm reading right now, and no Lives this week.
Happy Monday!
Why was my flight back to D.C. delayed over six hours?! Baby, I spent eight hours at the airport (catching up on Love Island) and walked in my house at 4:05am! 🙃
New Orleans was great! It always is. You know NOLA is my favorite U.S. city (period), and the more I visit, the more I fall in love with it.
There’s a lot of chatter about ESSENCE Fest on social media right now. I’ll share my thoughts on TikTok here later today. Regardless of my feedback, I had a great time. I think I’m officially one of the aunties who will try to go annually.
In no particular order, here are some of my favorite moments (which will have individual Instagram and TikTok videos and posts eventually 😩):
Keith Lee loves a list. The story of how I stumbled upon Vaseline’s influencer mixer is a long story I’m to tired to get into right now. I’m just glad the stars aligned. I met so many of my mutuals (creator speak for users who follow each other), many IRL for the first time. Vaseline did that overall. Ronnie’s husband just happened to be there too, and he was like I watched you before and after the DC food tour. Don’t worry: I volunteered myself as tribute to offer counsel for his next DC trip.
Thee Danessa Myricks. I didn’t wear a stitch of makeup the entire five days I was in New Orleans. Ugliness and hyperpigmentation TO DI WORLD! It’s too hot to care although I should care, especially since I’m in this weird place as a regular person and attendee, but I have a little visibility. Anyways, after visiting the Chéribé booth in the convention center to get some goodies I didn’t get missing its influencer gifting suite on Thursday, I met up with my friends at the BeautyCon stage. Danessa Myrick’s Passion to Profit fireside chat was in progress. The beauty guru dropped so many gems. When the panel ended, I was ready to go back to the hotel. My management team, who are also dear friends, was like YOU BETTER GO INTRODUCE YOURSELF! I’m like how am I going to speak to the Queen of Makeup with all this oil build up and dark spots? Anyways, Danessa gave me her marketing director’s email. 😊
The Session R&B Jam. First, big shoutout to
. You know how I keep y’all up-to-date with DC events? The Nola Collective does that in New Orleans. Its ESSENCE Fest event guide listed The Session’s live event on Saturday night at the New Orleans Jazz Market in Center City. I wasn’t familiar with the collective of SANGERZ, but my friend was. She loves them and was like let’s get a table. It’ll be worth it. Baby, A TIME! My exact type of carrying on. The crowd, which included some stars like Amber Riley, Kendrick Sampson, Kenyon Dixon and Supa Cent, had great energy. The next time The Session is in D.C., I’m in there for sure.
A brief road trip to Gentilly. We settled on going to Dawn Richard’s open mic Friday night at StudioBE (Black-owned art gallery btw) on Friday night. I first went to StudioBE In 2023. I was telling my best friend getting the Lyft where we were going. I was said, “StudioBE. E. E.” to put emphasis that it’s BE and not just the letter B. Well, we ended up in across Lake Pontchartrain heading to the Studio Bee hair salon. We paid our drive double to get us back in city limits. We did catch the last 10 minutes of the open mic. In general, all our rider ratings plummeted this weekend, because we’re also cutting up in these drivers’ cars. But it was funny!
Brunch at JusTini’s. This Black woman-owned restaurant in Bywater has BEEN on my list of places to eat. I just couldn’t get my availability and JusTini’s hours lined up. But things lined up this weekend. Cocktails and food were on point. Courtyard outback. Glam Southern Gothic on the inside. R&B music for singing along. Also, there just happened to be a pop-up shop at JusTini’s while we were there. Jewell the Jeweler is NOLA-based Black-owned accessories brand. I may or may have spent almost $200. Here are my new dark green sunnies. You’ll see the jewelry in my next Black-owned haul.
First time at Backatown and St. Noir. Priority number one for all my New Orleans trips (and travel in general) is patronizing as many Black-owned businesses as possible. Backatown Coffee Parlour has long been on my list of places to visit, and St. Noir Café has only been open for two months. I love both! I’ll be back at both during future trips. Both are beautiful spaces to work and meet with delicious food and specialty beverage options. Here’s my order at Backatown. Here’s my order at St. Noir.
My friends’ hotel. I stayed at the Renaissance Pere Marquette that last two times I was in New Orleans. Both stays were great, but I wanted to switch it up this year and be even closer to the convention center this year. I was supposed to moderate a panel on the ESSENCE Authors stage again this year. I got word about the panel after Memorial Day, so I was pressed to lock in a hotel. The hotel I booked (don’t ask) was one I was familiar with. I’d been to its restaurant two NOLA trips ago. Unfortunately, the first floor dungeon (literally a window with a view of a brick wall and no accent furniture) wasn’t it! My friends stayed next door because their bougintuition said they’re not staying at my hotel (which is fine). I’m going to gatekeep the name until I book my 2026 room. Just know we had a time at the mixxy ass hotel. It was a vibe.
Reclaimed evenings. I don’t think you understand how much of a time drain attending the Evening Concert Series can be. You basically have to end your day at 4 or 5pm-ish to go back to your hotel, freshen up, change outfits, get dinner and head to the Caesar’s Superdome in traffic for 7 or 8pm. And this year’s concerts were ending 2-4am every night. Think of all the gallivanting and dilly dallying you can do with that time. It was nice just chilling around the city with my girls at the lounges and bars on Frenchmen and St. Claude. Of course, go to the concerts if you want to go to the concerts. I’m just not as personally pressed anymore. I’ve seen 90% of most Festival lineups, and I like the extra hundreds of dollars in my pocket.
Seeing y’all IN the city. I met a lot of y’all at Loretta’s Authentic Pralines and Baldwin & Co. coffee + bookstore on Thursday. Both Black-owned businesses are located in the city’s Marigny neighborhood. You all said that you’re partly here because I’ve told y’all to. Not y’all listening to me talking in the phone! Your support of the city’s Black-owned businesses means SO much.
Discovering my new favorite happy hour in Downtown. Please check out KING’s daily happy hour (get the crawfish beignets) and Two Buck Schuck raw oyster special on Tuesdays. Weekend brunch (get the crawfish beignets) is great too. This spacious and swanky hotel restaurant is a little underrated. I don’t understand why. Anyways, I’m adding KING to the rotation.
Learning about calas and having the best coffee I’ve ever had. I headed to Tremé on Saturday morning to see what’s new at both the New Orleans African American Museum and Backstreet Cultural Museum. After seeing the new Ancestral Odyssey exhibit at NOAAM, I stumbled upon the Calas Café pop-up in the back of the “Blue House.” The small Black-owned business is at NOAAM Tuesday-Sunday every week during business hours. I met and spoke with the owner Brandon, who showed me how to make calas. Think of the sweet fritter as the predecessor to the beignet. The calas and Brandon’s lemon curd sauce were divine! And the coffee! No added milk or sugar. THE SORCERY IT WAS SO GOOD. I’ll have a whole video dedicated to both next week.
It’s a busy week! Seeing the Creole lady tonight. Book event tomorrow. Sponsored staycation later this week. Love Island watch party on Thursday (use code kekewyatt [IYKYK] for the handful of tickets left).
-T
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Most anticipated read: The Illusion of Power (Passion and Politics book 1) by J.L. Seegars
No Lives This Week
No Talia’s Coloring Corner, Talia Talk Tuesdays or Talia’s Book Nook this week! See you on live later this month!