Uncategorized

Reclaiming Essence: A Blueprint for a 2026 Renaissance

For over three decades, the Essence Festival of Culture has been a pilgrimage, a necessary “family reunion” for Black America. But in the summer of 2025, the reunion felt strained. The crowds seemed thinner, the energy more fraught, and the online post-mortem was a brutal mix of economic grievances and cultural critiques. A narrative battle began before the last suitcase was even packed: Was this a simple down year, or a sign of a deeper sickness?

The truth is, a failing institution will always offer up a simple story to explain its decline. But the real story is never that simple. To understand what happened to Essence, you have to look past the surface-level debates and follow the money, the frustration, and the foundational cracks that made the whole structure vulnerable.

The Anatomy of a Crisis

An event like Essence doesn’t stumble because of one thing; it falters when underlying weaknesses are met with external force. The external force was a perfect storm of economic pressure. The internal weaknesses were a series of unforced operational errors.

First, the economic reality: the festival’s core demographic, Black women, is weathering a brutal financial season, with unemployment rising faster for them than for any other group. This isn’t an abstract data point; it’s the rent getting paid, or not. It’s the flight to New Orleans that never gets booked. Add to this the drying up of corporate DEI funds, the very pipeline that once supported the Black-owned brands in the vendor marketplace, and you have a crisis of both consumer and commercial confidence. People and businesses simply could not afford the pilgrimage.

Compounding this reality were the logistical slights. A clunky app, last-minute ticket sales, and poor sound quality in the Superdome are not minor inconveniences. They are signals of disrespect to an audience that has invested its time, trust, and dwindling disposable income. These weren’t just cracks in the foundation; they were the kindling, perfectly dried and waiting for a spark.

Diaspora Wars and Economic Truths

That spark, when it came, was the “Battle of Jollof vs. Jambalaya.” It was the perfect flashpoint because it allowed everyone to engage in a familiar, almost comfortable, conflict: the Diaspora Wars. It’s a debate that feels deeply resonant because it mimics the political realities of our time. We have learned to regurgitate identity politics tropes, to draw lines in the sand over heritage, and to expose or create divisiveness as a primary form of public discourse.

This pattern inevitably seeks a human focal point, and in this case, it predictably landed on the festival’s leadership. The simmering concerns about its Kenyan-born CEO became a convenient stand-in for every frustration, allowing a complex business problem to be flattened into a simple narrative about cultural belonging.

And so, while digital warriors passionately litigated the culinary history of two continents and the national origins of festival leadership, they conveniently missed the far more urgent, and brutally unifying, truth.

To borrow a phrase from a famously blunt political strategist: It’s the economy, stupid.

People weren’t canceling flights to New Orleans because they were scrutinizing the CEO’s passport. They were staying home because they lost their jobs. The corporate pullback of DEI funding isn’t a symbolic slight; it’s the empty vendor stall. The need for “Buy Now, Pay Later” at other festivals isn’t a cultural debate; it’s a flashing red light on the dashboard of household finances.

Focusing on cultural purity contests and leadership lineage while the economic foundation crumbles is a luxury no one can afford. It’s a profound misreading of the real and present crisis. True diaspora unity, the very soul of a global homecoming, isn’t found in a shared consensus on recipes or birthplaces. It’s forged in the shared struggle against the economic forces that threaten to keep us all home.

The Blueprint for a Reality Check

A renaissance isn’t built on slogans; it’s built on an honest, painful, and necessary reset. The path forward for Essence requires less talk of “vibes” and more respect for the fundamentals.

  1. Stop Posturing, Start Listening: Disband the idea of a top-down cultural vision. Formally empower a “Community Council” of attendees, NOLA cultural leaders, and small business owners. Give them a real budget and a real say in programming. This isn’t a focus group; it’s a transfer of power back to the people who built the institution with their dollars and their loyalty.
  2. Respect the Audience’s Wallet: The current ticketing model is an insult to the economic reality of the audience. Unbundle the experience immediately. Offer a lower-cost “Homecoming Pass” for daytime events and the convention center, and sell the stadium concerts as a separate, premium add-on. Acknowledge that not everyone has Superdome money, but everyone deserves access to the family reunion.
  3. End Predatory Vendor Practices: Treat the Black-owned businesses that line the marketplace as partners, not ATMs. Overhaul the fee structure from a high-risk, upfront cost to a lower fee with a higher percentage of sales. Their success is the festival’s success. When they win, the entire ecosystem is richer and more authentic.
  4. Tell an Honest Story: The marketing for 2026 must begin with an apology, not a hype reel. Acknowledge the failures of 2025. Tell the audience you heard them. Then, spend the next year building a narrative around the changes being made. Market the renewed commitment to the community, not just the list of headliners.

Essence is at a crossroads. It can continue to be a legacy brand managing its own decline, distracted by internal debates while its audience votes with their wallets. Or, it can embrace this crisis as a mandate for radical change. It can choose to be the vital, indispensable homecoming its community needs it to be—not just in spirit, but in practice.

Big Ideas · Uncategorized

Creating Content in a Post Chat GPT/Bard World

As artificial intelligence (AI) technology advances, so does the content creation process. With the rise of GPT-3 and BARD, content creators are now able to generate high-quality content quickly and efficiently. However, this has also led to concerns about the future of content creation and the role of human creators. Let’s discuss how to create content in a post-chat GPT/BARD world.

The Benefits of GPT/BARD

GPT-3 and BARD have revolutionized the content creation process. These AI tools can generate high-quality content quickly and accurately, saving time and increasing productivity. For me, they serve as a way to destroy writer’s block and get a lot of content on paper quickly. It changes my approach from choosing which words get added to rapid subtraction

The Role of Human Creators

While GPT-3 and BARD are useful tools, they cannot replace the creativity and unique perspective of human creators. Human creators bring their own experiences and viewpoints to the content creation process, adding a personal touch that AI cannot replicate. Fundamentally, your content has to have heart. People can tell the difference.

Balancing AI and Human Creativity

The key to creating content in a post-chat GPT/BARD world is to strike a balance between AI and human creativity. Utilize AI tools for tasks such as research and idea generation, but ensure that the final product is infused with your own unique perspective and voice. Human creators should also focus on creating content that is authentic and resonates with their audience, rather than simply optimizing for search engines, like this paragraph for example.

Conclusion

In conclusion, GPT-3 and BARD are powerful tools that can aid in the content creation process. However, human creativity is still an essential component of creating high-quality content. By striking a balance between AI and human creativity, content creators can continue to thrive in a post-chat GPT/BARD world.

Uncategorized

Agile Democracy

Globally, we’ve seen an increase in strongman leaders who take a more authoritarian approach to run their countries. They have the mandate from the people, normally accelerated by populist speeches and changes in society that are in danger of disrupting the status quo.

The promise of these strongmen is pretty standard across the board, ” I’m here to cut through the politics and drive the change no matter what it takes.”. As a result, we’ve seen leaders literally find any opportunity to sidestep institutions in their way. Boris Johnson, for example, illegally suspended parliament in order to prevent a no-Brexit vote or Donald Trump sidestepping Congress to build a wall on the Mexican border.

While their tactics are questionable, democratically- elected strong men tapped into something that’s been an issue with democracies but further exacerbated by the present realities of the world. We live in a world of instant. We get information instantly. We communicate instantly. We get packages within hours where it used to take weeks. It seems like everything in our world got faster but our democratic process. Democracy, as an institution, seems super slow in today’s world. As a result, citizens are frustrated and feel like democracy, as it is, is not working for them. They’ve elected leaders who championed alternative methods and came from outside politics to change the way things are done in their respective countries.

I don’t believe more authoritarian leaders are a sustainable solution. We have to look at how to revamp our institutions so that they are more responsive to people’s needs and realities. We need to reshape policies and procedures so they are more inclusive to populations that don’t feel like they’re heard in the current democratic process. We need a form of democracy that is agile at its core but driven by the same steadfast democratic values that have gotten us this far.

Normally, I’d go into a summary of potential solutions but this is a multi-layered problem that could require a whole book to explain. To be brief, people need more active ownership of the democratic process. Democracy needs to be more accessible to citizens. We also need some procedural and structural changes to decentralize power but also centralize power when the system calls for it. Democracy needs a reboot.

#MentalNote · music · Uncategorized

1:48 Part II

When I initially started writing my thoughts around the new Jay-Z album, I was pretty set on what I wanted to say. ” 4:44 is a set of journal entries of a man that’s done a lot, made a lot of mistakes, seen success, but ultimately wonders how his actions, experiences, and family will be remembered.” Seems logical and sound based on the lyrics and explanation of each song. But there’s so much more, especially when you put 4:44 in the context of when it was released and the Jay-z that released it. We can over analyze it till kingdom come but I’m just going to focus on two areas that hit me based on other things I saw/read last week. (This ended being way longer than I thought it was going to be so I split it into two parts… this is part 2 of 2)

Dave McClure and Jay-Z defining masculinity? 

Earlier this week, Dave McClure, Co-Founder of 500 Startups, stepped down as GP due to multiple claims of sexual harassment from women founders and associates. As a huge fan of 500 Startups, their mission and outcomes, I was truly saddened by these allegations but not surprised. As most people know who’ve engaged with the Silicon Valley ecosystem, there’s a bro-ish culture still entrenched in how people do business which creates a sometimes hostile environment for women and minorities. Don’t get it twisted though, its not just Silicon Valley. I’ve heard similar stories from women in other sectors; the higher you go, the more questionable and outright disrespectful behavior you encounter. Why is it that some people in power, who often happen to be men, feel they are beyond moral and ethical parameters in how they engage with others? One of the key explanations I’ve heard in the recent week or so around sexual harassment in the VC space is there’s a “machismo/masculinity” problem that needs to be addressed and I agree. As a society, we have an outdated perspective on what masculinity encapsulates. Most men (and women) still operate on masculinity 1.0. As a result, we have guys chasing outdated ideas of masculinity that disenfranchises women and other men.

Masculinity 1.0 is purely focused on the three p’s; protection, providing, and pro-creation. Any student of history and biology understands the rationale and advantage in  providing the the three p’s to your family and tribe.  Make as many kids as you can, protect your lineage and your group, and provide food and shelter for those you are responsible for. Masculinity 1.0 got us to where we are now; 7 billion + people, weapons of mass destruction, and economic system allows us to trade currency for food and shelter.

Fortunately/ unfortunately (depending at how you look at it), we live in a time where we’ve built institutions to manage the key areas that define masculinity. For most in the developed world, the state takes care of security, you can go to the store and buy food instead of hunting, you don’t have to build your house, and sometimes men aren’t even needed for procreation. (Yes smarty pants, money has become an intermediary but hold off on that thought for now.)  What does masculinity look like now that we have most of the basic external threats covered?

4:44 surprisingly encompasses this same question but from Jay-z’s perspective. He’s experienced most of his life through the masculinity 1.0 lens. From his experience hustling, building his business empire, promiscuity…etc, he’s done what he’s done to get to what we see today. Will that take him to the next level though?  Kill Jay-Z kind of gets at this struggle between who his was and who he has to be now that he has a family and is focused on building legacy. What does masculinity 2.0 look like from Jay-Z’s perspective?

  1. Legacy – its an important theme throughout 4:44. I think Jay looks at providing from a societal and generational perspective. It’s less about his kids and more about his children’s children and lifting up those around him. Many would argue this is a function of his socioeconomic realities. I’d disagree.  The “7th generation” principle taught by many Native American tribes say that in every decision, be it personal, governmental or corporate, we must consider how it will affect our descendants seven generations into the future. Legacy is something everyone can think about.
  2. Courage- I don’t know if Jay-Z could have made this album earlier in his career. Outside of my feelings about spilling your own tea, it takes a lot of courage to open up about your shortcomings. I guess Beyonce may have given him some. Courage in the face of adversity and tough times is essential to being a modern man.
  3. Self Improvement/Expertise – Jay-Z shows us in 4:44 why he’s one of the G.O.A.Ts of the music industry. 13 albums in, he’s still making quality music. He’s perfected his craft overtime and become one of the best at it. Mastery and self improvement is at the core of masculinity 2.0. What are you doing every day to improve yourself and build mastery?
  4. Morality/ Predictable framework for how you operate – Jay, for better or worse, lays out his sense of of morality and his perception on how he tries to live his life. Living by a code, set of rules, or framework helps de-risk relationships so people know you before they meet you. It also helps to navigate gray area situations.

Transitioning away from masculinity 1.0 to a more modern day appropriate definition of masculinity will provide a new set of traits, actions and characteristics for men to aspire to. I believe a transition will do its part to eradicate some of the toxic behavior and beliefs we see as common place.