Year after year, ESSENCE has proudly driven meaningful impact through intentional, locally rooted wellness programs, partnerships, and community spaces, especially in New Orleans during the ESSENCE Festival of Culture.

Last year, this intentionality was shown in the form of its inaugural Community Day, taking place at what is now known as Louisiana State University (LSU) New Orleans, bringing together leaders and organizations of all backgrounds to offer a wealth of resources to local youth and families who may not normally partake in the festival’s programming inside the Convention Center. To switch things up a bit, this year’s impactful and carefully crafted event honed in on uplifting and supporting a particular group of New Orleans youth found in the heart of the city.

Through ESSENCE Festival of Culture’s ongoing Create to Heal initiative, the 2026 Community Day is reimagined in partnership with the Ashé Cultural Arts Center, a nonprofit organization that has served as a mecca for Black New Orleans creativity for nearly 30 years, whether it be theatre productions, art exhibits, community events, or intimate cultural gatherings. Under the ACAC umbrella is the Kuumba Academy – a seven-week program that uses cultural arts as a vehicle for youth development.

Rather than drawing youth and families to a community day event, this year, ESSENCE brings it to their front porch, right in Central City New Orleans at the ACAC campus, giving Kuumba Academy students an all-day experience full of joy, care, and culture.

“Kuumba Academy is founded on creativity,” says Ramona Graham, creative programs director for ACAC. “That creativity is also rooted in African ancestry and spirituality, so when we cultivate and nurture our children, we do that through creativity and art.”

The day begins with the group of youth singing their song of Kuumba, which asks the questions, “What’s in the news? How are you feeling?” From there, students are divided up to begin their creative and wellness workshops, ranging from drumming and dance, sound bowls, fanmaking, and writing their own poetry.

“They have an opportunity to express themselves in a variety of ways, and that is intentional,” Graham shares. “As a mother, I wanted to create a space that I wanted for myself as a child. A space where I can be free and be loved on…where I can learn from my elders and find my voice and know that I’m seen. Our ancestors had a Swahili word called ‘Nakuona,’ which means, ‘I see you,’ meaning, ‘I understand you, I feel you, and you are present in my life.’ So we use that term here as well, and we want each and every child to know they are seen and they are heard.”

Following a full day of workshops, Community Day winds down with a block party featuring a DJ, local food vendors, and the “Culture in Motion” Boost Bus experience, powered by The Apollo and Kwanza Jones. Infused with heritage, innovation, and community connection, the Culture in Motion experience is a high-energy, on-the-move roadshow that encompasses 90 years of the historic, legendary Apollo Theatre. From the “Tree of Hope” that artists famously came in contact with before their performance, to a mockup of the world-famous backstage “signature wall,” Kuumba academy students are given a chance to emerge themselves into what it was like to truly have a night at the Apollo.

“Apollo has a fondness for ESSENCE and Ashé,” Graham shares. “Not only do kids get the nostalgia of the Apollo Theatre right here in their backyard, with the bus’ sound booth and recording area, they really get to experience what it’s like to step into the level of professional artistry. They get to experience things in life that I wish I had the opportunity to experience, and there are many other children who still don’t get that experience.”

Providing New Orleans youth with these once-in-a-lifetime experiences is what fuels Graham’s work day-in and day-out.

“I want them to be proud of the work I do for them. I don’t want them to think I let them down. I want to give them every opportunity to explore what they want to do in life,” she shares. “The state [of Louisiana] doesn’t put the energy into the places and spaces needed to create a lifestyle conducive to children’s wellbeing, so any way I can contribute to that and align with other people and organizations like ESSENCE who feel the same way, let’s do that because our children, especially here in New Orleans, need all the support we can give. I want them to know how big and grand the world is…and to know if they need or want to create change, they have the authority to do so.”

ESSENCE’s love and care for community doesn’t end at Community Day; it carries right over into the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center inside its new “Unbothered and Well” space. Part sanctuary, part classroom, part community ritual, this flagship experiential activation is a community space where women can get curious about their bodies, explore what it actually means to take care of themselves, and leave with knowledge that lasts long after the festival ends.

A key component of this space features free breast cancer screenings and resources, offered by Meet H.E.R., a newly founded nonprofit designed to help close the gaps women face between awareness and action with clear education, trusted resources, screening access, navigation support, and survivor-informed care. Co-founder Tiara Neal is a breast cancer survivor and former executive director of the Bexa Equity Alliance, which focuses specifically on providing life-saving breast exams to women in need. Through Meet H.E.R., Neal says she is able to expand the services and resources she offers.

“There are just so many other needs that need to be met, especially when it comes to Black women,” Neal explains. “And seeing as though I’m a Black [breast cancer] survivor myself who was diagnosed at a young age, I need to be able to get into communities and provide more resources, more education, and more support for newly diagnosed women. So expanding resources is what made me decide to transition and start Meet H.E.R., which is meeting her where she is at any stage in her journey…whether it’s that she’s getting into early detection, whether it’s providing her with a Bexa exam or an ultrasound or a mammogram, or whether it’s meeting her in her diagnosis.”

During her cancer fight, Neal unfortunately experienced the same thing other Black women face in the healthcare space: their concerns not being taken seriously.

“I had gone for my yearly gynecologist appointment, and because I was in the waiting room for so long, I was staring at a sign that said, ‘Check your breasts,’ and I said, ‘I’m going to ask for a clinical breast exam if [my doctor] doesn’t give me one,’” she recalls. “Sure enough, she didn’t give me one. She rushed through my appointment saying, ‘You’re young, you’re healthy, you have no family history…just every first of the month, check your breasts.’ She didn’t even show me what to do…nothing.”

Neal still knew something was wrong. She calls it “womanly intuition.” But still, she was dismissed at every stage.

Six months later, Neal found what she describes as “a rock-solid pebble,” and went to a different doctor that she had a personal connection with, who sent her for a mammogram ultrasound. She ended up having a surgical biopsy, and it came back that she had stage one invasive ductal carcinoma. With a four-year-old-son she wanted to raise, she made it her mission to take all the precautions to ensure she could live a long life and raise her child and opted to get a bilateral mastectomy, removing her breast tissue and having implants put in.

“What really got me through was my relationship with God and being able to find a very small community of young women similar to myself because when I was diagnosed, I was made out to seem like I was an anomaly,” Neal says. “Fast forward seven years later, now the conversation is how Black women are the fastest growing demographic of women under the age of 40 being diagnosed with breast cancer.”

Now turning her pain into a huge purpose, Neal uses her platform to help, guide and save women, with an emphasis on Black women, women of color, and underserved communities who are at the highest risk of late-stage diagnoses. With an elevated platform like the ESSENCE Festival of Culture, Neal and the Meet H.E.R. team were able to perform more than 60 breast screenings and educated and informed hundreds more inside the Convention Center.

“We shouldn’t expect women to always come to healthcare…we have to bring health care to them,” Neal says. “Bringing this resource is extremely important because while it’s amazing being able to walk around and go to BeautyCon and go to the Disney stage and embrace and engage with all these amazing activations, the most important activation you could ever go to is the one that could’ve saved your life in that moment or provided you with the resource that you need to make informed decisions. There’s no better place to meet Black women where they are than at ESSENCE Fest. They have always celebrated Black women, and it is such an honor to be able to highlight and prioritize their health because without our health, we are nothing.”

Taking care of your mind is just as important as taking care of your body. Also inside the “Unbothered and Well” space is a grounding, poetry welcome ritual experience known as the Door of Return, led by New Orleans artist and poet Monique Lorden Porter.

“When I was seven, my mom affirmed in me that I was an artist, and my dad told me I was revolutionary. And from then, I knew that words had power and that art was my vehicle for change,” Monique says. By nine years old, she published her first poem in a poetry book titled, “Black Child, Where Are You Going?”

“It was such a powerful poem from a little bitty body, but I had something to say. And I don’t think I’ve stopped talking since,” she says. As a lifelong New Orleans native and artist, she is not new to sharing her talents at the ESSENCE Festival of Culture.

“I’ve been blessed to do ESSENCE for a couple years. Last year, I showed sculptures and was on a panel talking about the healing power of sculptures and art,” Porter shares. “And the following day, I got to do my own session where I wrote poetry live for people. And they had so much to say…I’m talking about deep stuff, like heartbreak, love, depression and hope. But this year, I thought, ‘It’s not about me, it’s really about community,’ and I wanted them to be the performers and to truly be the anchors of this space.”

Monique begins the artistic session giving each attendee pens and paper with four poetic prompts already creatively crafted. For the prompts, Monique says her inspiration came from three things: her faith in God, her community here in New Orleans, and the relationship she’s built with ESSENCE over the years.

“I can’t have one without the other. I can’t show up into this space without showing that God led me into this space for change, for community, for hope. He gave me a dream, and I can’t show up to ESSENCE without exuding New Orleans. It’s impossible.”

While she starts the engine, the audience ultimately ends up in the driver’s seat, completing the prompts and sharing the poems they create on the spot. For the grand finale, Monique’s final prompt encompasses all three inspirations and reads, “New Orleans lives in my joy. My spirit sings deep. My joy rises like music in these hot New Orleans streets, where our light finds rhythm in every drumbeat. We bring the ESSENCE to this Fest…”

A fellow New Orleans native in the audience comes to the center and shares her poem, finishing the prompt with, “…a song to our feet. The spirit of NOLA bounces in my veins as I bounce to the beat…because of the love for my city, I’m forever moved.”

All in all, Monique’s intentions were to ensure attendees leave the moment exactly the way they came…”Black, brilliant, and blessed.”

“I want people to know that it’s them, and that’s a complete sentence,” she shares. “They already have what it takes. They came into this space exactly how they left it: as changemakers. It’s already in them. It’s them.”

Closing out the ESSENCE Festival of Culture weekend inside the community and wellness-driven Unbothered and Well space is African dancer and instructor Kai Knight, who also serves as director of ACAC’s Kuumba Academy. Knight and her team give festival attendees an interactive African dance and drum class, and then everyone joins in for a grand finale performance.

“There is no audience. It’s not about watching us do it. It’s about true Congo Square-style where everyone participates,” Knight says, giving a nod to the longstanding New Orleans tradition where indigenous people would gather inside the historic space, play African drums and perform dances on Sundays. For Knight, it was critical to bring this aspect of New Orleans culture to the festival’s daytime experience.

“I feel that sometimes, the cultural aspect of New Orleans is reserved and put in a container,” she says. “It’s always, ‘Go to Congo Square,’ but if you never go to Congo Square, you never get to see it. So to be able to bring it into the Convention Center so people can really see the cultural things we do is everything. We’re not always bounce. We’re more than Mardi Gras. We’re more than Bourbon Street. There’s a foundation to it. And I love that we’re able to come out there and share this cultural aspect of the African diaspora with the community.”

As we know, hundreds of thousands of community members from both near and far come to ESSENCE Festival of Culture each year. No matter where you’re from, you cannot have the largest annual gathering and cultural celebration for Black women in the United States year after year and not think about community.

“To me, community is the foundation that really drives the integrity of the Black woman,” Neals says. “We need to uplift and empower each other so we can go back home and empower our own communities…and that is only truly done through a community of individuals who look like each other, who support each other, who love on each other and continuously support each other.”

With ESSENCE’s intentional focus on the New Orleans community specifically, the city’s cultural and community leaders do not take the international brand’s annual presence lightly.

“Being a culturally predominantly black city, to have such a large organization come in and host a major, international massive event here…to have that focus on a culturally rich city such as New Orleans and to have that spotlight brought into the city and also illuminating,” Knight says. “Involving the community is beautiful because that’s what we’re about. If you’re going to come to New Orleans, you can’t forget about the community.”