One of the most star-studded events returned to New Orleans during the 2026 ESSENCE Festival of Culture to continue giving flowers to those the Black community adores while they can be seen, heard, and felt. 

On Sunday, Trell Thomas hosted the sixth Black Excellence Brunch, presented in partnership with NYX Cosmetics. In the premier cultural platform’s true fashion, attendees walked through the doors radiating in their chic all-white ensembles at the River City Venue at the Port of New Orleans Place. The room brought together leaders and changemakers from across beauty, entertainment, politics, media, content creation, and other industries, including MC Lyte, Dawn Richard, Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, Lynae Vanee, Melinda Williams, Jotaka Eaddy, Diarra Kilpatrick, Brandon Claybon, Colby Nixon, and Raven Goodwin, among others. The common notion among the more than 250 guests was to honor Black excellence by fellowshipping and celebrating their peers.

Owned by L’Oréal, NYX Professional Makeup operates within a beauty company that describes three initiatives as a longstanding part of its business practices.

“L’Oréal has been practicing diversity, equity and inclusion for 23 years in the United States and 20 years globally,” Aubrey Maslen, vice president, head of communications & strategic partnership – diversity, equity & inclusion, told ESSENCE. “For us, it’s a core value of our organization and part of the way we operate. There is also the morality angle. It’s the right thing to do.”

Unknown to those in attendance, the special guest of the hour was legendary songstress and entrepreneur Patti LaBelle, who received the Culture Icon Award. Thomas chose LaBelle for this cultural moment, during a weekend so significant to Black culture, because she represents enduring excellence.

“I wanted people to feel the power of longevity,” he explained to ESSENCE. “Ms. Patti LaBelle has shown us that true greatness is rooted in authenticity, faith, resilience, and purpose. Her legacy isn’t just about what she’s accomplished—it’s about how she’s carried herself through every season. That’s the kind of excellence we wanted the room to experience.”

The room erupted as Thomas announced she was in the building, sending guests to their feet with phones raised to capture the celebration. Making the way to the podium in all her fabulousness despite an injured foot, LaBelle declined a chair and remained on her feet for the tribute. She thanked him for the honor and acknowledged his mother for introducing him to her music by playing it throughout their home during a ritual familiar to many Black families: cleaning day.

“Darling, thank you for listening to my music as a bebe kid. I appreciate that and thank your mother if she’s still here,” the 82-year-old told Thomas before acknowledging his mother in the audience by saying, “Hey mom, thanks for playing my music when you clean. Thank you so much!”

Overwhelmed with gratitude, she then turned her attention to the standing-room-only crowd.

“Thank you so much for loving on Patti LaBelle and being in this with me for all these years,” LaBelle said.

After her acceptance speech, Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Marsha Ambrosius had LaBelle’s full attention as she performed a powerful rendition of “If Only You Knew.” Visibly blown away and enjoying every second, LaBelle stood directly in front of the stage as Ambrosius sang to her. Guests also gathered around with their phones, eager to record the heartfelt interaction between the two singers.

Following the exchange, Rep. Jasmine Crockett then took the stage to offer words of encouragement. “Patti said that she’s been standing for over 80 years. I don’t know how she looks like this, except for the fact that Black don’t crack, but I want to be clear about something. They want you to take that seat that they offered Patti. That’s what they want you to do,” the congresswoman exclaimed. “They want you to sit down in this moment. I’m here to tell you that this is our time to stand. This is when we recognize that we stand on the shoulders of those who came before us. This is when we honor their sacrifices, and we make sure that we keep going because they can try to silence us, but it is our time to be loud.”

As an icon many artists have studied, she hopes younger Black women, not just in entertainment, take away two things from her blueprint: to prioritize their health and that kindness is a priceless act that fills her spirit. 

“Personally, I would love for them to take away that I’m 82. I’m very proud of who I am, what I am. I have pains like everyone else, but I take care of myself,” she shared with ESSENCE. “I have doctors and whatever because you have to realize if something’s wrong, you’ve got to fix it. And most people are afraid to go to doctors, but I’m not.” 

She continued, “And I live on loving people and embracing them and bringing them close to me. And they think that with entertainers, they all ask for a photo, and they all say no. I’m saying yes. And that helps me stay phenomenally strong.”

Actress Malinda Williams shared the personal memory that first made her understand LaBelle’s impact as an icon whose influence extends far beyond music.

“I always knew I was listening to an icon. From “Voulez-Vous Coucher Avec Moi,” I don’t know if I was eight years old or five years old, but I knew then,” Williams said about LaBelle. “The moment that organ note hit in that song, you knew you were listening to somebody, something that was meaningful and magical.”

That commitment to giving people their flowers also took a literal form when NAACP Image Award-winning digital creator and cultural commentator Lynae Vanee was presented with a bouquet in recognition of her work to educate and advocate for the Black community.

Beyond the bouquet, that spirit of honoring others carried throughout the room. For New Orleans native and singer Dawn Richard and hip-hop pioneer MC Lyte, recognition was not only about being celebrated, but also about uplifting those whose work and talent can too often go unseen.

“I know rejection, I know blackball, I know no’s, and yet still God said. So, to sit here in, in my city and be seen, um, it’s no words. It’s no words, and I’m grateful, and I hope others see that there is goodness in this industry, that there are people who lift you, and I hope that I can do the same for others,” Richards said. “I’m very grateful for this. It has been a hard road, and all I ever wanted to do was sing, but I’m here, and so I am over the moon. I will not take it for granted, and I will pay it forward to others who have experienced the things I have and try to make a better way for them, like, and give them their flowers like I’m getting mine finally.”

“I’m always coming in hopeful, always ready to celebrate and acknowledge people along the way, as everybody is on their own separate journey,” MC Lyte stated.” But whenever we can come together and just acknowledge one another’s works, talents…and for those who are not in front of the camera, there are still multifaceted folks that need to be recognized and appreciated for what it is that they do. And then I always leave full, right?”

For Carol’s Daughter founder Lisa Price, the significance of the gathering extended beyond the people being celebrated inside the room.

“The thing that fuels me the most is that we are not just seeing ourselves as the amazing people that we are because we’ve done that forever, but the rest of the world is seeing how amazing we are because we’re being celebrated in venues like this,” Price noted.

As the brunch has grown into a space where a cultural archive is being built in real time, Thomas has also begun thinking about how to preserve those moments beyond the weekend and the people fortunate enough to witness them in the room.

“I’ve always believed Black Excellence Brunch is bigger than a single event. We’re intentionally documenting these moments through storytelling, photography, and film so they become part of our cultural record,” he said. “Celebrating our history while we’re creating it is just as important as preserving it for the generations that follow.”