Black Stories Take Center Stage At The 2025 ESSENCE Film Festival In New Orleans

Black Stories Take Center Stage At The 2025 ESSENCE Film Festival In New Orleans

By Shelby Stewart ·Updated July 17, 2025 Getting your Trinity Audio player ready… The 2025 ESSENCE Film Festival concluded its multi-day run in New Orleans on Sunday, July 6, once again positioning itself as a vital platform for Black filmmakers pushing the boundaries of narrative and form. Presented during the ESSENCE Festival of Culture® and backed by Coca-Cola®, the festival drew attention to a dynamic slate of narrative features, documentari…

From Soulful Sounds To Black Joy & Sobering Truths: Rashad Robinson Speaks Strategy At ESSENCE Fest

Under the glimmering lights and the hum of soulful celebration at this year’s ESSENCE Festival of Culture, Rashad Robinson, former president of Color of Change and longtime civil rights strategist, shared a serious and sobering sentiment: in between our rebellious joy, we must remember that the stakes for Black America have never been higher. “ESSENCE Fest is such an important cultural moment,” Robinson told BOSSIP in an interview on-site in Ne…