Essence Fest leads a summer of events for Black entrepreneurs

In a year, when the American consumer has been weighed with economic uncertainty, geopolitical stress and inflation, black entrepreneurs are eager to celebrate the essence of culture to join their main customers.

“Essence Fest is like my Black Friday,” said Rochel Ivory, owner of beauty brand on The Edge Baby Hair. “This is my biggest sales weekend of the year. This is the place where I invest all capital in my business.”

Esses Fest closes on Friday, with around 500,000 people participate in the event in New Orleans. According to the organizers, it produces about 1 billion dollars in economic activity.

“This is not for us,” said Brittany Adams owner of the Ivier brand focus and frame. He said that this year Esses Fest is even more important because he has seen black consumers pulling back on spending.

“I would say that only the uncertainty of the economic and political environment – which is giving people a little hesitation. Can they save money? Should they buy things they want?” Adams said.

Ivory said that its sales are about 30% less year after year, but she is hoping that people are looking at the festival market in New Orleans to spend their time and money.

“This can make or break some of us,” he said. “This is one of the few places where black women, black founders can actually come together and be seen.”

The Global Black Economic Forum aims to give visibility to the Esses Fest and create a solution for the black business owners. The speakers of this year include Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown-Jacquencane and Maryland village Wes Moore. Last year, the then Vice President Kamala Harris spoke.

GBEF CEO Alphonso David said, “We deliberately cure to a place that allows leaders to preserve, build and re -re -how we can increase economic opportunities collectively.”

According to the first quarter of this year, according to Federal Reserve Data, The average weekly salary for black workers was $ 1,192 an increase of 5% in a year. Black unemployment was 6% in the most recent job reports, a historically low number, but still the national average over 4.2%.

However, the data does not appear to fully reflect the spirit for many black Americans that are concerned about the political, cultural and economic changes that have taken place since the election of President Donald Trump.

“Never let a good crisis ruin,” John Hope Bryant, the founder and CEO of Operation Hope, said, which focuses on the country’s largest non-profit financial education and empowerment.

Bryant stated that he sees the concerns of black Americans as an opportunity in the second half of 2025.

“This President has done something that has not been done since the 1960s, which is united Black America. The funds were made in the beginning of 20 20.^Wan Centenary because blacks were forced to work together. But instead of Black Lives Matter, let’s make a black capitalist case, “he said.

Pastor Jamal Bryant of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church has made black consumers liberated with an organized boycott Target It began in response to retailer’s decision in February Initiative of roll back diversity, equity and inclusion.

Bryant said that he is in discussion with the target, but is ready to organize a long -term boycott if the retailer does not complete It makes promises made for black community After the murder of George Floid. He is urging black Americans to use an estimated $ 2.1 trillion dollars to spend electricity forecast by 2026 They run economic and political changes.

“I will dare to say that ‘Pocketbook Protest’ is a revolutionary activity,” Bryant said.

“I think we should be very selective in the light of the ‘big ugly bill’, which has just passed and it will adversely affect our community,” he said while referring to Trump’s megabil passing through Congress this week.

Investment Fest, an incident that mixes the commerce and culture created by the economically focused media company Earn your holiday Closed in Atlanta in August.

Cum-CEOS Rashad Bilal and Troy Millings said that the event will be focused on financial literacy, but this year they are emphasizing the immediate need for education and entrepreneurship in technology.

“This is definitely the time now or never, the time now,” Bilal said.

“This year the important thing is that the way technology is going to disrupt many career paths and businesses, and we have to prepare for it, which is why AI is at the forefront of negotiations, Crypto is at the forefront of conversations, forever and immovable property like entrepreneurship,” Millings “said.

This year is a partnership with the new venture capital firm Open opportunity And one Pitch competition Where an entrepreneur can win $ 125,000 in funding to scale his business.

Bilal said, “We need more businesses that can reach an evaluation of $ 100 million for evaluation of $ 1 billion, obtain on the stock market. 9 out of 10 is the route technology.”

There will be a similar tone at the National Black MBA Association Conference in Houston in September. The event is known for its career fair where the country’s largest companies recruit for networking and lively social activities along with recruitment.

This year, interim CEO Orlando Ashford is working to establish artificial intelligence education and financial literacy as columns of this phenomenon.

“Doing business is not an option as usual,” Ashford told CNBC. “AI is something that I really refer to as a tsunami of change that is on our way. We will be forced to pive all the ways in some ways because it is related to AI. People who are in front of us hug and hug it and take advantage of it, in fact it can turn it into a tremendous and powerful opportunity. They will wait and make it unnatural.”