On Friday, June 30, the Essence Festival came under fire because of a shocking revelation. According to multiple social media posts, the festival obtained a court restraining order against a Black-owned business to stop them from hosting an event of their own in New Orleans, Louisiana, while the festival was going on.
Baldwin & Co., a Black-owned bookstore, attempted to conduct a literary black party to uplift Black authors. However, they were stopped after the Essence Festival hit them with a temporary restraining order and the organizer a cease and desist letter.
The order claimed that the block party organizers didn’t obtain a proper license to be listed as a vendor for the event. On the other hand, those involved with the block party argued that it was to be on private property and separate from the Essence Festival.
Baldwin & Co., expressed their disappointment with Essence in a statement. “It is deeply ironic that Essence, which claims to celebrate and uplift the Black community, would choose to target a business like Baldwin & Co., which aligns with the values of community service and empowerment,” Baldwin & Co’s owner, DJ Johnson, said, “Such actions are not only unjust but also tarnish the reputation of Essence and raise questions about its commitment to supporting the Black community as a whole.”
Today it was disappointing to witness @essence and @essencefest file documents to shut down an event put on by Black business owners. The business owners @tamikanewhouse, @kimberlylatricejones, and the New Orleans book store @baldwinandcompany lost money and their time.… pic.twitter.com/eSN95zUWU1
— Gary Chambers (@GaryChambersJr) July 1, 2023
Essence responded to the overwhelming backlash on Twitter. They wrote, “The event organizers misled artists into believing they participated in an Essence Festival event. Shockingly, the event charged authors a $650 fee to participate under the guise of working with Essence. Essence does NOT charge authors to participate in their programming. The event organizers intended to charge the public for their event, while Essence programming is free and open to the community.”
“Essence repeatedly asked the event organizers to stop their misleading activity and to refund monies to all who had been taken advantage of in the name of Essence.”
The event organizers misled artists into believing that they were participating in an Essence Festival event. Shockingly, the event charged each author a $650 fee to participate under the guise of working with Essence. Essence does NOT charge authors to participate in their…
— ESSENCE Festival (@essencefest) July 1, 2023
As reported by NOLA, The New Orleans City Council denounced Essence for stopping the literary event after they approved an ordinance for the block party. “It is completely inappropriate for any large-scale event visiting the city of New Orleans to negatively impact our local businesses with something akin to a non-compete clause. It’s especially concerning that the canceled event was organized by a Black-owned business and would have showcased Black female authors on a weekend that is supposed to be dedicated to Black culture,” JP Morrell of the council expressed.
“It was never the intent of the council for any ordinance, much less the Clean Zone Ordinance, to impact private businesses hosting private events that happened to coincide with the timing of Essence Fest. We are looking into how this occurred and how to prevent it from ever happening again.”
Regarding the legal aspect of Essence’s contemporary restraining order and cease and desist, the festival’s attorney, James Williams, defended their choices. He said, “Essence was very disappointed to learn that an event organizer was exploiting Essence Festival patrons and authors. The promoter falsely advertised that their event was in partnership with Essence when it was not. Essence repeatedly asked the event organizers to stop their misleading activity and to refund monies to all who had been taken advantage of in the name of Essence … We hope the event organizers will do the right thing and refund the money they obtained from the public under these false pretenses.”
