00:00Last week on Inside Essence, Black Women in Hollywood.
00:03I thought moving it to another location
00:06would be the best thing,
00:07because that's where we always butt heads.
00:10I love booking the guests that we will honor
00:13at our signature event, Black Women in Hollywood.
00:23The Essence brand is beyond just African-American.
00:28And because I grew up with Essence,
00:30and I was in the Caribbean,
00:32and the lack of, I've never seen Caribbean people
00:34that actually do live in the U.S. in Essence,
00:37and that was a problem for me.
00:39And this is the feedback that we have a lot of people
00:42from Africa, the Caribbean, like,
00:43oh, we are so happy to now see ourselves in Essence.
00:47And at the end of the day, as I always say, we all Black.
00:50This is for me of core on the brand values,
00:54to be understanding this is not only African-American,
00:57because it's about the culture.
01:03I'm gonna get back on our last meeting.
01:05You know, Mwana may mention that we should really expand
01:10and try to do our due diligence,
01:12including someone more global, for the honorees.
01:15You mentioned Lashana Lynch, who's in the new James Bond movie.
01:19I went on the set of James Bond last week.
01:21Ooh, ooh, ooh, sonny.
01:27But they would not disclose exactly her role.
01:33I mean, we know her role is an enemy.
01:34But she is gonna be in the movie throughout.
01:38She has a big part, because they invited a lot of Black press.
01:41They had us talk to her.
01:44So it lets me know that whatever her character is,
01:47she's here to stay.
01:47She's definitely an agent.
01:49She may be like a 006 instead of a 007.
01:52And we can honor her for Captain Marvel,
01:56but also looking ahead, she's really
01:58changing the face of this very white franchise.
02:05Are we actively, why are we considering Macy Nash?
02:11Someone who's never really had the flowers
02:14that they really deserve.
02:15But it really was a matter of what she did
02:18with When They See Us, playing Corey Wise's mom
02:21that really sent it over the top.
02:23That just really sealed the deal.
02:25I mean, she has had this beautiful arc of coming out
02:28of comedy and into drama.
02:29Her and Ava were able to capture,
02:31and When They See Us really sealed it for us
02:33and let us know, no, this is her time to be honored.
02:35Her speech will be fired.
02:38Now we're going to kind of dive in and look
02:40and see what we really need to focus on
02:43and how we want the event to be brought to life
02:47on that day with the colors and inspiration
02:49that we provided to the production company.
02:51We'll want this big thing is to make sure
02:52that the 50th anniversary is infused into everything
02:55that we do for 2020.
02:57Her overall theme is Renaissance.
03:00And Renaissance meaning it's the research of interests
03:04in art and literature and the African-American culture.
03:08So it's the revival of like a rebirth.
03:11The things that excite me about the process of coming up
03:15with the theme is once we determine who our honorees are,
03:18and Corey just has this visionary sense of that,
03:22we then look at all of our honorees and say,
03:25what is the commonality that we see with all of them?
03:28So from there, we come up with the theme as a team.
03:32And we then start to collaborate with our production company.
03:37And of course, Allie Brown,
03:38who's our fantastic creative director,
03:40we start coming up with colors and themes
03:43and things that kind of excite us,
03:46but all gathered around the celebration of the honorees
03:49and what makes the most sense.
03:53It was something that I saw
03:55in the opening of the Tyler Perry Studios.
03:58And he talked about, you know,
04:01everyone was asking him about, you know,
04:02what made him build this studio.
04:04And he talked about while everyone was over here
04:07talking about Oscar so white, Oscar so white,
04:09I'm gonna be over here building my own.
04:13And it struck a chord with me
04:14because it's something that we here at Essence
04:17talk about and believe in.
04:18After I have been at the Beverly Wilshire
04:21and we have been in Beverly Hills
04:22for 13 years with this program,
04:25I wanted to ask you guys,
04:26what are your thoughts on hosting this
04:28at the Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta?
04:36I'm willing to, while I'm still riding
04:37my Beverly Hills train,
04:39I'm willing to just kind of get a cost factor,
04:42just to kind of see.
04:44And then even, you know,
04:46Moana's here as part of leadership,
04:48but also just ask, you know,
04:50Michelle and everyone else what their thoughts are.
04:52To leave LA, this is just my real question.
04:55And we'd have to make a decision quick
04:57because we're already communicating to folks
04:59that are back at the festival,
05:00sure we're gonna be in LA.
05:01So just those things that we have to just make
05:03the assessment of the pros and cons,
05:05and see if the pros that way of the cons,
05:07that it should present something.
05:09Yes, we have a 50-year legacy brand,
05:12but we need to know how to wear a thousand.
05:14So this is why I love the idea
05:16of disrupting and wear a thousand.
05:18I think every year there's a pressure.
05:21You know, I don't look at it specifically as,
05:24you know, it's the 50th anniversary,
05:26what's gonna make it so different and special,
05:28because every year we approach the event
05:30as what's gonna make it different and special,
05:32but we still have fun with it.
05:34We still make sure that, you know,
05:35it's something that we're gonna leave everyone
05:37feeling real good about.
05:39So I came out of a meeting with leadership
05:41just a minute ago,
05:42and I just wanted to update you on the venue change.
05:45I know we talked about moving it to Atlanta
05:49and the Tala Perry Studios and how exciting that would be,
05:52but there are a lot of presentations
05:54that leadership has around it.
05:56So, you know, we're just going to have to
05:59make the will show work,
06:00but I think it works as it is now anyway.
06:03So we just have to figure out
06:05what could be new and different about it
06:07and how we kind of still, you know,
06:09get what we need out of it with the 50th anniversary
06:13and not being able to move to a new location this year.
06:26This is Black in the Rosaline, 13th annual.
06:28Some of you have been here for it,
06:30some of you not,
06:31but we'll go through it as if we haven't been here before
06:33because what's new and exciting for this year
06:36is that we have two entrances.
06:38In the past, we've had everyone come through one way
06:41and the carpet has been upstairs,
06:43which has been extremely tight.
06:45So very excited that we got the city of Beverly Hills
06:47to approve us to have a permit outside.
06:50Never been done before.
06:52Yeah, so the entire city of Beverly Hills is coming.
06:57And that is the chief of police,
06:59her whole force that was in this meeting room, right?
07:03Yeah.
07:03The mayor of Beverly Hills is coming, John Mirrish.
07:07Mirrish is coming.
07:08We even had someone that was in opposition
07:11of the neighborhood.
07:12He's coming.
07:13Like just, when I say coming,
07:14like they can just walk out of their building
07:16and just watch something looks out of place.
07:18Standing across the street.
07:19There's a phone call.
07:20Exactly.
07:21So this has got to be perfect.
07:24Perfect in the sense that we know there's some shit
07:28happening, but nobody else knows.
07:30Yeah.
07:31You know what I mean?
07:32I also just want it to be flawless.
07:34It is how many hours before the event?
07:38Less than 12.
07:40All these people we got to fit over here.
07:44Here's the grid.
07:44So, yeah.
07:50Essence team really put something special together.
07:54The room is going to be gorgeous.
07:56And I think we got it.
07:58I think we got it.
07:58I think people will be excited.
08:02Yeah.
08:02So, let's go.
08:12For the past 50 years, Essence magazine
08:15has unapologetically celebrated black women with pride.
08:261970, men had a vision for women to be
08:32the stars of the show.
08:34And here we are 50 years later.
08:36And we can't celebrate enough of the incredible women who
08:41are here in every walk of life, but also here in Hollywood.
08:4550 years is quite an accomplishment.
08:47And we're so excited.
08:48I just have to say thank you.
08:59Thank you for not giving up on us.
09:01Thank you for giving us the platform and the voice.
09:04And I think that's important.
09:05For me, really, the moment that comes together is when to see the honorees and when they tell
09:19the stories.
09:20I think there was a thread today that we didn't anticipate where each honoree talked about their
09:24mothers and what their mothers meant to them.
09:26And how the littlest thing that their mothers did for them growing up really informed the
09:31women that they are today.
09:32And that was extremely beautiful to witness.
09:35It was almost like reminded we had a greater purpose.
09:37There was a greater purpose for us all to be there and gathered together.
09:40And that was really beautiful.
09:41That carpet outside.
09:42I mean.
09:43That carpet was cute.
09:44The work that went into it to make that happen and the street closure.
09:49And then to see.
09:50Shout out to the city of Beverly Hills.
09:52And I want to thank Essence for giving me a platform to share my truth.
09:58God bless you.
09:59And thank you.
10:04Javanka, congratulations.
10:07Congratulations, Corey Murray.
10:09To 2020's black women of Hollywood event.
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