00:00My name is Shaheem. I am a licensed therapist and social worker. First, as someone who grew up with Essence magazines on the coffee table, I'm honored to be here.
00:09Everybody looks so beautiful, by the way. But as a licensed therapist and social worker, I am, like, who's worked with youth and predominantly black women.
00:17And I really just, like, think it's so important to bring into the room, like, resources. And my question is whether or not Essence has thought about or has any initiatives to bring resources directly to the youth, the sixth episode, to reach across to the most vulnerable in our community, be it black women or the youth that, you know, y'all want to be the future.
00:40Where Rich or Lou Dennis?
00:41I'm sorry?
00:42Rich!
00:43Where is he? Did he dip out?
00:48That ain't right.
00:51So I was going to, oh, there he is. Come here, Rich!
00:54I got a question you need to answer. Somebody get Rich a mic, please.
00:57And the reason I'm going to have Rich answer this is because I'll let him introduce who he is, Rich Lou Dennis.
01:04But, Rich, the question that came in from someone here was about what are the resources and things that Essence is going to bring forth for the youth and for future generations.
01:14And I know that a part of the transition of Essence going into the ownership of your family, that was a big part of what was your goal.
01:20So if you'll speak to that a little bit.
01:24You're welcome.
01:24I didn't come here to talk today.
01:27I didn't ask you all that.
01:28So, first of all, congratulations to the entire Essence family. This is incredible.
01:42Especially to Emmett Dennis over there who had the vision and who made sure that this actually happened in spite of me.
01:50When we think about Essence, we think about, you know, the 50 years and all that it meant to our community and all that it represented.
02:09But it's not going to be the same 50 years going forward, right?
02:16We live in a very different world, a very different time.
02:19And it has to now become a place, you know, we now talk about it as a platform as opposed to a magazine,
02:27of where everybody can be represented, everybody can feel safe, and everybody can leverage and drive.
02:36And in order to do that, you've got to embrace all of our generations, and you've got to invest in all of our generations.
02:46And that's what we're doing.
02:48So if you see the way we focus on culture, if you see the way that we focus on every generation,
02:54if you see the opportunities that we build across the platform for each generation,
02:59that every generation has its home, has its place, is celebrated,
03:04that for us is what the future will be.
03:08We're going from a place of where we are.
03:13You know, what you saw here was a lot of showing the way.
03:18We're moving to a place of creating the path, right?
03:22Because we're all now driving, right?
03:25We don't need one individual telling us how to drive or where to go, how to get there.
03:31We're just clearing the way so that it can be a little bit easier to get there.
03:36So that's how we think about it, and we're going to invest heavily against that,
03:40and that's what we've been doing.
03:42It's not easy, but we're going to do it,
03:44because we deserve to have this type of institution,
03:47this type of opportunity to have our voices and our images be heard and seen in the way that we intend them to be heard
04:00and intend to have them heard and seen, and that's what we're going to keep fighting for.
04:06So that 50 years from now, another audience is, I know I won't be here,
04:12but another audience is here, and they feel the same way as we feel now
04:17about what we've accomplished the past 50 years.
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