00:00Yes, just fine my name is Amir Muhammad. I do some freelancing and working with Essence, which is beautiful
00:07It's amazing
00:08First thing I want to say that I don't know none of this stuff happened like the backstory
00:12So I was low. We all get some love if you feel the same so I don't feel alone
00:18All right, so as I'm watching this I'm seeing the history so I know you guys draw inspiration from but now that it's the time of the
00:25Essence, where do you guys draw the innovation from now? What's the next step of actual innovation and
00:32changing just
00:34Just everything of what Essence was and just making it new
00:38Emmet Dennis
00:40He wasn't expecting this and
00:43The reason why I'm gonna have an instant is answering them if there's others I may pick on I Emmett is
00:48I'm gonna let him tell you what he did
00:50But if you want to talk about one of the main players and making sure that this story
00:55Made it to this place this man's
00:58Resilience and perseverance is what kept this thing going when things like pandemic tried to get in the end and
01:05part of why I want Emmett to answer that question is because
01:09Part of what fueled Emmett was this idea of what we could now do once people knew the whole story
01:16So Emmett will you talk about that through the lens of the innovation question?
01:21You're welcome. Thank you. Mm-hmm great question
01:25Wow
01:26Um, like yourself
01:28I didn't know none of this
01:32Quite honestly, I didn't know any of this
01:35but
01:36You know when you're part of the Dennis family
01:40The Dennis family leadership
01:43There are some imperatives
01:45We are value creators
01:48You saw that through the building of the Shea Moisture brand and how
01:53That brand learned how to outpunch its weight class because it completely dedicated itself
02:00to black women
02:03Unapologetically so
02:05Right, but understanding the impact and the influence in serving black women was was serving everyone
02:11Because she was the epicenter
02:13So the
02:15the journey
02:17Here
02:19With and the innovation that that that it's it's a it's a wonderful question because every
02:23Every generation and I think what we all saw from jet and what you're gonna see from generation to generation
02:30Every generation has its
02:34Challenges
02:35Has its problems
02:37Right, um
02:39From the 70s and civil rights to the 80s to the 90s
02:43Has a challenge every generation has a north star that we should be uniting
02:49And fighting against
02:52The Dennis families
02:56Fight has been economic inclusion as a civil right
03:01Right, and so if you think about the innovation that's required
03:07From all of us
03:09To continue to fight through all the shackles
03:13Both mentally
03:15Institutionally
03:17That that that that that we're confronting
03:20That's a huge part of where the innovation is coming from
03:23Right
03:24Um
03:26Part of the motivation I remember when we
03:30You know, I shared with the team I
03:33In my house
03:35Essence was not there
03:37Right, my mom was not pop culture
03:40Right, she did not
03:41Maybe we had an ebony, but it just was not them
03:43I was raised by
03:46The product of two episcopalian ministers
03:49And I gotta tell you
03:50Um, it wasn't until we
03:56Sort of accept not even accepted accepted the responsibility to be stewards
04:02Of this incredible, as you call it, cultural artifact that we really had to dig deep to really figure out what are the things that we could do to create that value, tell that story, right?
04:14Number one
04:16Number one
04:16Essence is not
04:18It's not an institution unto itself
04:21It's not a building
04:22It's not just a festival
04:23It's not just a magazine
04:25It's human
04:27It's humans
04:29Humanizing this journey
04:30It was really important
04:32Right, and it's the connection with other humans that gave us the ability to say
04:41To to to get believers in how important it was to tell this story
04:46Right, you know, it's not easy making television shows
04:50Right, but fortunately we were able to connect with some of the best in the business
04:56Right, and say, listen, as a family, we want to create value
05:00We have the we have the great opportunity to steward this brand
05:04One of the things we want to do is educate and entertain and edutain
05:09Right, and our believers at 51 minds are believers at bandage
05:14We got we got such a wonderful opportunity to sit in front of the people that actually make the biggest shows in the world
05:24Right, they understood that done well
05:30That this would be just it's not just the television show
05:34Right, this is in some respects. It's a crowdsource catharsis
05:40Right, this is a cathartic experience that we are going to see and we've been witnessing
05:46Right, and it's the connective tissue
05:49Right that we all believed in
05:50Right, that that we all fought for
05:54Right, that we all pitched to networks and as fate would have it oprah
06:00And own I don't know what you all believe in but that's that's destiny right so
06:08I say I say all that to say that
06:11There's so many more stories to tell we were not able to get
06:15Everyone I mean there's so many more folks that have
06:20Stories and have contributed not just to essence but to this culture this this this
06:28Essence is and what essence has been fighting for is bigger than all of us
06:33Essence is just a platform right and we're hoping that this platform continues to
06:38Embrace and continues to explode and it continues to excite and inspire so that we all continue to
06:46I'll punch our weight class and continue to go towards the north star
06:50Which is our economic inclusion as a civil right we got a lot of work to do
06:55Right and by understanding these stories and understanding the power of us individually and what we're able to do and contribute
07:02Collectively is what this
07:05What this what this documentary we hope that it does and it allows us to do more
07:13I at the last episode i'm asked the question what is the legacy of essence and emmett and i didn't practice
07:19And I say because of what essence did to highlight who the black woman was illuminate her empower her
07:26We now have the privilege that the legacy of this next stage of essence to is to restore the economic value of black
07:34Yes
