Essence Festival of Culture

CTL-E-3754 · Event · other · 1995–present

VERIFIED evidence grade of this record

Annual festival launched 1995 in New Orleans for Essence's 25th anniversary; the nation's largest Black culture and music attraction, drawing roughly 500,000 attendees each year.

The record

Also known as: Essence Music Festival

Notes

RELP85 new supporting entity; identity re-check: no duplicate in graph.

Referenced by

Edward Lewis — initiated → this record

Sources

Black Enterprise - Ed Lewis, Clarence Smith, Susan Taylor media powerhouse
Essence.com - How Black Art Defined the ESSENCE Festival (primary source)

Record CTL-E-3754 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · evidence grade: VERIFIED · 2 sources (1 primary) · 1 mapped relationship · CTL research: RELP-001.
Directory: all entity records · the knowledge graph

Cite this record

Cite as: CultureTechLens, “Essence Festival of Culture (CTL-E-3754),” CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph, October 2026. https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-3754/

Chicago: CultureTechLens. “Essence Festival of Culture (CTL-E-3754).” CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph. Chicago, IL: CultureTechLens, 2026. https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-3754/
APA: CultureTechLens. (2026). Essence Festival of Culture (CTL-E-3754) [Entity record]. CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph. https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-3754/
MLA: CultureTechLens. “Essence Festival of Culture (CTL-E-3754).” CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph, 2026, https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-3754/

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Apartment houses and funeral parlor in Negro section of Chicago, Illinois, Chicago, 1941Photo: Lee, Russell, 1903-1986, FSA-OWI, Public Domain, via Library of Congress

Crowd outside of fashionable Negro church after Easter Sunday service, Black Belt, Chicago, Illinois, Chicago, 1941Photo: Rosskam, Edwin, 1903-1985, FSA-OWI, Public Domain, via Library of Congress

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