It was an eventful day at the 2024 ESSENCE Festival Of Culture’s Suede: Men’s Experience stage on July 6.
Created to serve as a safe space for the fellas to connect, recharge and elevate, leaders the arts, entertainment and fitness gathered to divulge about nuances of manhood. To start, Bobby Carter, senior producer of NPR and one of the masterminds of the Tiny Desk music series stopped by to share some of the secrets behind the phenomenon.
Next up, the HBCU To Hollywood panel included proud HBCU alums Lance Gross, Terrence J, Luke Lawal and Jahliel Thurman who all spoke about how their unique educational experience made them into the successes they are today.
The Beyond The Music fireside chat took a up close and personal look at the makings of Method Man. The rap legend discussed the secret to his happy marriage.
“We keep people out of our business,” he told the audience honestly. “She prefers it that way.”
He also delved into how it feels to have been loved by a Black woman for more that 20 years.
“There is no love like it,” he said. “And us as fellows, we know that our sisters have not only stood behind us, but beside us and in front of us at every obstacle in our lives,” he says. “And they’re not afraid to let us be men, correct? As far as my family goes, I keep it out of the media. We’re happier that way, plus she prefers it that way. But just know we’re happy, period. That’s it.”
In a bit of pivot, the hosts of the Earn Your Leisure podcast, Troy Millings and Rashad Bilal got candid about Black financial literacy and the pivotal question Tyler Perry asked them that changed everything.
“Shout out to Tyler,” Bilal said. “It was funny how he phrased that question. He asked us what we had in plan, and we told him, and then he responded back, ‘That’s it?’ That forced us to think bigger. And he didn’t even have to really say anything after that.”
Rounding our the day was My Mind Is On My Mental, an honest conversation men’s mental health. The panel featured honest commentary from actor Malcolm Mays and family therapist Dr. Javar Godfrey.