NOLA Recap...2007 Essence Festival

Essence invited us down as featured authors for the 2007 Essence Music Festival presented by Coca Cola. We had a ball! Our days were spent at the Essence Author's Pavillion and the Urban Cup Cafe signing books. Our evenings were spent tasting great cuisine in the French Quarters and our nights were spent watching excellent performances by Beyonce, Mary J Blige, Lionel Richie, Frankie Beverly & Maze, Kelly Rowland, Chris Brown and Steve Harvey.

My three top highlights for the 2007 Essence Festival were opening the New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper on July 5th and seeing a feature articles on us. Watching our street team (Tamika, Fartisha, Minah) march into the Ernest Morial Convention Center with their Get 'Em Girl T-Shirts and bring tons of people to our pavillion to purchase a book. Lastly, meeting Mrs. Tina Knowles and giving her a book for Beyonce. What made this meeting even more special is that she later had her assistant come by and buy more books for Kelly, Solange and other family members.

We would like to give a special thanks to Tamika, Fartisha and Minah for being our street team. These ladies are our hairstylist and former co-worker and they came to New Orleans to help support us. It is not to often that you find people who genually want to see you do well and ask for nothing in return. Thanks to the Get 'Em Girl Dream Team- Brandi, Tasha, Tamir, Krista, and Denada for making sure we were prepared for this trip and providing us with proper media coverage. CL thanks for the Zune support. Thanks to Essence, Miasha & Rich, Omar Tyree, Big Boom & Lauren, Mr. Gil Robertson IV, Steve Perry, Troy Marshall, Common, Tina Knowles, Hill Harper, Naleighna Kai, Vera & the staff of the Community Bookstore in New Orleans, Michelle, Levetta Futrell and everyone else who made the Essence Festival a pleasurable experience.

Shakara