The Essence of Friendship: A Love Note from Essence Festival 2025
This year’s Essence Festival wasn’t just about music, it was about moments. And many of those moments reminded us of the quiet power and deep beauty of friendship.
Kynitra K. Watson, Director of Culture and Creative Impact for RDC Magazine and Editor and Chief Rocquel Caliste
The Waiting to Exhale tribute wrapped us in the warmth of sisterhood. It celebrated the bonds women form as they love, lose, heal, and laugh together. That stage became a space of shared strength, a reminder that friendships between women are sacred, necessary, and soul-deep.
Then came the Quincy Jones tribute. It honored the legacy of friendship even beyond this life, how we speak our gratitude, lift names in reverence, and celebrate the journeys of those who’ve poured into us, both publicly and privately. To love a friend and lose them is to still carry their light.
And when Jill Scott shared the stage with Patti LaBelle and Jazmine Sullivan in harmony, it wasn’t just a performance, it was a testimony. These women weren’t just sharing a stage, they were sharing love, mutual respect, and a legacy of collaboration. It was generational, genuine, and glorious.
But Essence doesn’t start or end at the Dome. It begins in the Convention Center, where friends reunite with hugs and selfies, support local businesses, and swap stories over booth-side conversations. It’s in the hotel lobbies and brunch tables, in the galleries and gumbo shops, in the line for club entry and the late-night food trucks. It’s community in motion.
Claudia Jordan and Rocquel Caliste, Editor and Chief of RDC Magazine
Essence Festival is the definition of friendship in its purest form. It’s love without condition.
Peace in the presence of your people. Blessings exchanged without keeping count. It’s Essence.
And if you came this year with your crew, if you danced, laughed, cried, or healed together, then you felt it too. Here’s to the ones who roll deep.
The ones who show up. The ones who know your story and still cheer the loudest.
Here’s to friendship. Here’s to Essence.
Kynitra K. Watson Director of Culture and Creative Impact
Rocquel, Tamah, Darlene, and Kynitra