Celebrating 30 Years of Essence’s Soul

The media spotlight this month is on Oprah Winfrey’s new magazine venture, O, which hit newsstands with the hefty “thunk” of its 322-page premiere issue. Almost overshadowed by the attention surrounding the new kid on the block is Essence, which celebrates its 30th anniversary in a special collector’s edition.

Essence, say its founders, came into being at a time when black women had few magazines that addressed their needs. It was also a time when the civil rights and women’s movements were beginning to assert their voices.

“We named the magazine Essence because essence suggests soul,” writes Essence President Clarence O. Smith, “and black is the essence of all color. It was to reflect the emerging black woman--to be her voice, her spirit, her passion, her story, her future. The times demanded no less.”

Thirty years later, the magazine is read in countries from South Africa to Brazil, and Essence Communications Inc., which also publishes Latina magazine, has expanded its business with entertainment and TV production, licensing and mail-order catalogs, and special events, including the Essence Awards and the Essence Music Festival.

The 30th anniversary issue looks back at the past three decades and gazes forward as well.

Charlayne Hunter-Gault, Johannesburg bureau chief for CNN, examines post-apartheid South Africa and finds the country’s transformation one of noisy but healthy debate, with changes in the media, in business and in gender equality.

Writer Maya Angelou reflects on her life at age 30, a time when she was a struggling singer involved in unsatisfying relationships with men, and heeding the advice of her mother, who told her to “go ahead and love life, to engage in it, to give it all you’ve got. Wrap yourself in it with the same flair and flourish with which you would wrap yourself in your favorite cape, the one with the beautiful gold buttons and sequins. Love an individual in the same way.”

Among other excellent offerings in this issue are portraits of the “30 sexiest brothers ever to grace the planet”; economist Julianne Malveaux sizing up today’s job market; thoughts on the future from award-winning science-fiction writer Octavia Butler; “Ya Done Good, Girl,” celebrating women who made a difference; and “Shaping the Black Agenda,” thoughts on politics by a panel including U.S. Reps. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-Texas) and Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-District of Columbia).