After brunch Friday morning, some of the ladies and I made moves to the convention center. On the way over, we were able to catch up with We Dat Food Truck. We Dat has been killing the NOLA food truck scene. If you’re in the city, make sure to grab some red beans and rice or shrimp tacos from this city staple.

The convention center was packed with vendors, celebrities and attendees from all over the country. I was able to catch some performances and score some samples from the Essence Festival sponsors. The highlight of my time at the convention center was receiving some great career advice during the Black Women at Work session.

The best part of Friday was being able to see and meet so many beautiful women of color. I’ve never seen so many different natural hairstyles in one place. Everyone’s hair and fashion was on point.

There were so many natural hairstyles and beautiful outfits from the lively crowd at the convention center.

We were happy to run into **Heben Nigatu** and **Tracy Clayton**, the hilarious duo behind Buzzfeed’s “Another Round” podcast.

Saturday

On Saturday I had the opportunity to meet and interview some of Blavity’s favorite celebs. Check them out below.

The sexiness that is Luke James gave us some insight as to who inspired him to get into music.

Chrisette Michele introduced her clothing line made with the curvy woman in mind.

Ava Duverney, Jurnee Smollett, Meagan Good, DeVon Franklin, Salli Richardson and Aldis Hodge talked to us about diversity in the media.

We heard words of wisdom from stylist and trendsetter June Ambrose.

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India Arie even graced us with her presence.

Erykah Badu rocked the stage.

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And even though all of this was incredibly awesome, it’s just a snapshot of the weekend. Check out previous recaps on Blavity to get a full rundown of #BlavityHouse at Essence Festival 2015.

Want to see what the ladies of the Blavity House are doing during the Essence Festival? Follow Blavity on Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat (username: blavityfam) to stay up to date with the ladies.

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Salli Richardson

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