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Okay ladies, as promised, I would like to deliver a little bit of Essence Music Festival “Eye Candy.”  I present to you – none other than – IDRIS ELBA!  For those of you that do not know much about Idris, he is a British actor who became famous in the US due to his role in The Wire.  Afterwards, he was in Tyler Perry’s, “Daddy’s Little Girls” (one of my personal favorites) and later co-starred with Beyonce Knowles in the 2009 thriller, “Obsessed.”  After attending his interview at the Essence Music Festival, I can definitely say the women are serious about Idris.  I didn’t get knocked down completely due to overpowering, muscular strength BUT probably would’ve if it wasn’t for the stage in front of me:)!  I was able to snap a couple of shots.  Please click the image above to view more from my flickr page.

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The 2009 Essence Music Festival took place at its homesite in New Orleans, Louisiana from July 3 – July 5.  This is a powerful event in celebration of African-American music, community, and talent that has such headliners as: Beyonce, John Legend, Ne-Yo, and Maxwell.  The event was opened by a press conference that involved the speakers as pictured in the above image:

Mayor C. Ray Nagin (Mayor of New Orleans), Roland Martin (CNN), General William Kip Ward (US Army), Rosalind Brewer (Division President of the Southeast Operations of Wal-Mart), Crystal Worthem (Multicultural Marketing Manager of Ford), Neil Golden (Chief Marketing Officer of McDonald’s US), and Jonathan Rogers (President and CEO of TV One), Michelle Ebanks (President of Essence Communications), Angela Burt-Murray (Editor-in-Chief of Essence Magazine), Joy A. Collins (Essence Music Festival General Manager), Ingrid Saunders Jones (Senior Vice President of Coca-Cola), Kisha Mitchell Williams (Multicultural Marketing Manager of Proctor and Gamble), and Lt. Gov Mitch Landrieu (State of Louisiana).

This is such a profound event that people from around the world attend annually.  I was honored to be able to attend this event and meet such amazing people. Please view all the images from the press conference by clicking the above image.