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Sharifa Murdock may have started off in the retail world, but she’s translated her passion for fashion into creating a brand that cultivates the youth and inspires women everywhere. The Brooklyn native is the co-founder of the ENVSN Festival, an event which aims to bring together strong personalities who believe in the power of women by sharing stories through platforms of encouragement.
This year’s ENVSN Festival will be held on Sept. 14 and 15 at Industry City in Brooklyn, N.Y. Presale tickets for one or both days of the fest, as well as VIP two-day all access, are available on their website. Last year’s inaugural event—she tells ‘Boss Talk’ host J’na Jefferson—was put together in three months. It featured inspiring panels, workshops and performances featuring entertainment figures such as Saweetie, Tinashe, Zhavia, beauty guru Jackie Aina and more. With her business partner, Hot 97 radio personality Laura Stylez, the duo continues to grow ENVSN and create a legacy as the festival enters its second go-around.
“I felt like there was a void missing within the industry of female empowerment, and just getting that young generation to really understand that there’s more than what they see,” Murdock says of the festival’s underlying motive. Murdock has her legs in the fashion field, and is also the co-founder of Liberty Fairs, a business-to-business men’s contemporary fashion and lifestyle trade show. With ENVSN, she wanted to leave an indelible legacy of her own, and hopes to inspire others to do the same. “There’s so many options of what you can do in life, you don’t have to be pigeonholed into one thing,” she says of having her hand in many different industries.
She attributes her healthy sense of occupational balance to self-care and her wonderful assistant, Lucia. What sets ENVSN apart from other female-driven festivals in the United States? Other than its goal of nourishing young women from all walks of life through accessibility and exposure, Murdock says ENVSN’s focus on collaboration is one of its greatest assets. “Social media has created this phase that girls are competing with each other instead of collaborating with each other,” she says. “We’re in a space right now where you can do whatever you want… I want young people to know and believe in themselves.”
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This year, the festival is partnering with several like-minded brands, and Ms. Murdock also tapped leaders in the fashion, beauty, tech and lifestyle spaces to form the ENVSN Board, a group of women who were chosen to drive the festival’s missions, and provide ways to implement diversity and inclusion into this year’s event.
“Everyone knows something different, it’s about finding people outside of our network,” she says of the Board, which features experts in fields like culinary, tech and more. “They can provide some sort of information that may even be able to make our festival bigger.” What does Murdock envision for the future of her festival? She’s hoping to continue to expand and to see not just global success, but success for the young people who attend the event– especially young women of color. “[I was] very adamant about [ENVSN] being multicultural,” she explains. “I am very aware of what’s going on around me, but I do wanna change the narrative. Going forward, [women of color] need to be heard and we need to be paid attention to. If it’s by ENVSN, that’s what’s gonna be by.” Listen to ‘Boss Talk’ with Sharifa Murdock in its entirety below.
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