Known as the mecca for Black women, creatives and business owners, Atlanta, Georgia hosted Mary J. Blige’s inaugural “Strength of a Woman Festival and Summit,” which was like Essence Fest meets Circle of Sisters. The three-day experience took place during Mother’s Day weekend (May 6th-8th) 2022 and was in partnership with Pepsi, along with Live Nation Urban. It was evident that the mission fed the theme of being dedicated to the advancement and empowerment of women.
When news of the festival was first announced, the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul revealed, “The idea for the festival came to us after early listening sessions of my latest album with my family and friends and women in the industry. Each time, the people in the room would share a story, oftentimes of heartbreak or pain, but they always ended with joy and love and how their girlfriends or Mom or sister helped them find their voice and strength. We felt like after two years of being inside and having to endure so much, that this was the type of experience that people, especially women, deserved.”
Particularly, she chose Atlanta because, “it just feels like this is where we supposed to be.” She explained in our exclusive chat, “There’s so many Black-owned businesses, so much Black everything and Black women in power. I mean, the fans out here don’t play; they’re very excited. They love me so much, they give real love. Not that no other place does, but Atlanta’s fun. Why not?”
VIBE was invited to spend the weekend with Mary and her friends as we explored “The A” on the singer’s terms with once-in-a-lifetime panels, activations, and experiences.
Our weekend began on Friday night (May 6) at the Buckhead Theater where the comedy show starring Ms. Pat, Just Nesh, and Erica Duchess took place. Jokes flew about the ongoing pandemic, STD outbreaks across Chicago and Atlanta, familial life, motherhood, and more. As many comedians say, comedy stems from turning dark moments into something bright. After being introduced with a surprise popup from Mary herself, the star of The Ms. Pat Show on the BET+ channel, closed out the show with a word of wisdom: “take the darkest s**t in your life and when you can laugh at it, you got control of it.”
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Strength Of A Woman Festival And Summit, Part One
Image Credit: Paras Griffin/Getty Images for for Strength Of A Woman Festival & Summit Day two of the festivities was quite the busy one as the morning began with the Summit portion of the weekend, held at The Gathering Spot. The first panel titled “Defining The Strength of a Woman” was moderated by television host Tamron Hall and featured legendary New York radio host Angie Martinez, social media influencer/entrepreneur Supa Cent, Starz’ BMF series director/actress Tasha Smith, and of course, Mary J. Blige.
Hall revealed that Mary was “grounding herself” backstage, nearly in tears because this festival that’s been 30 years in the making had finally come to be. The ladies mentioned that the singer had been discussing owning her own festival since 1991. “The most powerful thing is all these women being here, that’s the strength of a woman. Seeing other women being empowered. Women strengthening each other by example.” Supa Cent chimed in declaring, “women are the new real n***as.”
Ahead of our conversation backstage, Kandi Burruss who was set to take the stage with Xscape later that evening snuck in. Mary remained humble and grateful with every interaction including this one. Kandi gushed, “yo, you killin’ it.” To which Mary replied, “thank y’all for helping me kill it.”
When asked what were some of Mary’s greatest strengths, she contemplated for a moment. “Let me see, I’m calm. I’m cool under pressure. When there’s a lot of pressure, I don’t embarrass easy. As you can see, I’ve been through a lot of embarrassing stuff in my life and I don’t go away. I think that’s probably one of the biggest ones, just not embarrassing easy. [Another] was being able to not be afraid to see myself whether I’m wrong or right, deal with the good, the bad, the ugly, see myself in the mirror for real, so I can have clarity.” She also shared that vulnerability can be considered a strength as well.
With this year marking the 30th anniversary of her debut album What’s The 411?, the 25th year of her third album Share My World, and the 5th anniversary of the festival’s namesake album, Strength of a Woman, she reflected: “Wow. They mean so much to me in my growth as a woman because each and every one of those albums and every song on those albums represent a time and a thing that I was going through, and a space that I was in—whether I was in the studio working on the Share My World album drinking a case of Corona every night, enjoying my life or crying later on that night because of something that happened. Or the My Life album when I was completely just dark and ready to commit suicide, and What’s the 411? when I was just singing for my life, fresh out of the hood. They all mean something and basically they have been my therapy sessions to get me here.”
ATLANTA, GEORGIA – MAY 07: (L-R) Tamron Hall, Angie Martinez, Tasha Smith, Mary J. Blige, and Supacent attend the Strength Of A Woman Festival & Summit on May 07, 2022 at The Gathering Spot in Atlanta, Georgia. Paras Griffin/Getty Images for for Strength Of A Woman Festival & Summit Later on, we caught up with Kandi backstage in between panels, where she shared when she first realized she was strong. “Oh honey, I was young. I’m a Taurus,” she teased. “I come from a family of strong women who support me and push me, just motivate me to do what I want, what I can and what I want to do. My brother passed when I was 15. My group [Xscape] had started getting together when I was 14 and my brother could sing too. And he used to tell me and my mom, ‘Kandi got what it takes to make the pros.’ He used to say that and [I believed], ‘I’m going to do it.'”
Coco Jones smiling at Strength of a Woman Festival and Summit on May 07, 2022 at The Gathering Spot in Atlanta, Georgia Paras Griffin/Getty Images for for Strength Of A Woman Festival & Summit Coco Jones, who spoke on the panel geared towards monetizing your personal brand—similar to her Hilary Banks character on Bel-Air—also defined what it means to have the strength of a woman. “[It] is honestly indescribable, because we go through so much and we still have to be bomb as hell. Like, dang. At least these guys, they get to look dusty. We got to look cute and we do all these things with class. We accomplish everything past all of the opposition, the additional opposition that’s unfair, we do that with class. So, the strength of a woman is such an amazing quality to have and I feel like probably one of my greatest strengths is tenacity and perseverance just because I know what I want for myself. Even though the timing doesn’t always make sense, I can’t stop until I get it. And I think that takes a lot of strength.”
Prior to heading out in preparation of the Mary J. and Friends concert that also featured headliners like Chaka Khan and City Girls, I sat in on the Mic Mavens panel about what it means to be a Black female manager in the music industry. Speaking were Claudine Joseph (LL Cool J’s manager), Nicole Jackson (Mary’s manager) and Eboni Ward (Future, Gunna, and Flo Milli’s manager).
With the industry being so male-dominated in a lot of aspects, this particular panel reminded folks that behind every great man is a strong woman. The women shared several gems about their professional journeys and takeaways for those considering to venture a similar path. Other panels available for attendees were a crash course on entrepreneurship, a guide to NFTs and Cryptocurrency, the business of plastic surgery, and debunking stigmas around reproductive health.
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Strength Of A Woman Festival And Summit, Part Two
Image Credit: Paras Griffin/Getty Images for Strength Of A Woman Festival & Summit With this being Mary’s first festival as an owner who’s naturally also headlining, it was a huge moment and neither she nor Atlanta did not disappoint. The crowd was a bit restless while awaiting opening acts, Omeretta The Great and Baby Tate, but with a sleek transition from Brandy’s “I Wanna Be Down” into Biggie and Total’s “Can’t You See” and a slew of tunes from Atlanta-bred artists, the event was reminiscent of a massive house party, thanks to the DJ and the attendees. By the end of the night, you were going to meet someone or a group of people you didn’t know before you entered and you were going to have a great time partying with random strangers turned friends in harmony. In honor of Mother’s Day, Baby Tate brought out her mother, Dionne Farris, in a surprise appearance to sing her classic ballad, “Hopeless” from the Love Jones soundtrack.
The concert progressed with extended dance breaks in-between sets and commentary from the evening’s host, V-103’s own Kenny Burns. When Queen Naija took the stage, the crowd nearly fell to its knees as all the women bellowed out her lyrics before transforming into the opposite of heartbreak queens as City Girls followed the her performance. One thing about the City Girls, is that JT and Yung Miami will ensure that: 1. You know they’re that b**ch and 2. Their energy is magnetic. With the weekend’s theme being sisterhood, these two crowd-commanders reminded us just why they are each other’s yin and yang.
(L-R) Kandi Burruss, Tamika Scott, Tameka “Tiny” Harris and LaTocha Scott of Xscape perform during the Strength Of A Woman concert. Derek White/Getty Images for Strength Of A Woman Festival & Summit Xscape’s set, albeit shorter than anticipated, had the crowd’s attention from the moment they took the stage. The quartet ran through their timeless hits, “Who Can I Run To,” “Just Kickin’ It,” and “My Little Secret” with their mics definitely on and choreography in tact. Mid-set, they honored their mothers with special plaques, a bouquet of flowers, and an intimate rendition of “Understanding.”
As the concert eased into the end of the show, the iconic songstress, Chaka Khan took the stage in a fashion eerily familiar, especially if you watched her Verzuz with Stephanie Mills from last year. At one point, the audience began to murmur since there was some sort of technical difficulty, but like true fans, they were more than happy to sing the lyrics aloud to “Sweet Thing,” “Tell Me Something Good,” and of course, “I’m Every Woman.”
Then, finally the moment had arrived. Mary J. Blige took the stage and divided her sector into two parts. The first half of her set consisted of the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul performing a medley of her hits including “I Can Love You” (unfortunately without Lil Kim), “Enough Cryin,” “Love No Limit,” “Real Love (Remix),” “Be Happy” and “I Love You.” Adding to the excitement as the crowd went berserk in the best way, let’s not forget that before everyone wanted Megan Thee Stallion’s knees, MJB has been bouncing around stage during her signature dance breakdown in thigh high boots for decades.
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Rounding out her solo set, she slowed things down performing “My Life,” and “It’s Going Down.” She also took us to church with “Good Morning Gorgeous” and dedicated “Everything” to her adoring, dedicated fans and all those who helped the festival happen.
During the “& Friends” portion of Mary’s set, Ella Mai came through to perform her single, “DFMU” and her Grammy-winning tune, “Boo’d Up.” Summer Walker, though annoyed that she couldn’t hear herself, still captivated the crowd with “Unloyal.” It was no shock that Method Man joined Mary for a live rendition of their iconic duet, “I’ll Be There for You/You’re All I Need to Get By.”
The King of R&B and the King of the A, Usher slid through for their first live performance of “Need Love” from her latest album, Good Morning Gorgeous. He also reflected on the fact that he opened for Mary during his first tour, so celebrated that moment by serenading her with his 2004 jam, “Bad Girl.”
Wrapping things up in the most appropriate manner, the unofficial Mayor of Atlanta, Jermaine Dupri, dropped by to perform “Welcome To Atlanta” and the night ended on a high around 1 a.m.—nearly two hours after the initially scheduled end.
Closing out the weekend, though, was the gospel brunch featuring Kierra Sheard and Le’Andria Johnson at City Winery. Overall, Mary J. Blige’s inaugural Strength of a Woman Festival and Summit was a jam-packed, three-day event full of love, community, sisterhood, and insight. Whether you chose to spend all day gaining wisdom at the summit or just wanted to have a night on the town at the concerts or comedy show, there was something available for women of all ages. Honestly, we can’t wait to see how Mary is going to outdo herself in the coming years.