Hearst Magazines to Celebrate Black Voices in Fashion, Beauty and More at Three-Day Summit

The Summit was the result of brainstorming sessions by the Hearst Black Culture employee resource group (ERG). “Our goal is to uplift, inspire and amplify Black voices,” said Tommy J. Atkins, Hearst Magazines’ Multicultural Marketing Lead and Founder of the Hearst Black Culture ERG, who is spearheading the event. “My hope is that these sessions will shine a light on the leading voices in Black culture and influence emerging creatives and leaders within the industries represented to see themselves in the content we’ve created.”

In 2021, the virtual event was exclusively presented by Harper’s BAZAAR. This year, fellow Hearst Magazine brands Cosmopolitan, Delish, ELLE, ELLE Decor, Good Housekeeping and Oprah Daily all jumped on board, as well.

The Summit also allows Hearst to thread content from the event to the different magazine brands and their digital platforms.

“We actually used the Summit as a platform for content creation that brings our editorial franchises to life in some really cool ways,” said Todd Haskell, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Hearst Magazines. “This organization puts the values of diversity, equity and inclusion front and center in everything we do. This is a great way to do all of those things.”

Sponsors also joined, including Sephora, Stitch Fix, Unilever’s SheaMoisture and The Ritz-Carlton New York’s new NoMad property.

“We were very deliberative in terms of how we identified sponsors to work with,” said Haskell. “We looked for sponsors who were doing the work on their own so this program would give us an opportunity to shine a light on that. We wanted brands that have earned their participation.”

For example, Unilever and its SheaMoisture brand work to fund and support Black businesses as well as to advance the CROWN (Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural hair) Act, which would prohibit the discrimination of people based on their race as demonstrated by their natural hair.

Sephora has pledged that 15% of its shelf space would be dedicated to Black-owned brands. In August, the company launched the Accelerate program, which is creating a foundation, network and ecosystem for BIPOC brands to launch and thrive.

StitchFix, which also offers Black-owned brands to its customers, launches Black designers through its Elevate grant and mentorship program.

A pre-Summit party was held at The Ritz-Carlton New York, NoMad on Tuesday, Oct. 11, where the Summit-closing panel was filmed with Gayle King, Editor-at-Large at Oprah Daily. She interviewed actress, comedian and entrepreneur Tracee Ellis Ross, who founded Black hair product line Pattern, which is carried at Sephora.

In another Summit session, actress Sanaa Lathan (Succession) will talk with Town & Country contributor Emil Wilbekin about her feature film directorial debut with On the Come Up, streaming exclusively on Paramount Plus.

A panel shot at the Brooklyn Museum’s Virgil Abloh “Figures of Speech” exhibit features a conversation moderated by Harper’s BAZAAR Digital Director Nikki Ogunnaike about the designer's legacy with some of the exhibit’s curators and the iconic designer’s closest collaborators. Designer Jerry Lorenzo talks to Harper’s BAZAAR Editor-in-Chief Samira Nasr about his label Fear of God and his impact on fashion and culture.

Other panels include discussions about Black hair and beauty. One features Cara Sabin, President of Beauty and Well-Being at Unilever NA and CEO of its Sundial Brands, who has been an evangelist in this area. Other panel members include actor and entrepreneur Angelica Ross and celebrity hair stylist Anthony Dickey.

This year, Hearst also has folded in Level Up Ventures, a Hearst Corporation initiative focused on Black and Hispanic entrepreneurs, and is including sessions that consider the experience of Black-owned startups.

To read about all of the sessions and register for the Celebrating Black Summit, click here.

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