The panel may have been billed as “Paid the Cost to Be the Boss,” but bestselling author and book coach Luvvie Ajayi Jones set the record straight from the start. “That’s not really what we’re talking about,” she said.
Instead, the conversation at the ESSENCE Festival of Culture 2025 in New Orleans turned to storytelling, legacy and the urgency of Black women owning their narratives—especially in print.
Inside a packed ESSENCE Authors stage at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, Jones kicked off the discussion by asking panelists Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman, Alencia Johnson and Dr. Lakeysha Hallmon: “Why was this the book you wrote—or why now?”
Each woman offered her own powerful perspective in response.
Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman—an award-winning researcher and author of the forthcoming book The Double Tax: How Women of Color Are Overcharged and Underpaid—shared that her book was born of frustration. “I felt like people were playing in our [faces],” she said. Her data-backed work challenges those who dismiss the economic burdens Black women face. “There’s actually a lot of data that supports our stories,” she added. “And so we’re going to bring that to the forefront so you can’t ignore it.”
Alencia Johnson, a political strategist, cultural commentator, and USA Today bestselling author of Flip the Tables: The Everyday Disruptor’s Guide to Finding Courage and Making Change—a book offering guidance for social change leaders—reflected on the upheaval of 2020—George Floyd’s murder, the pandemic and a divisive election.
“People were coming to me asking for answers to what was happening in the world and how to find their purpose, but I was questioning my own purpose,” she admitted. Her book was born from that reckoning. “I had to flip over the proverbial tables in my own life in order to have the power to flip over the tables in the community around me.”
Building on the theme of challenging dominant narratives, Dr. Lakeysha Hallmon, founder of The Village Market and author of No One Is Self-Made: Build Your Village to Flourish in Business and Life, challenged the myth of individual success. “To accept the title of being self-made, I was erasing some critical people,” she said. “This book chose this moment because right now, in this very moment, we must be together. There is no other narrative in the narrative of unity.”
After exploring legacy and the power of community, Jones raised the topic of imposter syndrome, turning the conversation personal.
Opoku-Agyeman admitted she questioned why she was even invited to speak at ESSENCE Fest. But then something clicked. “You know what? I’m that girl. And I’ve been putting in the work,” she said. “This is the fruit of my labor. This is the harvest of the tilling that I’ve been doing. And I’ve worked hard for this.”
Dr. Hallmon responded with affirmation. “There’s nothing about the divine calling on my life that is false. If we accept that, then we accept the notion of being worthy.”
Johnson echoed the sentiment, adding, “Imma be honest, our bare minimum is excellence.”
To drive home the stakes, Jones reminded the crowd just how rare Black stories are in the publishing industry. “75 percent of the books that came out in the last five years were by white people—mostly white men,” she said. “Whenever a Black author is selling a book, it literally means another Black author can get a book deal. If you see a book by a Black author, buy it. It’s not just putting money in another author’s pocket—you’re actually enabling other stories like ours to be told.”
The charge was clear: Black stories are not just worthy—they are vital. Supporting them isn’t just a purchase; it’s an act of legacy, a way to ensure that the voices of today pave the way for future generations. Choosing to invest in these stories means betting on our collective future.