ESSENCE Fest 2018: 9 Things To Know About NOLA's Own Sheba Turk And Why Her New Book Is A Must Read

We’re elated to have New Orleans on-air journalist and author, Sheba Turk, returning to the 2018 ESSENCE Festival as Saturday’s host of our ESSENCE Empowerment Stage. 

Click HERE to download the official 2018 ESSENCE Festival App

In addition to keeping the NOLA community up on everything they need to know every weekday morning as a news anchor for local CBS affiliate WWL-TV, the 29-year-old southern belle is also using her platform to help other young people find their paths by sharing her story in a new book titled, Off Air: My Journey To The Anchor Desk.

We caught up with Sheba ahead of her ESSENCE Festival return to find out more about her book, her journey and why she says ESSENCE Fest is the perfect compliment to her hometown. Scroll through to check out 9 things we learned and then be sure to download the official ESSENCE Festival app to stay updated on where you can catch Sheba during Festival’s daytime experiences at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center.

See you in NOLA!

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@ShebaTurk Instagram

"Finally, when I gave up on trying to do pre-med, I accidentally stumbled into this journalism class."

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@ShebaTurk Instagram

"I met a wonderful mentor who convinced me to get into broadcast journalism. With the help of my mentors—one of whom was Soledad O'Brien, who paid for me to finish college— I got an internship at CNN in New York."

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"I was going to NYU, but, I ran out of money for school and then I came back home to the University of New Orleans and ran out of money again. That's when Soledad paid for me to finish, which ultimately landed me back in New Orleans to graduate from college here. I then got a job behind the scenes writing for a news station here."

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Sheba Turk

"They wanted me to be a traffic reporter. I didn't want to do traffic but, I took the job and would be a news reporter in my free time until I got good enough for them to recognize that I could actually do it. Within the span of two years, they moved me from behind-the-scenes writing, to traffic reporter, to morning show reporter. And then one of the anchors got pregnant, the deal wasn't working out and she left, and I became a morning show anchor."

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Sheba Turk

"I wrote the book was because I love talking to young people and so many young women were reaching out to me, asking  about my story and asking, 'how did you break into this business?' They had all these questions about stuff that I had just gone through and figured out so, I was constantly writing e-mails, Instagram messages and tweets to answer them and I was also writing graduation speeches where I would share my story. One day I was like, 'Well, maybe this is a book if I write down the whole story and everything I've learned.'"

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Sheba Turk

"Outside of people who are not into journalism, I really talk about just being a young person and figuring out your journey. How you have to be honest with yourself, not compare yourself to others, stop trying to keep up with the Joneses and all that crazy stuff that I really think throws you off track from reaching your full potential."

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Sheba Turk

"I go through everything. How I struggled to negotiate my first contract and to value myself; how I still struggle to do that now and what it's really like to work in this business. So many people think it's glamorous because we're on TV and have no idea what we actually do in a day, especially the parts of it that are hard that you don't think anyone would have to deal with."

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Sheba Turk

"She brought me on to [the PBS special] in 2017 and that was my first national TV appearance. Hopefully I'll be back this year!"

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ESSENCE

"The ESSENCE Fest really captures everything that the city is about: food, fun, good music and a great time. At the heart of it, though, this is not just a celebration with nothing behind it because what we do at the Convention Center is have really important conversations and talk about real issues. I think that's New Orleans in a nutshell. Yes, we have a ton of fun but, we also have real things going on, real talent in this city and important things that people care about and talk about."