When you’re employed at ESSENCE, you never know who you would possibly meet in the office, but this week it’s a country singer Mickey Guyton stopped in her busy schedule preparing for her new album, just at some point away starting your trip. Within seconds of seeing the artist, her radiant energy filled the room as she excitedly shared photos of her son at college: “Look at him, he’s just too cute.”

Before she became “Mickey Guyton,” the famous superstar of today, she was just Candace, growing up in Crawford, Texas, a small and really rural town in the Lone Star State, where her friends were her siblings. Like many black artists, church attendance was routine for her family and played a significant role in her life as her parents were deacons and deaconesses. These moments introduced her to her passion and what would soon change into her profession. “We spent a lot of time in church and that was the music we sang,” Guyton tells ESSENCE. However, it was Whitney Houston’s legendary Super Bowl XXV performance of the national anthem or seeing 10-year-old LeAnn Rimes sing at a Texas Rangers game that defined the moment that Guyton decided to try singing herself.

“It was my introduction to music. A teen who appeared like an adult woman was singing. I didn’t care what genre it was. I just desired to be her. That’s what made me need to sing,” Guyton says.

Growing up in the South, country music is played in predominantly black communities and is given as much priority as hip-hop music. Because her grandmother was a Dolly Parton fan, Guyton gravitated towards a country sound. He considers songs reminiscent of “I Will Always Love You” and “Coat of Many Colors” his most important and favorites. She mentions the famous journalist Jessica Bendinger, who encouraged her to change into interested in this genre, which, nonetheless, was associated with great hesitation. She eventually left Crawford and moved to Nashville to achieve a wider network of opportunities. “I always loved it, but I just didn’t know there was anyone who could help me or who could sing country music like me, or even if black people were allowed to do it,” Guyton says. “That’s form of where it began for me. We moved to Nashville and that was the start of all of it, but then there was a long fight.

After the move, Guyton signed with Capitol Records and shares her unexpected story of performing for the Obamas on the White House in 2011 after Keith Urban couldn’t commit. Singing a version of Patsy Cline’s “Crazy,” this story is true proof that her success was just across the corner. In 2014, she released her first self-titled EP, featuring the breakout hit “Better Than You Left Me”, detailing a previous relationship. However, in 2021, she re-released an EP titled “Heaven Down Here” with one other hit. The second design was heavily inspired by the events of 2020, when people needed fresh air.

“There was a lot occurring in our country, so I sang songs that helped me get through it. I used to be pregnant and living in downtown Los Angeles, so I remember the protests right outside my window. I desired to be with them but as a result of Covid-19 I had to remain home to guard my baby. There was a lot beauty in it too, because people were coming together for a cause, for Black Lives Matter, which inspired ‘Heaven Down Here,'” Guyton says.

Over the following 4 years, Guyton built an incredible resume, from being the primary black woman to co-host the Academy of Country Music Awards to being named Breakthrough Artist of the Year by Country Music Magazine and Television. She became a four-time Grammy-nominated country artist, sang on the Democratic National Convention, the Essence Festival Of Culture and, to return full circle, performed the national anthem at Super Bowl 56. Guyton, the dream of many small-town artists, rose to fame inside a decade. While these achievements could also be large, seeing others gain recognition in this genre motivated her to proceed.

“My career came at a very difficult time, during all the racial turmoil in our country, and I felt like the country music industry wanted to do better and be more inclusive,” Guyton says. “In those moments, because I was getting all these opportunities, I felt like I had to use that motivation to give opportunities to other Black, Latinx or LGBTQIA artists and use my platform to empower them as well.”

The recognition of Black artists in the agricultural space saw a surge in recognition when Beyoncé released her album, the second installment of her Act series, earlier this 12 months. Several country singers participated in the project, including Shaboozy, Dolly Parton, Tanner Adell, Reyna Roberts and Miley Cyrus. Although she was not included on the album, Guyton received flowers from Beyoncé in recognition of her contributions to the genre. While this will likely have generated some belated recognition from the masses, Guyton desires to make it clear that black country artists will not be just a trend.

“When Beyoncé released this album, it was very exciting to see the world and social media discover all of those artists, especially since Beyoncé is such a famous artist and her platform is so vast. However, I used to be afraid that everybody would only love country music for a moment, but that is the true lifetime of these artists and so they deserve our support beyond this moment,” says Guyton. “Will you still be here? It’s great that you’re hitting the “Follow” button, but are you hitting the streaming button? Do you show up at their shows? This is where actively supporting these artists really counts, because it is extremely important right now. “I pray that folks remember about these artists because if they do not get support, it won’t be viable for them anymore, then we’ll be back to square one for black country music artists.”

This 12 months, Guyton continues to represent Black Country artists with the discharge of her second album, a 12-track project with breakout singles including “Scary Love,” which comes from her experiences early after giving birth to her son, and ” My Kind of Country ,” detailing the similarities of the black experience in the South. This will coincide with the album embark in your first headlining tour, making stops in major cities including Atlanta, Chicago, Philadelphia and Nashville. Guyton ushers in a new era in country music focused on resilience, love and peace.

“This is the era of my love. That’s what my music reflects now. The course is just so big; it’s a spiritual thing and I’m at a really exciting time in my life,” Guyton says.

Two things were certain during Mugler’s SS25 performance. We didn’t see Cardi B’s chic and impractical look — and he or she didn’t either. Despite the indisputable fact that the rapper had a front row seat throughout Paris Fashion Week, his oblique bangs covered each eyes. And she wasn’t the just one.

Her look mimicked the fringe that models wore on the runway, matched by a wig Zhou Xue Ming. These blunt bangs were probably the most avant-garde look we have seen all season.

Cardi B’s hair reached the tip of her nose – sporting black lip liner and glazed pink lip gloss (which matched her short, square manicure). Meanwhile, the models’ wigs reached an additional two inches and touched the top of their lips.

Style brought temptation back Mugler in the Nineteen Nineties— which featured OG supermodels like Naomi Campbell and Iman. On the fiftieth anniversary, “the Mugler archive becomes fertile ground for reinterpretation,” we read in the program notes. In other words, an ode to the depths of great thing about the Home.

However, Cardi B has been showing off her range all week. At Balmain, she wore a black leather scarf and powdery eye makeup attended Rabanne in hot pink and a Rapunzel-style blonde wig with brown hair. She then rocked her Mugler hairstyle at Rick Owens, curling her veil bangs with a spiky bun. Much like the shows, she has proven to be one to look at this season.

The very topical topic of gentrification takes center stage in a comedic and moving show, the newest from Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright James Ijames. Starring Susan Kelechi Watson, well-known for her acclaimed role as Beth Pearson on , and Mamadou Athie, who recently starred on the Hulu series, the show offers a nuanced exploration of gentrification, community, and identity.

centers on Watson’s Aisha and her husband as they renovate a house in Aisha’s old neighborhood, creating suspense over the long run of their once famous community. At first glance, this may increasingly seem to be a straightforward story about urban revitalization and displacement, nevertheless it goes deeper and asks necessary questions on how people interact with the neighborhoods they find yourself in. Through the character of Aisha, the play explores what happens when people determine to remodel a community, relatively than understanding how they will contribute to it.

For Watson, returning to the stage was like coming home. “Theater is one of my greatest loves,” she explained. “For me, theater is the basis of acting. The return is always full of emotions. It’s a completely different muscle than film and television.” Watson, who boasts an in depth film and tv resume, also starred in the Public Theater’s 2022 production a singular version of Shakespeare’s play with an all-black forged set in South Harlem. “There is nothing like it,” he says of live performances. “Every time you perform, the audience is different and the atmosphere on stage will be different. There is nothing higher than doing something and it only exists in this space at the moment for these people.

For this particular series, Watson, who grew up in New York, was particularly drawn to the story and characters. “She is just. She’s just a real person. She’s very close to me,” Watson said. She connected deeply with Aisha’s background and experiences, noting how gentrification – one of the play’s main themes – mirrored her own observations of life in New York. “It’s only now that I’m coming to terms with the fact that it’s so different here. Much of what made this film special is no longer there, and that’s hard to regret. I saw things that seemed very steeped in culture completely change.”

Through , viewers are encouraged to think about the usually neglected complexities of gentrification. The dialogue between Aisha and her husband Travis highlights contrasting perspectives on whether to simply accept or resist the changes in their neighborhood. “What I like about our play,” Watson noted, “is that it delves into the complications of arguing about gentrification in the same community. Two Black people are talking about it. So what does this mean and what are these two points of view?”

Aisha’s journey reflects the strain between the need for positive change and respect for the lived experiences of those that already call a spot home. Watson says the play asks, “How can these two things exist at the same time and leaves room for people to be more understanding and compassionate about it.”

The balance of humor and social commentary that may be a hallmark of Ijames’ work allows the art to have interaction with a difficult subject in a way that’s more approachable and accessible, yet deeply moving. “When things are very deep, we often look for humor to lighten them up, and James is really good at that,” Watson says. “I love doing comedies, so it’s really nice to find those moments where it’s lighter, sharp, witty, where there’s just funny laughter, where it’s exaggerated, where it’s the most subtle. There are so many different types of comedy that it’s easy to fall back on the fact that this play has this tone.”

Watson personally finds humor especially funny. “I’m a big comedy fan – that’s what I mostly watch. That’s how I grew up. I am in such a family. Everyone is funny. That’s how we dealt with everything – with humor. In my opinion, sometimes this way you can make people hear something in a more relaxed way, allowing the sound to penetrate deeper.”

ultimately challenges us to rethink the dynamics of belonging and consider what it means to actually integrate right into a community, not as a force for change, but as a part of its fabric. It is a thoughtful and insightful exploration of the complexities of home, identity and community in a rapidly changing world.