>> Saturday @VP to speak at @essencefest, per @AprilDRyan: https://t.co/x8oWmOUZPH
— Herbie Ziskend (@HerbieZiskend46) June 30, 2022
… Harris’ appearance will resemble that of former First Lady Michelle Obama, who attended the Essence Festival in 2019 for an intimate conversation moderated by news anchor Gayle King about her New York Times best-selling memoir, “Becoming.” The celebrity conducting the interview with the vice president has not yet been announced.
Sources close to Harris told theGrio that she personally requested to attend the largest annual gathering of Black America with a focus on Black women. The timing of the request is, in part, due to her understanding of this moment of uncertainty on various levels that impact Black women and the community.
Some of those issues of uncertainty have placed Vice order President Harris at the forefront of the administration’s fight. Harris has become the face of the White House’s battle for legal reproductive care after last week’s Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade — which the Biden White House has said is a top priority for the administration.
As a U.S. senator and now vice president, Harris has also led on the issue of Black maternal health and has emphasized the alarming data that shows Black women are three times more likely to die during pregnancy.
The last time Vice President Harris made an appearance at Essence Festival was in 2019 when she was a Democratic presidential candidate. She was one of a number of presidential contenders who understood the magnitude of this audience and worked for a direct connection to the community in exchange for their votes…
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