BLACK by DESIGN

Pamela Macklin, ESSENCE's former Fashion Director, called together a group of extraordinary Black designers, known and emerging, for a photo shoot celebrating Susan L. Taylor's commitment to providing space and place for Black creatives

- By asha bandele

We came across waters and borders, arriving early with the sun, for Susan L. Taylor's first-ever solo cover shoot, which took place at a studio on the edge of New York's Hudson River. To enter was to set foot on holy ground. We were three generations of Black women together, holding space for all of the Black women who were not. We were the history of our sisters' strength and resolve, and their art and beauty. We were the timelessness of a magazine—and a muse—that had been a movement in our lives.

ESSENCE is celebrating its 55th year of service. Most businesses today survive, at best, 18 years. Black-owned businesses are shuttered eight out of 10 times. That ESSENCE has defied that statistic so many times over is a testament to the product it offers; but equally, it's a testament to how it makes that offering.

Susan Taylor's legacy was greater even than the words; the images; and the commitment to journalism that held its gaze on Black women, and on the Black community. What powered the content was all about the world in which that content could take its form. Black creatives, still mostly closed out of the very industry we provided inspiration for, were finally welcomed in. It was routine for people to stop by the office and ask an editor to take a peek at their work. Routine for them to connect with Susan as she traveled the country. Of course, not every artist's offering made it to the pages of ESSENCE. Many were still developing their