World-renowned television host and entrepreneur Oprah Winfrey stopped by the 2016 Essence Festival for the first time in the event’s 21 year history this year.
NEW ORLEANS, LA – JULY 02: Oprah Winfrey speaks onstage during the 2016 ESSENCE Festival presented By Coca-Cola at Ernest N. Morial Convention Center on July 2, 2016 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Paras Griffin/Getty Images for 2016 Essence Festival)
NEW ORLEANS, LA – JULY 02: Oprah Winfrey speaks onstage during the 2016 ESSENCE Festival presented By Coca-Cola at Ernest N. Morial Convention Center on July 2, 2016 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Paras Griffin/Getty Images for 2016 Essence Festival)
The Ernest N. Morial Convention Center was packed for the festival’s second day yesterday [Saturday, July 2], for panels, performances and to witness the Queen of Daytime herself take center stage.
Welcomed by friend Iyanla Vanzant, Winfrey’s appearance was supposed to be a surprise. The OWN creator dropped encouraging gems on the Empowerment Stage to the hundreds of attendees who flocked to see her:
“You don’t get what you wish for. You don’t get what you hope for. You get what you believe.”
“The key, the secret, the magic is to surrender to God’s dream for you.”
“For everything there is an equal and opposite reaction. … It means no matter what you do, what you say, the energy of who you are is going out into the world, into your home, into your relationships and that energy is always coming back to you. You are responsible for the energy that you are putting out into the world because that very energy — bam! —is coming right back to you every single time, whether you believe it or not, because it is law. It is law.”
“You have no power over any territory other than your own, but you are the master of that. You get to be the captain of your own soul and if you just manage that, if you just took care of your territory, all the glorious, glorious, glorious wondrous opportunities and possibilities are waiting for you. The question is, what are you resisting?”
“Your life is big. Your life is huge, and we spend so much time wanting to be in somebody else’s life, and you don’t get honored, you don’t get revered, you don’t get celebrated wanting what somebody else has.”
 The 62-year-old also attended the Queen Sugar cocktail reception, a new one-hour drama premiering on OWN in September, along with the cast and director, Ava DuVernay.
NEW ORLEANS, LA – JULY 02: Oprah Winfrey (C) speaks at a cocktail reception for “Queen Sugar” at Liberty Kitchen on July 2, 2016 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Josh Brasted/Getty Images for OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network)
