(Photo by Paras Griffin/Getty Images for Essence)

A Gallery Of Essence Baes

In case you didn’t know, the almighty Essence Fest was this weekend. That means, as usual, a cavalcade of black women converging on NOLA to enjoy their black woman-ness. If you saw Girls Trip last year then you know what it’s like: a heaven full of black women being as beautiful as only black women can be.

So you know what we had to do. Take a look at some of the baddest baddies out in NOLA over the past week.