Femme It Forward continues amplifying Black women in music through its new groundbreaking event series, the Grammy High Tea Party. This year’s inaugural event honored 2024 Grammy nominees Coco Jones, Summer Walker, and Halle Bailey.
Held at a lavish estate in the Hollywood Hills, the High Tea Party was a thoughtfully curated event for Grammy honorees and distinguished figures from the music industry. Invitees were asked to follow a “daytime elegance” dress theme that brought out some beautiful high-end fashion moments from this year’s honorees and guests.
Created from the mind of Femme It Forward founder and Live Nation partner Heather Lowery, the Grammy High Tea Party served as the tea party she never got to have as a child.
“I always wanted to have a tea party as a little girl. I’ve never had one. So I thought, what better way to create a unique space to celebrate artists and creatives and visionaries and music than to have a tea party where we get dressed up and look beautiful,” she told BLACK ENTERPRISE.
It’s the latest innovative event series from Femme It Forward, which was launched to uplift women of color in the entertainment industry. Since its inception in 2019, Femme It Forward has spread its message through an annual GiveHerFlowHers Awards Gala that has honored the likes of SZA, Teyana Taylor, Lori Harvey, and many more.
The awards ceremony is also the fundraising cornerstone for the Next Gem Femme mentorship program, which connects emerging talent with influential women executives to reshape industry standards. Much like she’s done with the GiveHerFlowHers Gala, Lowery aims to create multisensory events celebrating Black women in entertainment.
With the Grammy High Tea Party, guests enjoyed live classical music with a performance from synchronized swimmers, photo activations with high-fashion tea party-themed hats courtesy of One of a Kind Hats
, a Black art installation, and more.“I think that we are multidimensional beings. So I wanted to create a memorable experience that represents us in all of our layers, not just another party,” Lowery said.
“When women come to a Femme It Forward event, I want them to leave feeling seen, feeling valued, like: ‘We get you, we got you.'”
Up next for Femme It Forward: another year of the Next Gem Femme mentorship program and a follow-up album to 2021’s Big Femme Energy Volume 1 that’s in the works.
After more than 20 years of working in the entertainment industry, seeing Femme It Forward’s continued growth is humbling and reassuring for Lowery.
“The feeling is rewarding and very clear that it’s just not about me. It’s bigger than me, and it’s about all of us,” she said. “So to know that I’m walking in my purpose, it’s the most amazing feeling.”