ESSENCE covered Black women’s culture, style and lives, bringing music and celebrity interviews together with personal and social reporting.

About this issue and its era: Anita Baker fronts ESSENCE’s Power Issue beneath Life Grows You Up, with a cover story advertising her comeback and personal reflections. Known for a rich contralto and jazz-influenced soul, Baker returned with My Everything in 2004. The issue places that return within ESSENCE’s wider focus on Black women’s lives, work, style and self-definition in the early 2000s.

Issue: ESSENCE, October 2004. Physical vintage magazine; one copy available.

Visible cover condition: Visible edge and corner wear, light handling creases and a small fold at the upper-right corner.

Interior pages, inserts, posters and binding have not been inspected; no claim of completeness or a formal condition grade is made. Photograph shows the actual copy offered. The background has been removed, with artwork, labels, creases and wear preserved.