With news headlines declaring that their parent company General Motors is having financial setbacks, it's admirable that Chevrolet, the company's bestselling brand, opted to remain onboard as a sponsor of this year's Essence Music Festival.
According to reports, GM announced on Tuesday that they would be cutting costs across the board in an effort to ease investors concerns about a possible bankruptcy filing. While the cutbacks within the company are broad, one area in particular GM aims to cut back on is putting sponsorship dollars into events outside of marketing campaigns and initiatives that directly sell their vehicles.
As with many companies, rising gas prices and the weak economy are to blame.
Regardless, Chevrolet returned to
This year, the company introduced the new hydrogen-powered Equinox Fuel Cell SUV, which has been introduced via a test fleet of vehicles in
The campaign, called 'Project Driveway,' is being pegged as "the first large-scale market test of fuel cell vehicles with real drivers in the real world." Chevy believes this car is the way of the future as it pertains to automobiles.
Hydrogen fuel cells use zero gasoline and produce zero emissions. It's a sustainable technology for a better environment and ultimately reduces our dependence on petroleum. Equinox Fuel Cell is an electric vehicle powered by the GM fourth-generation fuel cell system, the company's most advanced fuel cell propulsion system to date.
I got a chance to test drive the vehicle along with a who's who group of media professionals and was surprised by how smooth, powerful and "normal," for a lack of better words, the vehicle was.
In addition to introducing the Equinox Fuel Cell SUV during Essence, Chevrolet also kicked off its first ever 'Voices of Tomorrow' competition, which was hosted by XM's Suite 62 radio personality Michel Wright.
Contestants from five metro areas in
Abigail Far or Rockwall, Texas; Natalie Clark of Bedford, Texas; LaTangela Sherman of Baton Rouge, LA; Lanita Pearl Burton of Houston, Texas were the four finalists and coincidentally, all sang Keyshia Cole's 'I Remember.'
The ladies were judged by a panel of six judges that included R&B star Musiq Soulchild and it was LaTangela Sherman who went home with the new whip.
Sidebar: Do you remember when singers would sing 
songs by Patti LaBelle, En Vogue, Jennifer Holiday and other vocal powerhouses during talent competitions? Not taking anything away from the vocal deliveries of the four competitors, but sitting through that many renditions of the same Keyshia Cole song was like being forced into after school detention in high school.
Chevrolet almost maintained its commitment to the Children's Defense Fund (CDF) Freedom Schools® program.
For those who don't know, the Freedom Schools teach students to dismantle anger through music. It provides critical summer and after-school enrichment through a model curriculum that supports children and families around five essential components: high quality academic enrichment, parent and family involvement, civic engagement and social action, intergenerational leadership development, and nutrition, health and mental health. 
Introduced to Chevy as a part of the Essence Cares program under the direction of former 'Essence' editorial director Susan L. Taylor – whose surprising absence from this year's festival was completely felt – Chevy was granted unlimited access to a local New Orleans' Freedom School gathering and the media was able to participate in harambe and other activities that the students partake in.
According to Taj Brown, Senior Manager of Capacity and Development for the Children's Defense Fund, it was Taylor who told corporations that "if you want to work with 'Essence,' you have to work with the C.D.F."
Even he commented on her absence.
"I find it mysterious we don't hear her name this week," he said, before adding: "but this all has happened because of her." 
It was because of
Nonetheless, hats off to Chevrolet for their continued commitment to diversity!
To find out more about Chevrolet vehicles and their community initiatives, go to www.Chevy.com.
