Every year, Unbothered celebrates our anniversary by throwing an epic party to commemorate the work we pour into our community every day, a culmination of the care and intention and joy with which we approach our jobs. After the year we’ve all had, we wanted to shower our people — the ones who show up to celebrate us in person and online — with the love they deserve. For our seventh anniversary (lucky number seven!), we brought together our team and treated guests to a surprise performance by someone we knew every Black millennial woman in the room would lose their minds over: Mario!
Yes, as in the Mario that gave us chart-topping songs of ‘04 and a scene-stealing performance in the original Step Up (2006). As Mario was hyping up the crowd with his hits “Let Me Love You” and “Crying Out For Me” (and reserving a special serenade for our very own Sandy Pierre, our branded execution manager, who is responsible for pulling off the party of the year and organizing, well, everything), you couldn’t find a single person in the room who wasn’t smiling ear to ear. The grins were mostly thanks to Mario, but the signature cocktails by our friends at Tres Generaciones Tequila definitely helped. Tres Gen has been present at every one of our anniversary parties and they consistently support us at all of our private events. We truly couldn’t pull off a party with all the drinks flowing and vibes vibing without the perfect party drinks. The delicious cocktails were fittingly called “Lucky 7,” (a play on an espresso martini with Tres Generaciones Tequila, licor 43, cherry espresso, averna, and demerara), “Always Unbothered” (Tres Generaciones Tequila, mamajuana, tamarind, banane, aromatic bitters, and cinnamon), and the “Keep It Cute” (Tres Generaciones Tequila, lime, chinola mango, tepache, spicy agave falernum, and clarified milk).
As Mario performed, the nostalgia was strong (so were the drinks) and it was clear that Mario is still exactly who we’ve all had crushes on for 20 years. Along with the performance, Mario came by the Unbothered office to discuss his new album, Glad You Came (and serenade Sandy again). A few days later, it was revealed that Mario was The Wasp on The Masked Singer. Last night, Mario came in second to Boyz II Men on the show’s finale and wowed audiences with his performances. “I have a wild imagination, so using my imagination just to imagine how The Wasp would move or even when I was standing still, creating this character was really fun,” Mario said to Billboard. “I enjoy challenging myself [by] singing different songs like Aretha Franklin. It was a lot of fun.”
It’s clear that Mario’s comeback is in full swing and our anniversary party was the perfect kickoff. We hosted it at NYC’s hot spot Chica The Don and the vibes were immaculate. Our Unbothered anniversary party always brings new and old faces together, and it was the nostalgic kiki we all needed. Unbothered started in a little boardroom in 2017 when our fearless leader and now vice president, Chelsea Sanders, and a group of Black women at Refinery29 (including founder Aly Hickson) bonded over a shared vision and a simple dream: to create a space for young, dope Black folks to be themselves, to be celebrated, understood, heard, and seen. And seven years later, that dream has been realized through incredible live events like The Glow Up, our two-day summer blowout in Atlanta in 2022, this year’s Beautycon in LA in which we brought back our podcast Go Off, Sis with a live edition with Serena Page and JaNa Craig, fun in-person meet ups, necessary reporting and storytelling, and stunning cover moments. Plus, we indulged our thirstiest inclinations with our second annual Thirst Week, a week of stories and social moments all about desire guest edited by our girls Hunter Harris and Peyton Dix.
I know it’s a hard time to be celebrating anything right now when the world is in crisis, and it feels like our timelines are full of despair, but as one of my favorite accounts Black Liturgies put it, “It can feel foolish to pause to marvel at the stars when the world is burning or to find the world beautiful when you’ve known it to betray you. But wonder is a liberation practice. A reminder that we contain more than tragedy. Beauty is our origin and our anchor.” There was so much wonder and beauty in the room last week at our anniversary party, and I’m so grateful for all the beautiful Black folks who came together to celebrate us, but also just to be — joyful, happy, grateful, ratchet, emotional — and whatever else they wanted, because above all else, what Unbothered gives us permission to be is free. This party is our liberation practice.
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This article was originally published on refinery29.com.