00:00Wow, thank you so much.
00:09I want to say a very special thank you to my friend, my collaborator, my co-conspirator,
00:19Susan Burton, for that beautiful introduction.
00:26You know I love you, and I appreciate you, and it's truly a joy to fight for justice alongside you.
00:39Thank you to the Hollywood Reporter and Social Impact Fund for honoring me and for bringing us together.
00:48There is a long, rich history in this country of the two worlds represented here,
00:55the world of arts and culture and the world of social impact,
01:01joining in common cause for our common good, indeed for our collective liberation.
01:09And today I'm reflecting especially on the lifelong partnership and friendship between two heroes of mine,
01:20the embodiment of these often intersecting worlds.
01:26Harry Belafonte and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
01:35During the final days of Dr. King's life, they sat together in Mr. Belafonte's home.
01:43Now this was March 1968, not August 1963, so it was king in the valley, not king on the mountaintop.
01:52He had grown weary from the heavy burden he had shouldered.
01:58He had lamented to his friend that America was, in his perfectly chosen phrase,
02:05a burning house, a burning house, a house on fire.
02:12I'm afraid, he said then, that America has lost its moral vision,
02:18that absent meaningful equality and opportunity and justice, we will, and I quote,
02:24continue to perpetuate the anger and violence that tears at the soul of this nation.
02:31Sound familiar?
02:32They say history often rhymes, right?
02:40Mr. Belafonte then asked, well, Dr. King, what would you have us do?
02:46Dr. King replied simply,
02:50become the fireman.
02:54We gather this afternoon in our own house on fire.
02:59We gather in a city, still reeling, heartbroken, painfully struggling to rebuild from the literal fires.
03:14Homes and lives are still in ruin.
03:18We also gather in a nation ablaze.
03:23All across this country, the air is thick.
03:28It can be hard to find a voice.
03:31It can be hard to breathe.
03:35The grief and the fear.
03:39The pervasive sense of how much we've lost and how quickly.
03:44It can be suffocating.
03:48My heart is heavy.
03:51Our government is kidnapping and disappearing.
03:56Our friends and neighbors.
04:00Our kids' caregivers in the park.
04:03Our builders.
04:04And then occupying our streets to silence the voices of those exercising their constitutional rights
04:15and responsibilities, I might add, to dissent.
04:20Our government is stealing from the poorest children in our communities.
04:24The poorest children on earth, taking away food, taking away aid, taking away health care.
04:33To line the pockets of the wealthiest.
04:37Day after day, our government is abandoning the shared values that have inspired us to become our best.
04:45To serve as a beacon for the world.
04:49To serve as the hope of the tired, of the tempest-tossed, of all who yearn to breathe free.
04:56To say nothing of the corruption and the cruelty and the malice and the seeming impunity.
05:07And the arsonists, the ones who ignite and stoke this destructive fire, are the ones we elected.
05:19The ones who swore an oath to protect this house.
05:26To defend its people.
05:28To defend its constitution and the rule of law.
05:31And yet, and yet, I can hear my grandmother saying,
05:40Rejoice in hope.
05:43Be patient in tribulation.
05:48And yet, we might imagine Mr. Belafonte and Dr. King sitting together,
05:53maybe somewhere in some humble living room,
05:56maybe plastic covering the sofas, just like at my grandmother's house.
06:01Maybe somewhere on the other side.
06:03And Dr. King, despite it all,
06:05imploring Mr. B and all of us simply,
06:08Become the firemen.
06:11Fight these fires.
06:12Susan Burton is a fire fighter.
06:21Nearly three decades ago,
06:22she asked formerly incarcerated women at a bus stop if they needed a place to stay.
06:29A new way of life.
06:33Susan's righteous organization was born.
06:36And with it, an audacious leader who ennobles and emboldens and inspires us all.
06:46Ann Lee and Sean Penn are firefighters.
06:50Through CORE, they've shown us that even amidst disaster,
06:53disaster, our shared humanity can transcend devastation through neighbors serving neighbors,
07:02strangers serving strangers.
07:06You saw my friend Norris Henderson on that video.
07:09He's a fire fighter, too.
07:10He's a fearless leader in the crusade to ban the box and to reduce Louisiana's incarceration rate,
07:19which is currently the highest rate in the country, which means it's the highest in the world.
07:25The most incarcerated place on the planet.
07:30Mike De La Rocha is a firefighter.
07:37Mike's here tonight.
07:38He's one of the earliest architects of our organization, Free America.
07:42And he presses always for us to get proximate,
07:46to hear and heed the voices of the people closest to injustice.
07:51You saw my friend Desmond Meade from Florida.
07:54He's a firefighter.
07:56My dear friend and partner in the vanguard of the campaign
08:00to restore the voting rights of more than 1.4 million Floridians and far, far beyond.
08:07And here in Los Angeles, we celebrate the 15,000-plus first responders
08:15who ran headfirst into the inferno earlier this year.
08:22We appreciate them.
08:24We owe so much to them.
08:26Among them, more than 1,000 incarcerated firefighters
08:33embedded alongside Cal Fire crews
08:38to help contain the Palisades and Eton fires.
08:43Sometimes these individuals worked for 24 hours at a time,
08:47often returning to a prison cell
08:50with little more than a dollar an hour to show for it.
08:55In January, I spent time with a group of them in Eton.
09:01And I was moved deeply by their reflections,
09:07by their courage, by their sacrifice.
09:09I was moved by what many of them told me.
09:11Fighting fires made them feel part of something bigger than themselves,
09:16part of a community, often for the first time.
09:19My friend Brian Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative,
09:27says, we are more than the worst thing we've ever done.
09:33These men and women represent all of us at our best.
09:38No matter where we come from, no matter what we've been through,
09:41we all have the capacity to pick ourselves up,
09:45dust ourselves off, and rebuild anew.
09:49To rebuild our own lives and families,
09:51to rebuild our neighborhoods and cities,
09:54to rebuild, starting wherever we stand,
09:57with whatever we can, by whatever means we can.
10:01For more than a decade, I have sought out these firefighters,
10:09the courageous leaders who are dousing the flames of inequality and injustice.
10:18I've listened to their stories.
10:21I've sat in their living rooms.
10:23I've had them come sit in mine.
10:26I've learned from their experiences.
10:28And I've sung and danced and marched to their beat,
10:34doing all I can, in all the ways I can,
10:37to serve them as they serve all of us.
10:41So, while this extraordinary recognition may bear my name,
10:46and I'm so grateful,
10:48when I look at this award,
10:50I see the names of all the people who helped this work grow
10:55and helped me grow.
10:58I see the names of my team members and my co-conspirators,
11:02the wonderful folks at Proper Daily,
11:05who inform me and keep me connected.
11:09My manager and business partner,
11:11Ty Sticklorious, and the team at Friends at Work.
11:15My longtime friend and advisor, Hassan Smith.
11:18All of them have been by my side,
11:22often literally visiting prisons,
11:25visiting detention centers,
11:27doing the work together for all these years.
11:32Now, another kind of team might have preferred
11:36that this work be an afterthought
11:37and focus solely on making money,
11:42doing my day job.
11:44But they've always supported this work
11:49and they have made it our shared priority.
11:53When I look at this award,
11:54I also see my grandmother, Elmira Lloyd.
12:00She was our church organist.
12:03And she colored my world with music and joy.
12:09And I see my mother, who's still with us.
12:11Her name is Phyllis Stevens,
12:14and she showed me that change is possible.
12:17Redemption is possible.
12:19It's not inevitable, but it's possible with grace.
12:25I see my family, Chrissy, Luna, Miles, Esty, Wren,
12:33the names that fill my life with faith and hope and love.
12:38The Bible says the greatest of these is love.
12:45Love has to power everything we do,
12:50everything we fight for.
12:52And seeing and loving my babies
12:55reminds me why I keep fighting for their future,
13:01our future.
13:02I see the names of people who do the heavy lifting every day,
13:09the people who are fighting the raging flames,
13:13the people who are working to restore,
13:15in Dr. King's words,
13:17America's moral vision
13:19to repair the soul of this nation,
13:24the people who understand,
13:26like those incarcerated firefighters in Eaton,
13:28that giving liberates the giver,
13:33that the road to salvation,
13:35personal, collective, moral,
13:37runs through service.
13:40It is because of all these people that I am here,
13:44and it is with humility,
13:46with reverence and gratitude for them,
13:49that I accept this award on their behalf.
13:53Thank you so much.
13:56I'm Craig Sitchi.
13:58I'm the executive director of the Social Impact Fund.
14:02I'll come out later and talk.
14:04But I wanted to just, number one,
14:07thank John and congratulate you on this recognition.
14:12If you don't know,
14:13John Legend and the Show Me Campaign
14:14was our first sponsored program
14:16at the Social Impact Fund.
14:18I'm still here today.
14:20I'll talk a little bit about that later.
14:22But I just wanted to just congratulate you again.
14:25And on behalf of this board
14:26of the Social Impact Fund,
14:28I want to give you this check for $25,000
14:30for the Show Me Campaign.
14:33I'm out of breath.
14:34I just ran down the aisle.
14:36It was like the price is right, for God's sake.
14:41What a pleasure.
14:42Thanks so much.
