00:00So this gathering is my favorite of the year.
00:07I've been fortunate to attend since the beginning.
00:10At that time I wasn't a director, I was a publicist.
00:13Shout out to the publicist.
00:16Shout out to the publicist.
00:19Talk about people who never get love.
00:25And I like this event so much because
00:27when I'm here my mind shuts out the outside noise.
00:31I don't think about the negatives of this industry that we're in.
00:35I don't think about the disappointment or the rejection
00:37or the dismissals or the underestimation.
00:42I think very simply about us
00:44and all our limitless complexity.
00:48And the Ntozake Shange line really serves me well
00:52in this thought which is where there is a woman there is magic.
00:55She can share or not share her powers.
00:59Period.
01:01Whatever she wants to do basically.
01:02The goal of that.
01:04So many years I read Essence in awe of the Mighty Women's pages
01:07jotting down names in my journal,
01:10tips, folding down the page.
01:12Want to get back to that?
01:13Never get back to it but then get back.
01:17Cutting out pictures, tearing out pictures
01:19of a career woman who was an inspiration
01:21thinking, wow, she's someone I want to be like one day.
01:25And it struck me, my sisters,
01:26when I read this month's Essence
01:28and I saw that list
01:29and I read so many of your names
01:32and I personally knew almost every single woman
01:35on that list in some way.
01:37So many sisters I've crossed paths with
01:39or worked with or who've lifted me up,
01:42I realize someone is cutting out our pictures.
01:44And this is our time.
01:48And I ask the question, what will we do with it?
01:51Because where there is a woman there is magic
01:53and she can share or not share her powers.
01:56I think the key for us is in the sharing,
01:58in the interconnectedness that vibrates
02:00through this room every year
02:02and how we take that to the next level
02:04for each other and for the women
02:06who aren't in this room.
02:07I'll end with some lines
02:09from a sister poet, Lucille Clifton,
02:12that I read often during times of disappointment
02:15and rejection and dismissal and underestimation.
02:19And I hope that you'll join me
02:20in the celebration she evokes
02:22and that we are in the midst of right now.
02:24She wrote,
02:25won't you celebrate with me
02:27what I have shaped into a kind of life,
02:30born in Babylon,
02:32both non-white and woman,
02:34what did I see to be except myself,
02:38here on this bridge between starshine and clay,
02:42my one hand holding tight only
02:44to my other hand.
02:47Come celebrate with me
02:49that every day something has tried to kill me
02:53and has failed.
02:57Thank you, my sister.
Comments