00:00Ladies and gentlemen, the Essence Black Women in Hollywood Vanguard Award recipient, presented by Ford, Cynthia Erivo.
00:11When I sat to write this, I honestly didn't know where to begin.
00:15Maybe because I was overwhelmed by the magnitude and meaning of this award.
00:20Maybe because in this moment, watching dreams become a reality is, well, a reality.
00:26Or maybe it's because of the feeling that comes when you look around and you see your melanated divine family, and yes, I think of you as family, celebrating not just the work you do, but the very skin you are in while you do it.
00:39I've often been too shy to thank God in front of people on a stage, but I think that this is the moment that that shyness goes away.
00:47I thank God that this publication, Essence, has been a life raft for us when everyone else would rather see Black women drown.
00:55That the pages of Essence have been wings that tell us to soar when others would rather see us fall.
01:01I think of the incredible women who have come before me, and the ceilings, doors, walls, in fact, the entire buildings these women have broken through and rebuilt almost with no help.
01:14They have laid the groundwork.
01:16They have left the example.
01:18They have created the blueprint from which I am honoured to follow direction.
01:21I am a five-foot-one, brown-skinned, gap-toothed woman with a shaved head who was single-handedly raised against impossible odds by an immigrant mother who was born in a Nigerian village.
01:36That wonderful woman made a choice to leave her home for something more.
01:39If not for her and her tenacity, I would not be standing in front of you today.
01:45With that knowledge, I'm aware of the responsibility of being not just my mother's wildest dreams, but my ancestors' wildest dreams.
01:53I am deeply conscious of the fact that being where I am is an impossibility and a privilege, one that I'm amazed by every single day.
02:02You see, when I left the UK six years ago, I cried big, hot tears.
02:07I cried because I thought I was leaving my home.
02:10I was scared because I thought I'd be alone.
02:12I didn't realise that I would be lucky enough to gain a new home.
02:16And when I say home, I do not speak of the four walls and the roofs that house us.
02:22No, no. Not at all.
02:24I speak of the home that reaches inside your heart and fuses itself to your soul.
02:29The type of home that calls you up at the worst of times and says,
02:32I was thinking about you, sis. How you doing?
02:36Because somehow, we always know.
02:40The type of home that texts you two simple words, sing, sis.
02:43And you automatically know you've done well.
02:46The type of home that can look at you from across a crowded room and with a shift of the eye,
02:51a purse of the lips, a nod of the head, you know immediately what is being said.
02:56The kind of home that hugs you with such love that both of you rock side to side.
03:02That I love yous and that I'm proud of yous.
03:06Home is the space between the open arms of every Black woman I have had the privilege of encountering.
03:12Especially here at this event.
03:15Here at Essence.
03:17Alice Walker said,
03:19I am an expression of the divine.
03:22Just like a peach is.
03:23Just like a fish is.
03:25I have a right to be this way.
03:27I can't apologize for that.
03:29Nor can I change it.
03:30Nor do I want to.
03:32We will never have to be other than who we are in order to be successful.
03:36We realize that we are, as ourselves, unlimited and our experiences valid.
03:42It is for the rest of the world to recognize if they choose.
03:46Now, I do not profess to be a scribe of the same caliber as the great Miss Alice Walker,
03:51but I feel compelled to add this small addendum.
03:54And that is that,
03:56if the rest of the world chooses not to recognize our brilliance,
03:59our divinity,
04:01it is not a thing to chase.
04:02Because here, at home,
04:04at Essence,
04:05you are not only recognized,
04:07you are seen,
04:09and you are celebrated.
04:10And I thank you, Essence,
04:12for seeing and celebrating me.
04:15God bless.
04:21God bless.
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