00:00It's my mommy!
00:26It's my mommy!
00:27I am an endangered species, but I sing no victim song.
00:41I'm a woman, black woman, I am an artist, and I know where my voice belongs.
00:56I shake my fist and knock my hips, because I know where my voice belongs.
01:10I have a joy, I have a happiness, I have a love that I get to share with all of you.
01:26With all of you, just looking at you, and looking at you, and I tell you this all the time.
01:36The fight to get all of you here, looking the way you look, celebrating you in the positions that you are doing what you are doing.
01:54It was some back-breaking work.
02:00It was some spirit-breaking work.
02:08It was hard.
02:16But generations held on.
02:20Rosalyn Cash got blackballed from the industry because she dared to wear her natural hair in dreadlocks.
02:30You don't remember Rosalyn Cash.
02:32Great actress!
02:40Not good!
02:42Great!
02:44Virginia Capers!
02:45Virginia Capers!
02:46Virginia Capers!
02:47On Broadway, on TV, in the movies.
02:49Big black woman who stuck with me from the time I first met her.
02:58I was one of the top ten college women in America Glamour magazine.
03:03I got to meet her and she looked at me and she said, that is what the future looks like.
03:11She said, you see me though?
03:14They keep sitting big black me on the couch.
03:18And I'm much more than that.
03:21I see Lizzo today.
03:26Huh, yeah.
03:30I get to look at my work child every day.
03:38And I sit there and I think, look what the future done wrought.
03:49I've been around long enough to have worked with the 12-year-old Lorenz Tate.
03:55Oh, yeah.
04:07And we are both vampires cause we have not changed.
04:11I get to look at Perlina Igbokwe.
04:24Yeah, Perlina!
04:26Perlina green-lit the first script I wrote.
04:30Yeah, she did.
04:32Didn't get made.
04:33She left the place, but it's okay.
04:36She gave me that green light.
04:39I get to look at Channing Dungey.
04:44Yeah!
04:45And I'm like, yeah, Channing.
04:52And then here comes young Tara.
04:58Look what the future has brought.
05:11Yeah, I saw Danielle that day.
05:15And I just had to let her know, I see you, Danielle.
05:19I see you.
05:21You and your amazing talent.
05:24I see you.
05:26So many did not make it.
05:32Folks been saying to me all afternoon, why so late?
05:38This is not late.
05:39This isn't a moment late.
05:41This isn't a moment late.
05:44This is right on time.
05:55Thank you, Richelieu.
05:57Thank you, everybody at Essence.
05:59Thank you, ABC.
06:02Thank you, Dana Walden, talking about the others and the people who love us.
06:10We were at the upfronts.
06:13Dana Walden walked right up to me and Dana Walden said,
06:20And you know how small, blonde, white women can look at you sometimes.
06:40She said,
06:43Cheryl Lee Ralph, this is going to be the greatest time of your whole career.
06:53Don't dream small.
06:56Dream big.
06:58And ask for exactly what you want.
07:03Oh, yeah.
07:13Don't think I won't either.
07:18So, how fitting it is that I get to end this award season with all of you.
07:32Big things are gone.
07:34Big things are gone.
07:35Big things are gone.
07:36Big things are gone.
07:37Big things are gone.
07:38Big things are gone.
07:39Big things are gone.
07:40Big things are gone.
07:41Big things are gone.
07:42Now I have a love in me that I haven't gotten all the time to share with my sisters.
08:05my sisters. I'm a lone wolf. I'm an outlier. I'm happy to be black as I am. I'm loving
08:18the naps and the curls in my hair. I love my big lips. I love my wide hips. I love everything
08:29that makes me black, beautiful, wonderful, talented, empowering, encouraging, everything
08:39about me being black. I love it. I have been too much for some. She's so loud. She's so
08:58happy. She's so energetic. She's just so much. Yes, I am. And I have been not enough for
09:16some. But guess what? You know who I love? Me. This voice is not a small voice. Sonia Sanchez.
09:34This is a large voice coming out of these cities. This is the voice of Tara, Gina, Danielle,
09:48Dominique, Natori, Gail, Lena, Tristan, Ryan, Teyona, Daniel, Charles, Yara, Lorenz, Yvette,
10:14Vicki, Maybelline, Sarah. I see you. I love you. I love running over waters, navigating
10:30the hallways out of school, spilling out on the corners of our cities and no epitaph spill
10:37out of their river mouths. This is not a small love that I have for you. It is a large
10:46love. It is a passion, a passion for kissing, a passion for learning, a passion for life on
10:56its face. This is a love that crowns your feet with my hands. This is a love that nourishes,
11:10mends the children, etienne, and ivy, and all the other children that are truly mine. This is a love
11:26that mends the children, folds them inside our history, where they taste more than just flesh,
11:38where they suck on the bones of the alphabet and spit out closed vowels. Go home. Look in the mirror.
11:59love what you see. Because if you think you belong in just Hollywood, you wait till the world gets ready
12:15ready for what you have to deliver. Because strong people, like each and every one of you, in front of the camera,
12:31behind the camera, wishing to be somewhere in this industry, you heard it before, it ain't easy.
12:40And if you're thinking about doing something else, please do something else.
12:48But you, all of you,
12:56you're so beautiful. You're so wonderful. You're so smart.
13:07And in the words, the great Viola Davis, you is smart.
13:14You is kind. You is kind. You is wonderful.
13:24You are so beautiful.
13:29Bye.
13:33Bye.
13:33Bye.
13:34Bye.
13:36Bye.
13:38Bye.
13:38Bye.
13:38Bye.
13:47Bye.
13:47Bye.
13:50Bye.
13:53Bye.
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