Power of silence. Gun control advocate.

March 27, 2018 Ben Yeoh

Emma González, a survivor of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, delivered the speech to the March For Our Lies rally on Saturday in Washington, USA.

I cried. The Power of silence. Truncated sentences. Caesura. Emma Gonzalez used the truncated “would never” and the gaps we had to fill in to lay a moving tribute to her friends.

Extending this further into over 4 minutes of silence, she held a powerful testimony.

The grief and anger is too much for words.

Imagine this time. Place yourself there.

The timing of 6 minutes 20 seconds also the timing of the shooting.

...in that it reminds me of Carly Churchill in the truncated loss of words (Here We Go, Blue Kettle, and a silence more complex, sad and defiant than what I’ve seen theatre with Pinter or Beckett. ... a crowd of hundreds of thousands would do that....

EMMA GONZALEZ: Six minutes and about 20 seconds. In a little over six minutes, 17 of our friends were taken from us. Fifteen were injured. And everyone - absolutely everyone - in the Douglas Community was forever altered. Everyone who was there understands. Everyone who has been touched by the cold grip of gun violence understands.

Six minutes and 20 seconds with an AR-15, and my friend Carmen would never complain to me about piano practice. Aaron Feis would never call Kyra, Miss Sunshine. Alex Schachter would never walk into school with his brother Ryan. Scott Beigel would never joke around with Cameron at camp. Helena Ramsay would never hang out after school with Max. Gina Montalto would never wave to her friend Liam at lunch. Joaquin Oliver would never play basketball with Sam or Dylan. Alaina Petty would never. Cara Loughran would never. Chris Hixon would never. Luke Hoyer would never. Martin Duque Anguiano would never. Peter Wang would never. Alyssa Alhadeff would never. Jamie Guttenberg would never. Meadow Pollack would never.

[Silence. 4 minutes]

GONZALEZ: Since the time that I came out here, it has been six minutes and 20 seconds. The shooter has ceased shooting and will soon abandon his rifle, blend in with the students as they escape and walk free for an hour before arrest. Fight for your lives before it's someone else's job.

How to raise a feminist child

March 25, 2018 Ben Yeoh

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie writes in answer to a friend’s letter…When a couple of years ago a friend of mine from childhood, who’d grown into a brilliant, strong, kind woman, asked me to tell her how to raise her baby girl a feminist… I decided to write her a letter, which I hoped would be honest and practical, while also serving as a map of sorts for my own feminist thinking. This book is a version of that letter, with some details changed….

Be a full person. Motherhood is a glorious gift, but do not define yourself solely by motherhood. Be a full person. Your child will benefit from that. …

Do it together. Remember in primary school we learned that a verb was a ‘doing’ word? Well, a father is as much a verb as a mother. [the Father] should do everything that biology allows –which is everything but breastfeeding. Sometimes mothers, so conditioned to be all and do all, are complicit in diminishing the role of fathers. …

Teach her that the idea of ‘gender roles’ is absolute nonsense. Do not ever tell her that she should or should not do something because she is a girl. ‘Because you are a girl’ is never a reason for anything. Ever. …

Beware the danger of what I call Feminism Lite. It is the idea of conditional female equality. Please reject this entirely. It is a hollow, appeasing and bankrupt idea. Being a feminist is like being pregnant. You either are or you are not. You either believe in the full equality of men and women or you do not. …

Teach [her] to read. Teach her to love books. The best way is by casual example. If she sees you reading, she will understand that reading is valuable. …

Teach her to question language. Language is the repository of our prejudices, our beliefs, our assumptions. But to teach her that, you will have to question your own language. A friend of mine says she will never call her daughter ‘princess’. People mean well when they say this, but ‘princess’ is loaded with assumptions, of a girl’s delicacy, of the prince who will come to save her, etc. This friend prefers ‘angel’ and ‘star’. So decide for yourself the things you will not say to your child. Because what you say to your child matters. It teaches her what she should value.

Never speak of marriage as an achievement. Find ways to make clear to her that marriage is not an achievement, nor is it what she should aspire to. A marriage can be happy or unhappy, but it is not an achievement. …

Teach her to reject likeability. Her job is not to make herself likeable, her job is to be her full self, a self that is honest and aware of the equal humanity of other people. …

Give her a sense of identity. It matters. Be deliberate about it.

Be deliberate about how you engage with her and her appearance.

Teach her to question our culture’s selective use of biology as ‘reasons’ for social norms.

Talk to her about sex, and start early. It will probably be a bit awkward but it is necessary.

Romance will happen, so be on board. … I don’t mean you should be her ‘friend’; I mean you should be her mother to whom she can talk about everything. Teach her that to love is not only to give but also to take.

In teaching her about oppression, be careful not to turn the oppressed into saints. Saintliness is not a prerequisite for dignity. People who are unkind and dishonest are still human, and still deserve dignity.

Teach her about difference. Make difference ordinary. Make difference normal. Teach her not to attach value to difference. And the reason for this is not to be fair or to be nice but merely to be human and practical. Because difference is the reality of our world. And by teaching her about difference, you are equipping her to survive in a diverse world.

The whole letter is a short 30 minute read max and 99p / 99c on Amazon (link here)

While aimed at raising a daughter much of the thought is equaling provoking for anyone.

More thoughts: My Financial Times opinion article. How to live a life, well lived. Thoughts from a dying man.

If you'd like to feel inspired by commencement addresses and life lessons try: Neil Gaiman on making wonderful, fabulous, brilliant mistakes; or Nassim Taleb's commencement address; or JK Rowling on the benefits of failure. Or Charlie Munger on always inverting; Sheryl Sandberg on grief, resilience and gratitude or investor Ray Dalio on on Principles.

Cross fertilise. Read about the autistic mind here.

Dance writing advice

March 17, 2018 Ben Yeoh

Public Domain, Martha Graham (Source: Public Resource Org)

“There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open.”

Martha Graham, dancer and choreographer, as said to Agnes De Mille (on her disappointment that Ohklahoma was so popular yet she considered flawed work).

Quoted by Zadie Smith as some of her best advise for writers. Her article on how dance can inform writing is here in the Guardian and also in her latest book of Essays.

Aphorisms, poetry, 95 Reminders by Rishi Dastidar

February 23, 2018 Ben Yeoh

An amazing unexpected gift of poetry. I'm not a critical reader. But, I feel I should respond. I put some weight on the line of thought suggesting art, poetry, performance is not complete without a viewer, reader, audience. And if that reader can respond, that’s all the better.

Aphorism | A pithy, instructive statement or truism, like a maxim or adage.

The word comes from the Greek aphorismos, meaning “to delimit” or “define.”

From what I read, The term was first used in the Aphorisms of Hippocrates, a series of proposals concerning the symptoms and diagnosis of disease and the art of healing, around 400 BC.

The first sentence of this work (see wiki Ars longa, vita brevis) or a full text here is:

Life is short, art long, opportunity fleeting, experience deceptive, judgment difficult.

To highlight the nuances of translation, I put the Greek, Latin and some English below (from Wiki)

This was written around the time of The Tao, which is threaded with aphorism and literature through the ages has been full of it.

It hones in to poetry at certain times, for instance 16th century Japan and the haiku of Basho. I see many haiku as both poetry and aphorism.

Basho's Haigo painting with his calligraphy

An old pond Furu ike ya
A frog jumps in — kawazu tobikomu
the sound of water. mizu no oto

Or in my version

Ancient pond

A frog jump

plop-splash in the water

And so fast forward until today and it's still a heavily used form. Not only the terse maxims that spread like pollen on social media, but by writers from risk philosophers to poets still.

The mathematician risk philosopher I think of is Nassim Taleb (commencement speech here, a thought on Greek ethics here and climate change risk here) who wrote a book of aphorisms, riffing from Greek thought;

I digress back 50 years and note that Wittgenstein wrote a set of remarks, under the heading Aphorisms – to my mind showing the continued use of aphorism form for philosophers over the last 2000 over years.

Witt: " 11. Think of the tools in a tool-box: there is a hammer, pliers, a saw, a screw-driver, a ruler, a glue-pot, glue, nails and screw.—The functions of words are as diverse as the functions of these objects. (And in both cases there are similarities.)

Of course, what confuses us is the uniform appearance of words when we hear them spoken or meet them in script and print. For their application is not presented to us so clearly. Especially when we are doing philosophy! "

Zipping forward again, I've read the work of Sarah Manguso. She calls her aphorisms, arguments in her work 300 Arguments. (cf Wittgenstein's remarks, James Richardson’s Vectors is “Aphorisms and Ten-Second Essays.” Jenny Holzer uses the word “truisms.”) Manguso answers some questions with MIchelle King here.

It seems along with the notion of aphorism, it has many second meanings.

Coming to my gift, Rishi Dastidar has written 95 Reminders. These reminders are aphorisms and are rooted in Martin Luther (the original priest of Lutherans).

Rishi writes:

On 31st October 1517, Martin Luther, a professor of moral theology at the University of Wittenberg in Germany, posted 95 theses on the door of All Saints Church. They were his arguments against what he viewed as corrupt practices in the Catholic church.

wiki source, By Martin Luther, Public Domain — wiki source, By Martin Luther, Public Domain

This act is now considered the start of the Protestant Reformation.

500 years on, the following reminders are offered in a similar spirit: indulgences to help you avoid sin — or not.

You can see his 95 Reminders here,

https://medium.com/@betarish/95-reminders-be2d9fd2ae91

but I have to admit the book is more beautiful to me.

The reminders are less opaque than Mancini on average but still full of wit.

The overall thread is coherent. It has limited caesura (cf Mancuso), some jaunty juxtaposition for wit but seldom competing ideas.

That on some level puts it into the sphere of Taleb. Mancuso and Taleb compound their aphorism arguments, Rishi is lighter than that but perhaps that brings his points across more cleanly and accessibly.

I’m not a full time reader of poetry or literary form. I do flit across many fields but it seems to me Rishi’s addition is worthy and a delightful read to me.

More thoughts:  My Financial Times opinion article on the importance of long-term questions to management teams and Environment, Social and Governance capital.

 How to live a life, well lived. Thoughts from a dying man.      

If you'd like to feel inspired by commencement addresses and life lessons try:  Neil Gaiman on making wonderful, fabulous, brilliant mistakes; or Nassim Taleb's commencement address; or JK Rowling on the benefits of failure.  Or Charlie Munger on always inverting;  Sheryl Sandberg on grief, resilience and gratitude or investor Ray Dalio on  on Principles.

Cross fertilise. Read about the autistic mind here. 

The Droves, immersive theatre, and the magic of children

February 18, 2018 Ben Yeoh

A carpet that talks, if you don't sow it up.

There is magic in a child’s imagination that is often lost on the way to adulthood. Grown up writers and artists have to work hard for the fantastical juxtapositions and creations that children can zing up.

Sure, adults have a sophistication in craft and language and history and ideas but children can conjure up talking carpets because - why not?

That an adult steeped in a language of theatre might see a face in a carpet, with a spotlight and moving lips and think - Samuel Beckett’s Not I** - that remains the thoughts an adult audience might bring.

One of the brilliant qualities of immersive theatre* is the more immediate and obvious connection between the viewer and the actor and the space.

Much art is not complete without a viewer or a reader or a listener and each person completes a piece of art in a unique manner. Universal but specific.

One reason, I view, the continuing appeal of live performance whether music gigs or theatre is that aspect of live connection.

The Droves is therefore exceptional and unique on several levels.

It has a level of immersion in common with some of the best theatre of its type but its guided by the impulse of children. The experience lacks the artifice of adults.

I dislike the currently overused notion of authenticity and the children’s impulses and imagination have had adult input, but at its core is the child.

Yet not only is the children’s vision at the heart of the piece, but child performers take you through the Droves journey.

Now an adult can perform a child’s role, and perhaps a man can touch on some of the aspects of being a woman; but is that mostly unsatisfactory?

In the same way the animation series Pablo has ASD performers woven through its narratives, there is a layer deeply satisfying and genuine being led by a child.

On the surface the Droves is a story about repopulating a race of exiled children who when grown are mind wiped and ejected from their community. To me, in its moon heart, it speaks to lost childhood, the myth and fables of fairy tales and growing up, the little monsters we fear - the dreams we hold dear - the parts of childhood we have to let go though we may want to grip them with all our strength

The childhood threads of imagination that are mind wiped as we grow, that we can never recall but will forever miss like a part of our shadow we never knew we had.

It’s a shame Droves is on for such a short run.

If you’d like to be immersed in theatre by children go and see.

The Droves is an immersive theatre show, designed by kids, for adults.

You’re invited into a secret community of children living deep beneath a derelict carpet factory. For decades they’ve hidden from adults, growing strange in the darkness – but now they’re asking you in… Unsettling dilemmas, mushroom forests and at least one gorilla await you at the door.

Full disclosure, I chair theatre company, Coney which is behind the Droves.

It’s unique and ground breaking and only has a short run. But with many time slots. The Droves will be at COLAB Factory from the Sat 17 – Sun 25 February 2018 from 6:30pm (Matinees from 1:30pm). BOOK TICKETS HERE

More thoughts: My Financial Times opinion article on the importance of long-term questions to management teams and Environment, Social and Governance capital.

How to live a life, well lived. Thoughts from a dying man.

Cross fertilise. Read about the autistic mind here.

*In immersive theatre (H/T Space), the audience are not merely passive bystanders. They are part of the story, however small their role may be, and they are in the middle of the action.

In an immersive theatre production, the audience in some way plays a role, whether that is the role of witness or the role of an actual character. They may be allowed to roam and explore the performance space as the performance happens around them, allowing them to decide what they see and what they skip. They might be herded from room to room so they see the key scenes. They might even be invited to become a more active part of the performance. The lines between performer and audience and between performance and life are blurred. The audience is placed within the environment of the story and therefore play witness front and centre to the events without the distancing factor of a proscenium.

** A Youtube of a BBC two version of Not I and Lisa Dwan on the role.

Buying social media friends and followers, wholesale.

January 30, 2018 Ben Yeoh

This is a dark art. It raises many questions, but (what should have been unsurprising) is how the market has developed. The NY Times has an investigation.

“Manufacturers” create Twitter bots. These come in high-quality from, usually copied from an inactive Twitter account (but sometime an active one), with a copied picture and ID. There are also low-quality bots which do not copy a real-life person and are super easy to spot.

These are wholesalers (eg Peakerr) and some are not available to individuals only “retailers”.

The NY Times exposed one such retailer Devumi, which has a large number of celebrity and political clients.

These bots can then be used to amplify your message or any message (realnews or fakenews), or denigrate other messages.

While, the bots will not likely create “true engagement” so not likely to help sell a product directly. They can be very good at pushing an agenda indirectly.

-follower count is used to gain influencer contracts with real brands

-a useful promotion (eg Go Out and Vote) is targeted only at a certain segment (eg target only >65s will skew the Brexit vote)

-obscuring realnews with fakenews

There is also evidence that many advertising clicks (eg FB) are going to bots and not real accounts resulting in real advertising money being lost.

While Twitter is more open to bots (less checks), IG, FB and LI can all have bots as well. Or even multiple simply fake accounts maintained by real human agents.

Or, simply those who can use the data more sophisticatedly. Eg a right wing org can try and discourage young voters from bothering to vote, while a left wing org should be targeting its ad spending on the under 25 group.

Imagine if the UK Remain group had spent £1m on FB adverts to under 25s encouraging them to vote with a good advert. The under 25 turnout was <35% vs the >65s with a >80% turnout.

Is that weaponising democracy? Certainly it seems like savvy agents for various governments and other organisations were more savvy than the platforms themselves, and on the the face of it, continue to do so.

More thoughts: My Financial Times opinion article. How to live a life, well lived. Thoughts from a dying man.

Cross fertilise. Read about the autistic mind here.

Farewell, Ursula K Le Guin.

January 28, 2018 Ben Yeoh

One of my favourite authors, Ursula K Le Guin passed away this week. Amongst many things, she showed me that you have good books and you have bad books, the “genre” of the book doesn’t really matter. So Le Guin is famous for Science Fiction and Fantasy, but mostly I simply treasure her wonderful books. I posted on her writing craft book here, and her on literature as a manual for life.

In her later life, she kept a blog (recent interviews here) which is still a treasure trove and much better than my blog. If only mine could be so rich over time. If you are a fan of cats, then you should read through her blog as though she didn’t write books in her last years, she wrote extensively about her cat. The Annals of Pard.

“As I see it, writing and the arts (and the sciences, and all learning) don’t play a role in ensuring our freedom; they are our freedom — the heart of it.” — UKL. 30 September 2017.

David Mitchell (of Reasons I Jump fame and father of an ASD child, and more famously a novelist) writes about his encounter with her and her influence.

I leave you with her reply to George Zebrowski, who asked her to blurb an anthology of science fiction that contained precisely no women:

"I cannot imagine myself blurbing a book, the first of the series, which not only contains no writing by women, but the tone of which is so self-contentedly, exclusively male, like a club, or a locker room. That would not be magnanimity, but foolishness. Gentlemen, I just don’t belong here."

And her “A Few Words to a Young Writer”

Socrates said, "The misuse of language induces evil in the soul." He wasn't talking about grammar. To misuse language is to use it the way politicians and advertisers do, for profit, without taking responsibility for what the words mean. Language used as a means to get power or make money goes wrong: it lies. Language used as an end in itself, to sing a poem or tell a story, goes right, goes towards the truth.

A writer is a person who cares what words mean, what they say, how they say it. Writers know words are their way towards truth and freedom, and so they use them with care, with thought, with fear, with delight. By using words well they strengthen their souls. Story-tellers and poets spend their lives learning that skill and art of using words well. And their words make the souls of their readers stronger, brighter, deeper.

Zadie Smith. Questions and Answers.

January 22, 2018 Ben Yeoh

Zadie Smith’s essays are some of my favourite writings. She takes an idea and pursues it with thoughtful care.

On social Media: “My worry is narrower: myself, my family. I can’t stand the phones and don’t want them in my life in any form. They make me feel anxious, depressed, dead inside, unhinged etc. But I fully support anyone who finds them delightful and a profound asset to their existence! Different strokes for different folks.”

She attempts to never self-delude: “I’m not delusional – I don’t envision people casting their devices en masse into burning bins any time soon. (And I’m as addicted to my laptop as any user of an iPhone.) “

And offers no quick fixes:

“Do you have any secret techniques for overcoming self-doubt?
As you know, there isn’t really any solution to self-doubt. In the end, you just have to write and doubt simultaneously”

And gives insights in to how things practically are with no magical techniques or insights: Are creative writing MAs a waste of time for talentless saps, polish for the moderately talented or a way to invigorate the literary tradition?

None. In my class, we spend 14 weeks reading works of literature and philosophy, mostly by long-dead people, and then my students write essays about what they have read and then we discuss these books, trying to understand how each one works. In between times, a smaller group of students will show me the novel or stories they’re writing and in a series of meetings we discuss their work, try to edit it and improve it, just as my best editors do with me. I never imagine that I am, by doing this, either saving literature or destroying it. It’s just a group of people appreciating and analysing literature – and also hoping to write it.

This echoes with my experience of creative classes.

To me, she is rightly concerned about the local and narrow. Her family. Her friends. Her students.

But she is a writer. She engages with the world (she comes to writing through writing and reading).

On the one hand, she’s like to be known as herself in the way Don selling can. Rather than a voice of a black female writer.

But as I have often thought we hold multi personalities all at the same time:

“I’m a black person, also a woman, also a wife and mother, a Brit, a European – for the moment – a Londoner, a New Yorker, a writer, a feminist, a second-generation Jamaican, a member of the African diaspora, a Game of Thrones-er, an academic, a comedy-nerd, a theory-dork, a hip-hop-head and so on.

I am delighted to be all these things and everyone, no matter where they are from – if they really think about it – will find themselves with a similar plurality of communities. At different moments, you’ll feel the pull of certain commitments more strongly, especially if an aspect of your identity is particularly embattled.

But the whole debate can fall into a kind of trap. I know the argument: no one calls Don DeLillo the “white American author Don DeLillo”, so why should I put up with being called “the black British author Zadie Smith”? But by that logic, the rhetorical pressure falls on this idea of neutrality, as if to be white is not to possess a race or an identity – is simply to be “the author” – whereas to be black is precisely to have an identity. And then from there you are forced into the corner where you find yourself arguing that to be truly great, truly “the author”, you must have your blackness forgotten, you must aspire to people seeing “beyond” it, “past” it.

It’s a version of that backhanded compliment I sometimes heard as a child: “Honestly, you’re just my mate, I don’t even think about your colour. I’m colour blind!” I think you have to reverse the concept to see how strange it is: “Oh, Don, I don’t even think about you being white any more, I just love your books!” No, I don’t desire this supposed neutrality. I am all the things I am – and also an author. It’s all inseparable, as Don and his whiteness are inseparable.”

What song lyric best describes you?

“And I just blame everything on you/ At least you know that’s what I’m good at” – Kanye West

Read more in the Guardian article here. I found the answers sometimes illuminating and pretty entertaining.

Read my earlier post on Zadie’s writing tips here plus some video of her in conversation.

Read more tips here - top writing style tips - some thoughts from Ursula K Le Guin - and some tips from Philip Pullman.

Or Ta -Nehisi Coates on the Black American experience.

Rufus Norris. Teach creativity in UK state schools.

January 17, 2018 Ben Yeoh

"The myth goes that the true artist is born, mysteriously fully formed in their own exceptional talent. A second myth holds that creativity thrives in adversity; a third that creative sorts are somehow morally wayward, something to be tolerated as long as the results are diverting, but not a model for citizenship. These three combine gloriously in the icon of a lascivious and poverty-stricken Mozart, writing sonatas while still in the womb."

Writes Rufus Norris in the Guardian

"But whatever the reason, the result is that another myth, deeply embedded in our peculiarly British psyche, is being reinforced: that culture and creativity belong naturally to the elite, that they are not for everyone.

And this problem affects us all, because the whole economy needs creative skills. According to the World Economic Forum, by 2020 creativity will be in the top three most important skills for future jobs, alongside complex problem solving and critical thinking. Which are skills innate to and honed by a creative education."

More here in Guardian

I recall hearing Rufus Norris speak to a group of young theatre practitioners starting out, about 20 years ago.

We were at the Young Vic and he was leading a workshop.

He was inspiring and offered much practical advice. Echoed in this quote

"Almost all have got there by two means: elbow grease and support for their creativity. This is what we have learned: just like maths, “creativity should not be perceived as an exceptional talent; it is a basic skill that can be mastered with the right teaching and approach”."

Oprah Winfrey Golden Globes Speech on the voices who are not heard

January 8, 2018 Ben Yeoh

"For too long, women have not been heard or believed if they dared to speak their truth to the power of those men, but their time is up. Their time is up. Their time is up."

Oprah Winfrey’s speech as she accepted the Cecil B DeMille Award at Sunday Jan 7, US Golden Globe Awards. Full text below and youtube.

In 1964, I was a little girl sitting on the linoleum floor of my mother’s house in Milwaukee watching Anne Bancroft present the Oscar for Best Actor at the 36th Academy Awards. She opened the envelope, and said five words that literally made history: “The winner is Sidney Poitier.” Up to the stage came the most elegant man I had ever seen. I remember his tie was white and, of course, his skin was black. And I’d never seen a black man being celebrated like that. And I have tried many, many, many times to explain what a moment like that means to a little girl, a kid watching from the cheap seats as my mom came through the door, bone tired from cleaning other people’s houses. But all I can do is quote and say that the explanation in Sidney’s performance in Lilies of the Field, “Amen, amen. Amen, amen.”

In 1982, Sidney received the Cecil B DeMille Award right here at the Golden Globes, and it is not lost on me that at this moment, there are some little girls watching as I become the first black woman to be given this same award.

It is an honor – it is an honor and it is a privilege to share the evening with all of them and also with the incredible men and women who inspire me, who challenge me, who sustain me and made my journey to this stage possible. Dennis Swanson, who took a chance on me for AM Chicago. Quincy Jones, who saw me on that show and said to Steven Spielberg, “Yes, she is Sofia in The Color Purple.” Gayle, who has been the definition of what a friend is. And Stedman, who has been my rock. Just a few to name.

I’d like to thank the Hollywood Foreign Press Association because we all know that the press is under siege these days, but we also know that it is the insatiable dedication to uncovering the absolute truth that keeps us from turning a blind eye to corruption and to injustice – to tyrants and victims and secrets and lies. I want to say that I value the press more than ever before as we try to navigate these complicated times, which brings me to this: what I know for sure is that speaking your truth is the most powerful tool we all have. And I’m especially proud and inspired by all the women who have felt strong enough and empowered enough to speak up and share their personal stories. Each of us in this room are celebrated because of the stories that we tell. And this year we became the story. But it’s not just a story affecting the entertainment industry. It’s one that transcends any culture, geography, race, religion, politics or workplace. So I want tonight to express gratitude to all the women who have endured years of abuse and assault because they, like my mother, had children to feed and bills to pay and dreams to pursue.

They’re the women whose names we’ll never know. They are domestic workers and farm workers. They are working in factories, and they work in restaurants, and they’re in academia and engineering and medicine and science. They’re part of the world of tech and politics and business. They are athletes in the Olympics, and they are soldiers in the military.

And there’s someone else: Recy Taylor, a name I know and I think you should know too. In 1944, Recy Taylor was a young wife and a mother. She was just walking home from the church service she’d attended in Abbeville, Alabama, when she was abducted by six armed white men, raped, and left blindfolded by the side of the road coming home from church. They threatened to kill her if she ever told anyone, but her story was reported to the NAACP, where a young worker by the name of Rosa Parks became the lead investigator on her case. And together they sought justice. But justice wasn’t an option in the era of Jim Crow. The men who tried to destroy her were never persecuted. Recy Taylor died 10 days ago, just shy of her 98th birthday. She lived as we all have lived, too many years in a culture broken by brutally powerful men. For too long, women have not been heard or believed if they dared to speak their truth to the power of those men, but their time is up.

Their time is up. Their time is up. And I just hope – I just hope that Recy Taylor died knowing that her truth, like the truth of so many other women who were tormented in those years and even now tormented, goes marching on. It was somewhere in Rosa Parks’ heart almost 11 years later when she made the decision to stay seated on that bus in Montgomery. And it’s here with every woman who chooses to say, “Me too” and every man, every man who chooses to listen.

In my career what I’ve always tried my best to do, whether on television or through film, is to say something about how men and women really behave, to say how we experience shame, how we love and how we rage, how we fail, how we retreat, persevere and how we overcome. I’ve interviewed and portrayed people who have withstood some of the ugliest things life can throw at you, but the one quality all of them seem to share is an ability to maintain hope for a brighter morning, even during our darkest nights. So I want all the girls watching here now to know that a new day is on the horizon.

And when that new day finally dawns, it will be because of a lot of magnificent women, many of whom are right here in this room tonight, and some pretty phenomenal men fighting hard to make sure that they become the leaders who take us to the time when nobody ever has to say, “Me too” again. Thank you.

Read Oprah on gratitude and service. Sheryl Sandberg on death, gratitude and resilience.

The speech is artful. I like the thread of story she carries through using Rosa Parks. The tricolon triple repeat of "their time is up" is well pitched emphasis, and she is even handed to the "men who listen" while never letting up on the championing of the women speaking up.