0:00:00.984,0:00:03.256 Tell your daughters of this year, 0:00:03.280,0:00:05.376 how we woke needing coffee 0:00:05.400,0:00:09.216 but discovered instead cadavers[br]strewn about our morning papers, 0:00:09.240,0:00:14.040 waterlogged facsimiles[br]of our sisters, spouses, small children. 0:00:14.600,0:00:18.216 Say to your baby of this year[br]when she asks, as she certainly should, 0:00:18.240,0:00:19.816 tell her it was too late coming. 0:00:19.840,0:00:24.296 Admit even in the year we leased freedom,[br]we didn't own it outright. 0:00:24.320,0:00:27.136 There were still laws[br]for every way we used our privates 0:00:27.160,0:00:29.656 while they pawed at the soft folds of us, 0:00:29.680,0:00:32.415 grabbed with no concern for consent, 0:00:32.439,0:00:35.056 no laws made for the men[br]that enforced them. 0:00:35.080,0:00:37.496 We were trained to dodge, 0:00:37.520,0:00:40.136 to wait, to cower and cover, 0:00:40.160,0:00:43.056 to wait more, still, wait. 0:00:43.080,0:00:44.960 We were told to be silent. 0:00:45.440,0:00:47.696 But speak to your girls of this wartime, 0:00:47.720,0:00:50.296 a year preceded by a score of the same, 0:00:50.320,0:00:52.576 so as in two decades before, 0:00:52.600,0:00:54.136 we wiped our eyes, 0:00:54.160,0:00:56.056 laced caskets with flags, 0:00:56.080,0:00:58.256 evacuated the crime scene of the club, 0:00:58.280,0:00:59.576 caterwauled in the street, 0:00:59.600,0:01:02.896 laid our bodies on the concrete[br]against the outlines of our fallen, 0:01:02.920,0:01:04.855 cried, "Of course we mattered," 0:01:04.879,0:01:06.256 chanted for our disappeared. 0:01:06.280,0:01:07.880 The women wept this year. 0:01:08.440,0:01:09.656 They did. 0:01:09.680,0:01:12.136 In the same year, we were ready. 0:01:12.160,0:01:15.256 The year we lost our inhibition[br]and moved with courageous abandon 0:01:15.280,0:01:17.776 was also the year we stared down barrels, 0:01:17.800,0:01:20.136 sang of cranes in skies,[br]ducked and parried, 0:01:20.160,0:01:22.616 caught gold in hijab,[br]collected death threats, 0:01:22.640,0:01:23.976 knew ourselves as patriots, 0:01:24.000,0:01:27.216 said, "We're 35 now, time we settled down[br]and found a running mate," 0:01:27.240,0:01:30.376 made road maps for infant joy,[br]shamed nothing but fear, 0:01:30.400,0:01:32.656 called ourselves fat and meant, of course, 0:01:32.680,0:01:33.896 impeccable. 0:01:33.920,0:01:35.856 This year, we were women, 0:01:35.880,0:01:37.656 not brides or trinkets, 0:01:37.680,0:01:39.176 not an off-brand gender, 0:01:39.200,0:01:41.336 not a concession, but women. 0:01:41.360,0:01:42.656 Instruct your babies. 0:01:42.680,0:01:46.056 Remind them that the year has passed[br]to be docile or small. 0:01:46.080,0:01:48.696 Some of us said for the first time[br]that we were women, 0:01:48.720,0:01:51.096 took this oath of solidarity seriously. 0:01:51.120,0:01:53.376 Some of us bore children[br]and some of us did not, 0:01:53.400,0:01:55.816 and none of us questioned[br]whether that made us real 0:01:55.840,0:01:57.616 or appropriate or true. 0:01:57.640,0:01:59.776 When she asks you of this year, 0:01:59.800,0:02:02.705 your daughter, whether your offspring[br]or heir to your triumph, 0:02:02.729,0:02:05.736 from her comforted side of history[br]teetering towards woman, 0:02:05.760,0:02:08.056 she will wonder and ask voraciously, 0:02:08.080,0:02:10.015 though she cannot fathom your sacrifice, 0:02:10.039,0:02:12.816 she will hold your estimation of it holy, 0:02:12.840,0:02:15.336 curiously probing, "Where were you? 0:02:15.360,0:02:18.376 Did you fight?[br]Were you fearful or fearsome? 0:02:18.400,0:02:20.256 What colored the walls of your regret? 0:02:20.280,0:02:22.936 What did you do for women[br]in the year it was time? 0:02:22.960,0:02:25.856 This path you made for me,[br]which bones had to break? 0:02:25.880,0:02:28.136 Did you do enough, and are you OK, momma? 0:02:28.160,0:02:29.376 And are you a hero?" 0:02:29.400,0:02:31.816 She will ask the difficult questions. 0:02:31.840,0:02:34.016 She will not care[br]about the arc of your brow, 0:02:34.040,0:02:35.296 the weight of your clutch. 0:02:35.320,0:02:36.976 She will not ask of your mentions. 0:02:37.000,0:02:40.376 Your daughter, for whom you have[br]already carried so much, wants to know 0:02:40.400,0:02:43.896 what you brought, what gift,[br]what light did you keep from extinction? 0:02:43.920,0:02:45.856 When they came for victims in the night, 0:02:45.880,0:02:47.976 did you sleep through it[br]or were you roused? 0:02:48.000,0:02:49.656 What was the cost of staying woke? 0:02:49.680,0:02:53.146 What, in the year we said time's up,[br]what did you do with your privilege? 0:02:53.170,0:02:54.696 Did you sup on others' squalor? 0:02:54.720,0:02:56.856 Did you look away[br]or directly into the flame? 0:02:56.880,0:02:59.416 Did you know your skill[br]or treat it like a liability? 0:02:59.440,0:03:02.776 Were you fooled by the epithets[br]of "nasty" or "less than"? 0:03:02.800,0:03:05.296 Did you teach with an open heart[br]or a clenched fist? 0:03:05.320,0:03:06.536 Where were you? 0:03:06.560,0:03:08.416 Tell her the truth. Make it your life. 0:03:08.440,0:03:10.416 Confirm it. Say, "Daughter, I stood there 0:03:10.440,0:03:12.656 with the moment[br]drawn on my face like a dagger, 0:03:12.680,0:03:14.016 and flung it back at itself, 0:03:14.040,0:03:15.456 slicing space for you." 0:03:15.480,0:03:18.296 Tell her the truth, how you lived[br]in spite of crooked odds. 0:03:18.320,0:03:19.576 Tell her you were brave, 0:03:19.600,0:03:21.936 and always, always[br]in the company of courage, 0:03:21.960,0:03:24.256 mostly the days[br]when you just had yourself. 0:03:24.280,0:03:26.256 Tell her she was born as you were, 0:03:26.280,0:03:28.896 as your mothers before,[br]and the sisters beside them, 0:03:28.920,0:03:31.016 in the age of legends, like always. 0:03:31.040,0:03:33.736 Tell her she was born just in time, 0:03:33.760,0:03:35.040 just in time 0:03:35.520,0:03:36.736 to lead. 0:03:36.760,0:03:44.096 (Applause)