--- title: Time 100: Viola Davis Gives Gala Toast description: Viola Davis, one of the members of the 2017 TIME 100, delivered a moving toast at the TIME 100 gala Tuesday night. Watch highlights here canonical: https://time.com/4752397/time-100-gala-viola-davis-toast/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-04-26T04:16:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-07-21T07:15:06.201Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Watch Viola Davis' Powerful Toast at the TIME 100 Gala og:description: She spoke at the annual event featuring the world's most influential people og:url: https://time.com/4752397/time-100-gala-viola-davis-toast/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4fe177a34762bd16/6988ca9d196cf4310003fd54/viola-davis-time-100-2017.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Landon Nordeman for TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch Viola Davis' Powerful Toast at the TIME 100 Gala twitter:description: She spoke at the annual event featuring the world's most influential people twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4fe177a34762bd16/6988ca9d196cf4310003fd54/viola-davis-time-100-2017.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Watch Viola Davis' Powerful Toast at the TIME 100 Gala > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account.  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Apr 26, 2017 4:16 AM UTC  Viola Davis at the Time 100 Gala at Jazz at Lincoln Center on April 25, 2017 in New York City. Viola Davis at the Time 100 Gala at Jazz at Lincoln Center on April 25, 2017 in New York City.Landon Nordeman for TIME  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Apr 26, 2017 4:16 AM UTC [Viola Davis](http://time.com/collection/2017-time-100/4736294/viola-davis/), one of the members of the [2017 TIME 100](http://time.com/collection/2017-time-100/), gave a moving toast at the TIME 100 Gala Tuesday night. “Everybody in this room, I’m sure at some point, has gone through something in their lives, and you survived it,” Davis said. “But not only did you survive it, you took that trauma, and that hurt, that revelation, or whatever it was, and you used it to connect, to give, to influence, to help, and that is the beauty and the purpose of what we are here on this Earth to do.” Davis — who stars in _How to Get Away With Murder_ and [won an Oscar](http://time.com/4683341/oscars-2017-viola-davis-speech/?iid=sr-link2) this year for her role in _Fences_, based on August Wilson’s play of the same name — shared a story of when she traveled to Gambia when she was studying at Juilliard. Davis said she was on a compound of the Mandinka tribe when women called “Kenyala,” who were infertile, performed a ritual where hundreds of people would gather and scream and sing. “These women felt like the only reason why they weren’t blessed with a child is because God did not hear their wish,” Davis said. ” And so the whole point of the ritual was to make as much noise as possible so God could hear them, and pour down the blessing.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4752397/time-100-gala-viola-davis-toast/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4752397/time-100-gala-viola-davis-toast/"},"headline":"Watch Viola Davis' Powerful Toast at the TIME 100 Gala","datePublished":"2017-04-26T04:16:25.000Z","dateModified":"2026-07-21T07:15:06.201Z","description":"She spoke at the annual event featuring the world's most influential people","url":"https://time.com/4752397/time-100-gala-viola-davis-toast/","keywords":["TIME 100","TIME 100","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4fe177a34762bd16/6988ca9d196cf4310003fd54/viola-davis-time-100-2017.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4fe177a34762bd16/6988ca9d196cf4310003fd54/viola-davis-time-100-2017.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Landon Nordeman for TIME","caption":"Landon Nordeman for TIME","creditText":"Landon Nordeman for TIME","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-100/","name":"TIME 100"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4752397/time-100-gala-viola-davis-toast/","name":"Watch Viola Davis' Powerful Toast at the TIME 100 Gala"}}]}] ```