--- title: Viola Davis Toasts The 2017 Time 100 Gala | TIME description: Viola Davis gives a toast at the 2017 TIME 100 Gala. canonical: https://time.com/video/DMLp5DHI/ og:title: Viola Davis Toasts The 2017 Time 100 Gala og:description: Viola Davis gives a toast at the 2017 TIME 100 Gala. og:url: https://time.com/video/DMLp5DHI/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/DMLp5DHI/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Viola Davis Toasts The 2017 Time 100 Gala twitter:description: Viola Davis gives a toast at the 2017 TIME 100 Gala. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/DMLp5DHI/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Viola Davis Toasts The 2017 Time 100 Gala > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Viola Davis Toasts The 2017 Time 100 Gala [Watch (HLS stream): Viola Davis Toasts The 2017 Time 100 Gala](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/DMLp5DHI.m3u8) (4:23)  _Published 2017-04-26. Viola Davis gives a toast at the 2017 TIME 100 Gala._ --- Jul 27, 2023 9:50 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Ava DuVernay Toasts the 2017 TIME 100 Gala](/video/RvV2dSIb/) ### Ava DuVernay Toasts the 2017 TIME 100 Gala [Bernard J. Tyson Gives a Toast at the 2017 TIME 100 Gala](/video/r84PnXl8/) ### Bernard J. Tyson Gives a Toast at the 2017 TIME 100 Gala [George Church Toasts The 2017 Time 100 Gala](/video/pAf2J5JH/) ### George Church Toasts The 2017 Time 100 Gala --- ## Transcript When I was 25, I went to Juilliard, right next door, not a very good experience by the way, and I remember at one point, I felt like I lost my voice as an artist. I said, who am I really? you know, what am I doing here? How am I going to be different from everyone else? I decided to go on a cultural art safari in Africa, I made Julliard pay for it. I went to the Gambia, and I went to a compound Of the Mandinka tribe. And one day, there were these groups of women called Kenyala who came into the compound, Mandinka women. They were dressed in oversized clothes, and they had paint on their faces. And they carried drums And they were shouting really, really loudly and making really funny faces, and they had calabashes filled with this dish that tasted like peanut flavored oatmeal. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] And they just got louder and louder, and they passed the calabash around. To everybody in the compound. And more and more people started yelling and screaming with them, to the point where they were falling over each other. Hundreds of people, children even. And they pass the Calabash, plopped the food in their mouths, look up to the sky, scream, scream, scream. And they'd sing this song that translated into, I did not come here for food. My stomach is full. I did not come here for food. I came for much more than that. And I was wondering who these women were and I found out that they were actually women. Who were infertile. And in the Gambia, the biggest blessing you could possibly have is to be able to have a child. And this women felt like the only reason why they weren't blessed with a child is because God did not hear their wish. 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. The beauty of that ritual was that it was actually a ritual. An actual something that they could do to get what they wanted in their lives. The beauty of that ritual was the participation. The beauty of that ritual was the people who were surrounding these women who said, you know what, God didn't hear you. Did not see you. And I'm gonna make sure that He does. I'm gonna do my part in your life to make sure that He, She, hears you. And that is the beauty of everybody in this room. In the words of Thomas Merton, perhaps we're stronger than we think. That everybody in this room, I'm sure at some point has gone through something in their lives and you've survived it, but not only did you survive it, you took that trauma, 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. So for me, I lift the glass to everyone in this room. Everyone who has decided to lived a life bigger than yourself. Everyone who decided to slay those dragons and say it's not just about me. And I applaud you and I am honored to be in this room with you, thank you. 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