 Welcome everyone to the 2020 Prelude Festival, Sites of Revolution, and thank you for joining us this evening. I'm David Bruin, one of the co-curators of the Prelude Festival. My pronouns are he, him, and I'm currently in Brooklyn on the ancestral lands of the Lenape and Canarsie peoples. Hi everyone, I'm Miranda Heyman, one of the co-curators of the Prelude Festival. My pronouns are she, they, and I'm currently in Boston on the ancestral lands of the Narangansett, Wampanoag, and Massachusetts people. Tonight it is our honor to celebrate Tonya Pinkins with the 2020 Frankie Award. Established in 2013 by former Prelude curator Caleb Hammons, the award is named in honor of Frank Henchker, the founder and executive director of the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, housed within the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Each year, the award recognizes an artist who has made a long-term, extraordinary impact on theater and performance in New York City. As a performer, Tonya Pinkins marries breathtaking talent with a fearless commitment to truth. She has won every major acting award, a Lucille Lortel, a drama desk, an OB, and a Tony Award for her work on stage, which spans decades and includes Carolina Change, Jellies Last Jam, milk-like sugar, Rashida speaking, and Hurt Village, where I first saw her in her Titanic performance as Big Mama. As stunning as her achievements have been on stage, tonight we want to place special tribute to Tonya's work as an advocate and activist. In the rehearsal room at actors' equity meetings and in her articles and books, Tonya is willing to put her career at risk in the pursuit of justice and the fight against what Bell Hooks calls white supremacist capitalist patriarchy in the American theater. This past summer, Tonya published an article on Medium titled Why I Am Fed Up with Performative Activism from White and Black Theater Makers, in which she reminds readers not to confuse presence with power. Like Paul Robison before her, Tonya's outspoken activism is a testament to the power each and every one of us has to serve a cause greater than ourselves, no matter the cost. In the article, Tonya writes, there will always be work to be done until each of us takes our last breath. Tonya, thank you for your work, which shows no signs of stopping anytime soon. It is a necessary reminder to all of us that it is our choice and our highest responsibility to create the change we want and need to see. Now we have some special video tributes from Olivier Award-winning playwright Katori Hall and Tonya nominated playwright and actor Jeremy O'Harris. I got a chance to work with Ms. Tanya Pinkins very early on in my playwriting career. She played the role of Big Mama in my play, Hurt Village, at signature theater. And let me tell you something about Ms. Tanya Pinkins. She is a revolution. She is a revolution as an artist. She is a revolution as an artivist, and she is a revolution as a mother. She taught me how to balance work and life and taught me that I could create my own lane. She taught me how to stand up for myself. And in terms of what she has done for this industry, it's just, you know, you can't even measure it. She has been this towering example for so many of us artists who are unapologetic and fight for what we strongly believe in, which is truth, justice, equality. And so I will say that it has been so transformative for me to have been in her presence. I have been so honored to work with you, Ms. Pinkins. And you are just a walking revolution, and we need you right now because you're teaching us how to continue changing this world. I am currently in the Mouth and Coast of Italy having a glass of champagne in order to toast maybe the baddest bitch to ever step foot on a Broadway stage, Ms. Tanya Pinkins. In case you don't know, Tanya Pinkins has, for the last decade, carried the American theater on her motherfucking back. The We See You letter, she saw every one a decade ago. She made it okay for any young, black, brown, fat, skinny, short, tall, creative in the theater to say this ain't it, this will never be it, and you ain't shit for wanting to do it. And she did that loud, she did that proud, and a lot of y'all blacklisted her for it. So I want to raise this glass and have a drink for Tanya Pinkins who taught me never to shut my mouth. Okay, without further ado, it's my sincere pleasure to hand over the floor to the 2020 Frankie Award winner and walking revolution, Tanya Pinkins. See, I was muted. That was really, really beautiful. Thank you, David Bruin. Thank you Miranda Heyman for, for gifting me with this honor and giving me an opportunity to speak to artists who are the soul of a community of a nation. I loved when I was looking at the Prelude Festival and it talked about the curators. It talked about the importance of the curators being able to show their view. And I feel like view is so important right now, and view is connected to voice. And I've been thinking a lot about get out and how I love that movie but how so much of American culture is just get out. Hamilton is get out. When artists walk into a room and they show you something that is their view. That is their voice. And when any gatekeeper tries to tell them that it should be a different way or they should say it this way or do it this way. They are ignoring erasing that voice and allowing their own voice to be in the skin of an artist. So I support David Bruin and Miranda Heyman and thank them for honoring me. The other special thing about this award is that it's named after Frank Hensher who is alive and how lovely it is to honor people while they are still living. I forgot to say that I am speaking to you from Seoul, Korea. And I believe these are the ancestral lands of the Korean people who were brutally occupied by the Japanese. But they have their homeland and it is risen to be an OPEC nation. Everyone here wears masks. Masks save lives. And because of that they have only 500 deaths in 50 million people. So what I really also wanted to say was that the western idea of individual rights is just a mistake. And I'm not articulate enough to speak it so I'm going to read a quote from Robin Artisan from Ankara Gwynon. Because I think that right now in this moment where we need to be in relationship with everyone else in the world, this quote which I read recently really spoke to me. No individual being pre exists their community. Beings are born into community shaped by it sustained by it and die within it. The false notion held so dear by many modern people that the quote hard individual, not only objectively exists, but is also the fundamental basis for the idea of social rights. The philosophical cause of nearly every social evil at present, and for many centuries besides rights are not properties of individuals, nor are they things that exist in some idealistic away apart from communities. Rights are shared ideas that arise only from within communal existence and they only exist to assure that individuals in communities can realize more social and natural benefits together. Every right recognized by a community for its individual members implies not only belonging to community, but responsibility to the community. It is indefensible for an individual within a community to assert a right to be free of discrimination, while insisting on their power to discriminate against others at the same time. It is noxious for an individual within a community to assert a right to be safe from harm while behaving or living in such a manner that exposes their community to harm. The community of human and other than human life is what creates constitutes and empowers all individual entities. The social concept of rights is a relational concept that can never be used to justify isolating an individual from their community and the community's well being or favoring individual interest over the same in every situation. This is intrinsically against natural systems. It is against how individuals come to be and exist every moment of their lives, and it is a deadly poison to communities. And that's Robin artisan from on Karo Gwen. So right now we need to be in relationship with each other, the planet, the world depends on it, the revolution is coming, and we have only one thing to change, and that is everything, and artists are always at the forefront of doing it. And I celebrate everyone at the prelude festival for continuing to make art that challenges the world and holds a mirror up to it. And thank you all for this honor. I'm going to turn it back over to David Bruin and Miranda Heyman. Wonderful thanks so much Tanya. Thank you so much Tanya. Thank you. So without further ado, today is our kickoff of the 2020 prelude festival, and we'd like to be able to send you along with some information on how to tune into the rest of the festival will be taking place October 20, which is today to the 30th and please visit our website at prelude 2020 NYC.com to see all of our events we have lots going on live recorded, etc. And the website is a lot of fun so we hope you enjoy it. Tonight we're going to be having our first event social distance. Again, you can find out more information and how to tune in at prelude 2020 NYC.com. Thank you so much. See you for the rest of the prelude. Bye.