At Tuesday night’s TIME 100 Gala, TIME CEO and Editor-in-Chief Edward Felsenthal gave a toast celebrating the 2019 honorees.
As dinner began, Felsenthal spoke onstage about the wide-range of accomplishments this year’s crop of world influencers — “people who do the impossible” — have achieved.
“Tonight, we honor artists and icons, pioneers and leaders, people who shaped the year and changed the year, people who stood up and stood out,” he said. “We also honor the power of individuals to bring others together. To move their fellow citizens to action.”
Felsenthal also challenged those in attendance to keep up the good fight going forward.
“Our hope is that being on the TIME 100 is not only a recognition of what has been done, but a call for all the work that’s left to do. Because with influence comes responsibility, and at TIME we recognize that this is true for us as well. Just as we’re asking all of you, we’re asking ourselves, how do we earn this authority and this trust? We’re asking: What are we going to do with it?”
Read the full text of his toast below.
Have a seat everybody, it’s more fun even when you sit down. We have a great evening ahead.
Good evening, everybody. Thank you so much for being with us. I’m happy to report that we have more TIME 100 honorees gathered in this room than in all the years we’ve been doing this event. Tonight, we honor artists and icons, pioneers and leaders. People who shaped the year and changed the year, people who stood up and stood out.
We also honor the power of individuals to bring others together, to move their fellow citizens to action. So many of today’s issues seem impossible to solve. And yet that’s what the TIME 100 is, you’re people who do the impossible.
With us tonight, is the Oscar-winning actor Brie Larson. Brie is one of a record 48 women on this year’s TIME 100. She has shattered not only box office records as Captain Marvel, but stereotypes about how women succeed in Hollywood. We also have in the room Arundhati Katju and Menaka Guruswamy, who challenged a 150-year-old law that criminalized homosexuality in India and they won. Hoesung Lee is here. His landmark report on our dangerously warming planet finally woke up the international community to the reality that we need collective action on climate change, not in 2050, not in 2040, but now. Also with us are Emily Comer and Jay O’Neal, the two West Virginia teachers who launched a nationwide movement to pay the people who educate our children like the future depends on it.
One of you, the activist Loujain Al-Hathloul, couldn’t be here tonight. Loujain is in prison in Saudi Arabia. She is locked in what she has called a palace of terror for demanding that women have the right to drive a car.
You know, one of the things I find so powerful about this year’s honorees is the number of you who are on second, third, and even fourth acts, wielding influence that spans decades and often disciplines.
Last year we had the youngest person ever on the TIME 100, this year we have the oldest, Luchita Hurtado, a brilliant visual artist who’s finally getting the museum retrospective she’s long deserved at 98 years young. We have Dwayne Johnson here tonight, the Rock. He began his career as a wrestler. Today he may just be the biggest movie star in the world and perhaps, even, I mean, who knows these days, a future president.
And welcome Madam Speaker. Nancy Pelosi this year made history as the only woman to serve as Speaker of the House twice.
Speaking of second acts, I can’t help but note that TIME is having one of its own. Please join me in thanking Marc and Lynne Benioff, our new owners and co-chairs. From the first moments we sat down with Lynne and Marc to discuss TIME’s future, we knew that this was not just a meeting of minds and goals but a union of purpose. Our shared objective is to ensure that TIME will expand and thrive, providing trusted guidance for humanity as we approach our 100th anniversary just four years from now. What a moment that will be. I want to get you all back together for it.
A few weeks after this gala last year, a TIME 100 honoree said to me, “That was a great event, I had a great time, I loved my table, but you have all these influential people in the same room, that’s an extraordinary opportunity. What are you going to do with it?” Well, this year is our answer.
Today for the first time, we turn our annual list into a day-long summit. Instead of simply acknowledging what you have accomplished alone, we’re asking what you might accomplish together. And we’ll continue to find new ways to convene this amazing community.
The TIME 100, now in its 60th year, includes global leaders across every field, your CEOs and prime ministers, actors and activists, athletes and astronauts, and at a time when so many of our problems require cross-disciplinary solutions, you are really uniquely positioned to bring about change. Our hope is that being on the TIME 100 is not only a recognition of what has been done, but a call for all the work that’s left to do. Because with influence comes responsibility, and at TIME we recognize that this is true for us as well. Just as we’re asking all of you, we’re asking ourselves, how do we earn this authority and this trust? We’re asking: What are we going to do with it?
A few months ago, we recognized TIME’s person of the year, a group of people, the Guardians, fellow journalists who take great risks in pursuit of greater truths. Tonight we have with us one of those guardians, Maria Ressa. Maria has exposed the brutality and duplicity of the Duterte regime in the Philippines and was indicted repeatedly but undeterred. You’ll hear from Maria a bit later.
As journalists, we strive always to be without bias, but that does not mean without purpose. Henry Luce, TIME’s founder, famously called for the 20th century to be an American century. Of course, the centrality of any single world power has come and gone, but what about the 21st century? That’s up to all of us. Whether the next century will be defined by continued progress or retreat, whether it will be defined by a shared commitment to human rights and equal opportunity, whether it will be a collaborative century guided by democratic principles and institutions, a free press foremost among them. Influence is a powerful gift. It’s not a gift to be polished and placed high on a shelf somewhere.
We challenge you, all of you, to spend it, spread it, share it, use it, and we congratulate you, not just for how far you’ve come, but for what you’ll do next.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the 2019 TIME 100.
