WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.540 align:middle line:90% All right. 00:00:00.540 --> 00:00:05.200 align:middle line:84% So now I think I'll read a few newer poems. 00:00:05.200 --> 00:00:08.680 align:middle line:84% And they'll all be a little random and strange. 00:00:08.680 --> 00:00:12.480 align:middle line:90% Any Star Trek fans in here? 00:00:12.480 --> 00:00:14.080 align:middle line:90% Yes! 00:00:14.080 --> 00:00:15.680 align:middle line:90% All right. 00:00:15.680 --> 00:00:20.680 align:middle line:84% So these I didn't mark, so it's going to take me a bit. 00:00:20.680 --> 00:00:23.340 align:middle line:84% Yeah, I am a Lieutenant Uhura fan. 00:00:23.340 --> 00:00:28.760 align:middle line:84% Although, I love the later versions of Star Trek. 00:00:28.760 --> 00:00:33.700 align:middle line:84% So this was kind of a fun one to write. 00:00:33.700 --> 00:00:50.560 align:middle line:90% 00:00:50.560 --> 00:00:53.060 align:middle line:84% Yeah, I knew I should have pulled this one before. 00:00:53.060 --> 00:00:54.680 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHS] 00:00:54.680 --> 00:00:57.360 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:00:57.360 --> 00:01:02.500 align:middle line:84% Two references in the poem to Diahann Caroll and her character 00:01:02.500 --> 00:01:09.920 align:middle line:84% in the show, Julia, and to Phil Hartman's character Keyrock, 00:01:09.920 --> 00:01:13.420 align:middle line:84% the unfrozen caveman lawyer from Saturday Night Live. 00:01:13.420 --> 00:01:15.220 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:01:15.220 --> 00:01:18.100 align:middle line:90% I was Lieutenant Uhura. 00:01:18.100 --> 00:01:20.240 align:middle line:90% I caught her on reruns: 00:01:20.240 --> 00:01:23.820 align:middle line:84% Nichelle Nichols from the original Star Trek series. 00:01:23.820 --> 00:01:25.800 align:middle line:90% She was Black like me, 00:01:25.800 --> 00:01:27.260 align:middle line:90% Dark as me, 00:01:27.260 --> 00:01:32.260 align:middle line:84% Cosmic in her minidress, black boots, and hoop earrings. 00:01:32.260 --> 00:01:35.140 align:middle line:90% Not a maid and not Julia. 00:01:35.140 --> 00:01:38.300 align:middle line:84% Diahann Carroll was too much like my mother, 00:01:38.300 --> 00:01:40.580 align:middle line:90% Grounded by pain. 00:01:40.580 --> 00:01:45.020 align:middle line:84% I wanted to be as stunning as a cosmos, 00:01:45.020 --> 00:01:47.500 align:middle line:90% Not ordinary matter-- 00:01:47.500 --> 00:01:51.180 align:middle line:84% The dark energy I longed for but could not name. 00:01:51.180 --> 00:01:54.620 align:middle line:84% Could see myself on a starship long before teaching 00:01:54.620 --> 00:01:56.580 align:middle line:90% in a classroom. 00:01:56.580 --> 00:01:58.840 align:middle line:84% One Halloween I dressed the part: 00:01:58.840 --> 00:02:01.880 align:middle line:84% Short red skirt, black go-go boots. 00:02:01.880 --> 00:02:04.260 align:middle line:90% My ex-husband went as Keyrock, 00:02:04.260 --> 00:02:07.600 align:middle line:90% SNL's unfrozen caveman lawyer. 00:02:07.600 --> 00:02:11.720 align:middle line:84% We were star-crossed from alternative universes. 00:02:11.720 --> 00:02:13.200 align:middle line:90% But I loved her: 00:02:13.200 --> 00:02:15.920 align:middle line:90% Loved her intergalacticness, 00:02:15.920 --> 00:02:18.120 align:middle line:90% Her all-hands-on-deckness, 00:02:18.120 --> 00:02:21.600 align:middle line:84% Facing the final frontier beyond death 00:02:21.600 --> 00:02:24.240 align:middle line:90% Voluminous and unknown. 00:02:24.240 --> 00:02:27.140 align:middle line:90% 3 seasons, 79 episodes. 00:02:27.140 --> 00:02:30.300 align:middle line:84% Each week someone threatened to destroy the universe. 00:02:30.300 --> 00:02:33.960 align:middle line:84% Yet no one called Uhura a DEI hire 00:02:33.960 --> 00:02:35.280 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:02:35.280 --> 00:02:37.640 align:middle line:84% Though they might have thought it. 00:02:37.640 --> 00:02:40.000 align:middle line:90% Her character was a polyglot. 00:02:40.000 --> 00:02:45.080 align:middle line:84% Fourth in command, she was more than a galactic space operator: 00:02:45.080 --> 00:02:47.320 align:middle line:84% A senior officer who wasn't killed off 00:02:47.320 --> 00:02:49.980 align:middle line:84% like the redshirts on away teams. 00:02:49.980 --> 00:02:51.200 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:02:51.200 --> 00:02:56.010 align:middle line:84% Uhura from "uhuru," Swahili for freedom. 00:02:56.010 --> 00:03:00.290 align:middle line:84% The possibility is no longer light years away. 00:03:00.290 --> 00:03:03.410 align:middle line:84% Nichelle Nichols almost left after one season 00:03:03.410 --> 00:03:07.810 align:middle line:84% Until Martin Luther King Jr. convinced her to stay: 00:03:07.810 --> 00:03:10.850 align:middle line:84% There was a future, and we were in it. 00:03:10.850 --> 00:03:14.650 align:middle line:84% Even Kirk couldn't keep his eyes off of her. 00:03:14.650 --> 00:03:17.890 align:middle line:84% The first interracial kiss on TV between them 00:03:17.890 --> 00:03:20.250 align:middle line:90% was made to look like torture 00:03:20.250 --> 00:03:22.810 align:middle line:90% But we knew he wanted more. 00:03:22.810 --> 00:03:24.570 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:03:24.570 --> 00:03:26.730 align:middle line:90% How did I feel seen, 00:03:26.730 --> 00:03:29.770 align:middle line:84% Understand our value in the world? 00:03:29.770 --> 00:03:31.850 align:middle line:90% I looked up to the stars, 00:03:31.850 --> 00:03:36.170 align:middle line:84% The universe blacker and more beautiful than I imagined. 00:03:36.170 --> 00:03:39.410 align:middle line:84% Uhura didn't have to prove she belonged. 00:03:39.410 --> 00:03:43.530 align:middle line:84% She listened to the big void and translated our dreams, 00:03:43.530 --> 00:03:47.230 align:middle line:84% Boldly going wherever the hell she wanted to go. 00:03:47.230 --> 00:03:49.090 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:03:49.090 --> 00:03:50.130 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:03:50.130 --> 00:03:52.070 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:03:52.070 --> 00:03:52.970 align:middle line:90% All right. 00:03:52.970 --> 00:03:55.680 align:middle line:90% So I'll read a few more.