Janelle Monae took over the stage during this year's Glamour Women Of The Year Awards: Women Rise in New York. The singer's acceptance speech shook the audience with its overt support of marginalized communities and disapproval of the Trump administration.
“I feel a huge responsibility to protect my brothers and sisters in the LGBTQIA+ community, to protect women, to protect black folks, to protect immigrants, to protect lower class folks like my parents who put on uniforms to protect me and my sister.”
“I didn’t feel good. I wrote this album in the Obama era, and then things happened after November 2016 -- things happened. It was difficult for me to [make this album] happen. But through it all, it’s been worth the blood, sweat, and tears.”
She expressed her belief in asserting one's identity and convictions concerning social issues despite the political landscape of their country.
“I am a young, black, queer woman in America. I am not afraid to piss off the power. We can do this together. I am not afraid to piss off the abuser of power in chief who reminds us daily that the freedom we have is not free—we have to fight for it.”
“We as Americans, women, as sisters—we now have an opportunity to join together to turn the volume up on love,” she said, before concluding her speech with a line she previously used at the 2018 Grammys: “I like to close by saying: I come in peace, but I mean business.”