January 2010 I brought together a dozen friends to help define the mission and core values of the project I was building. It became clear a bigger name was needed than the title of the play I had written and was performing, What She Knows: One Woman's Way Through Incest to Joy. The project needed a name that could be an arch over everything: my play, its music, the writing workshops, a web site and blog, a book, a writers journal, maybe a T-shirt with a rhinestone logo and who knows what else.
At first I resisted. I love the name What She Knows, I’d earned the name What She Knows, for cryin’ out loud! Then I watched the Golden Globe Awards show – 10 days after it became clear that our mission should read “…to spark stories from lives affected by incest and sexual abuse to be told and heard.”
Mo’Nique floated up to the podium to accept her award as Best Supporting Actress for her role of Mary in the movie “Precious: Based On The Novel Push By Sapphire”– one of the most important motion pictures of our time on the subject of incest.
With regal strength and grace Mo’Nique dedicated her award to all the Mary’s and Precious’ in the world and closed with, “…because it’s now time to tell.”
My body temperature spiked, I took a deep breath to steady my dizziness as my heart wrapped around her final words. Hearing them felt like she was placing a beautifully wrapped gift into my waiting arms – it rang so true, it IS time to tell. Thank you, Mo’Nique.