00:01If you strip away the makeup, you strip away the hat, you strip away the suits,
00:05I'm still a young black queer woman in America.
00:12I'm Janelle Monáe and this is my uncover.
00:19Afrofuturism has been a huge blessing to me as a black woman, as a black creative woman living
00:26in America especially, I've been able to create a lot of my albums and use Afrofuturism as a tool.
00:33You know, Afrofuturism is seeing us in the future, knowing we survive, knowing we can be as magical as we
00:39want to be,
00:40and just telling our stories from our own mouths and making sure that we're not erased.
00:45I felt it was time for me to speak more about my experiences through Dirty Computer.
00:50It was about really living with myself, understanding myself, loving myself, appreciating me,
00:55and in the process, appreciating others.
00:57I did feel it was important to highlight and celebrate marginalized groups from the LGBTQIA
01:03to poor people.
01:04You know, my family grew up scrubbing floors, my dad was a sanitation worker, my mother was
01:10a custodian, my stepfather just like my dad worked at the post office, so I grew up to
01:15a very hard working class family.
01:17I just feel like I have a personal responsibility.
01:19I grew up in a strong household full of women.
01:23You know, my grandmother helped raise me.
01:25I have nine aunties.
01:26My mom, you know, raised me.
01:28I grew up wanting to protect those women who nurtured me and who taught me how to be a
01:33strong woman and to stand up for not just my rights, but those who can't stand up for
01:37themselves.
01:38I'm not free until my sister is free.
01:42I actually have been reading and I was inspired when I was writing Dirty Computer by this book.
01:47It speaks about how we were as women in matriarchal societies before patriarchy took over.
01:53And it's pretty eye opening.
01:57It got me inspired.
01:59It made me upset that we have had to dim our lights for so many centuries.
02:05Because some men fear us.
02:07Fear when we're together, when we're united, when we're aligned, and when we have agency.
02:13And I think that's what it's about.
02:14It's about protecting our agency.
02:15Making sure that we're in control of our bodies, our narratives.
02:20I think that it's important that men talk to men.
02:23It's important that they check any of the unacceptable behavior that men are exemplifying in the work space, off work,
02:31in the household.
02:32When it's pushing a narrative that women are less than, you know, you got to talk to your
02:36boy, you got to talk to your guy, your bro, and just, you know, let them know that women's
02:42rights are human rights.
02:43And it's up to all of us to work together, and I think that we're doing that.
02:47But I think that us having these conversations, I think that listening is important.
02:52And not listening to respond, but listening to understand.
02:56That may be the biggest step, just listening to us.
02:59So whoever has the mic, whatever woman has the mic, let her talk.
03:03Through our struggles and through our misunderstandings, in the end, love is at the root of any revolution.
03:14All right.
03:14Let's go.
