Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: “What I hope my work does is give a language to what women face all around the world.”

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – NOVEMBER 19: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie speaks on stage during the annual Make Equality Reality Gala hosted by Equality Now on November 19, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images)

“I was a Feminist long before I knew what the word meant. The world does not extend the dignities to women that they do to men. Receiving this award is very humbling.” – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie AfterEllen had the honor of speaking with renowned author and feminist icon Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie at the annual Equality Now Gala last night in New York City, where she was honored alongside writer and activist Scarlett Curtis.

When asked about the future of Feminism in light of today’s political climate, Adichie takes a cautiously hopeful approach. “I’m always very wary. Honestly. I don’t know. But I can tell you what I hope. We’re living in a really bad time for women right now. But at the same time, I think it has become a kind of catalyst for many women to do things that they would not have done in another time. So I want to look at it in a slightly optimistic way and say that women who would have never run for office are running for office. Long term, I’m generally hopeful. If you look at our history on women’s movements everywhere in the world, it’s two steps forward and one step back. But I think something is changing slightly. I think with the Me Too movement in particular, what it has shown me is that people are starting to believe women. I feel as though that’s a huge shift. So there’s a kind of long term optimism that I have that I don’t have short term. But in the long term, I am optimistic that across the world, women’s condition will improve.”

Chimamanda Adichie and AfterEllen reporter Jenny Block

Last night’s Make Equality Reality Gala featured an impressive program, including a special appearance by international bestselling author Margaret Atwood. In addition to honoring Chimamanda Adichie, Scarlett Curtis was presented the second annual Changemaker Award which was presented by Gucci and CHIME FOR CHANGE. The room was packed with a plethora of other notable guests and performers, including Dee Nasty, Meg Ryan, Linda Perry, Rhonda Ross, Katie Cappiello, Stacey Kramer, Amy Carlson, and others.

We were incredibly honored to get the chance to speak with author Margaret Atwood to get her take on how the political climate of our time might affect women’s rights and what young women can do. She didn’t miss a beat. “Don’t pay any mind to that man,” she said. “He’s not going to be around for all of the rest of your life.”

The Handmaid’s Tale was first published in 1985. Back then, it read like science fiction, eerily mirrored in the reality of too many women around the world. Now it reads more like current affairs. AfterEllen asked Atwood if she could imagine sitting down today to write a similar novel with today’s climate as a springboard. She smiled slyly. “I could. But if I could, I wouldn’t tell you because then you’d have my book plot, wouldn’t you? There are a lot of young women writers writing those kinds of books right now.” Her face lit up at the thought, and it was thrilling to see the face of a wildly successful author expressing such joy at the possibility of what the next generation of thinkers and writers might have in store. Atwood had two words of advice for young female writers: “Keep going.”

“Keep going.”

Why “keep going” must be our battle cry was made heart-wrenchingly clear as the evening’s program opened with young women telling the stories of other very young women. Women who were raped, who were assaulted, who were institutionalized for being raped, who were suicidal. There is much talk of rage in today’s feminist writing. There has to be rage. And there has to be change.

Shoba Narayan, currently playing Eliza Hamilton on Broadway (in “Hamilton,” of course) sang a powerful version of Alicia Key’s “Girl on Fire,” clearly stoking the flames of the activists, writers, and performers in the room. Audrey Gelman, the founder of The Wing, a women’s co-working space and social club founded in New York City in 2016 (who also happens to be the inspiration for Allison Williams’s character Marnie on Girls), then took the stage to introduce Scartlett Curtis.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – NOVEMBER 19: Scarlett Curtis attends the annual Make Equality Reality Gala hosted by Equality Now on November 19, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images)

When Scarlett Curtis took the stage, she confessed to be experiencing, “A huge amount of imposter syndrome standing up here,” insisting that her work was truly about raising up other feminists who are, “creating, upholding, and nurturing a global feminist movement that changed and saved my life.” And she meant that quite literally, since she had tried to commit suicide once.

When struggling to recover, she saw a sign for a Feminist resistance meeting. “What I saw in that room was something I wanted to get better for — Feminism. I wanted to stick around to be a part of this movement. I am selfishly a feminist because feminism gave me a reason to stay alive. No one ever says I used to be a feminist, but I changed my mind.”

“I am selfishly a feminist because feminism gave me a reason to stay alive. No one ever says I used to be a feminist, but I changed my mind.”

Rhonda Ross, daughter of Diana Ross, introduced Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and presented her Equality Now award.

“I’m so moved,” Adichie said as she took the stage. Thank you so much. And look at all the gorgeous hair out there. I’ll try not to be emotional.”

“Be emotional,” someone yelled from the audience.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – NOVEMBER 19: Rhonda Ross Kendrick and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie attend the annual Make Equality Reality Gala hosted by Equality Now on November 19, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Equality Now)

“I’m a writer. Not an activist. The people here are the activists. I didn’t plan to become a feminist icon. It’s a title I feel a bit ambivalent about. Although I do want someone to make me a hat that says that,” she joked.

Adichie’s public journey began when she was asked to do a TedX talk. Her friend asked her to speak about what he said she talked about all the time — women.

“I didn’t realize I spent so much time talking to my friends about women and the equality of women,” she smiled. “I was a feminist long before I knew what the word meant. The world does not extend the dignities to women that they do to men. Receiving this award is very humbling.

I’m a storyteller. I don’t think I’ve told women anything new. I think I have a language for something women already know. What I hope my work does is give a language to what women face all around the world. As a feminist, you become accustomed to a certain amount of hostility. It can be very lonely, very emotionally exhausting to feel like you have to make a case, that you have to prove that inequality exists. So tonight feels like an ‘umph.'”

“I’m a storyteller. I don’t think I’ve told women anything new. I think I have a language for something women already know. What I hope my work does is give a language to what women face all around the world. As a feminist, you become accustomed to a certain amount of hostility. It can be very lonely, very emotionally exhausting to feel like you have to make a case, that you have to prove that inequality exists.”

Too much of what we do as women, Makes us complicit in our own oppression. We are made to feel guilty for wanting what we want. Much of the solution lies in education. Men read men and women read men and women. Men do not get this because women’s stories are largely unfamiliar to them. And so we really need to start thinking about ways to make women’s stories familiar to them. Men need to read more women’s stories.

A friend of mine told me, ‘Oh, I love Michelle Obama. I got a copy of that book. I got many copies of that book. I give them as presents to all my female friends.’ So I said to him, well, ‘Why did you not give them to your male friends?’ And he looked taken aback. And this actually is one of the good men. Because he is so feminist and I think he was telling me because he wanted me to give him a cookie. So I said, ‘Actually, look, I think you need to give it to all of your male friends.’ I did not give him a cookie. ‘You get a cookie when you give the book to your male friends. Give the book to your friends.’

Thank you. This means a lot to me and, I was a bit… I was hoping to be a bit more eloquent, but I think I am… my emotions have taken over. We also want to make room for women to be emotional and not be judged for that, and my hope is that we also make room for men to be emotional.

I am constantly thinking about the world I want. I want a world where we teach boys, our sons, our kids to cry, and we teach girls that it is okay for boys to cry, because I think, we have to get to a place where men and women can have full emotional lives. And we are just not there yet. Thank you, this means so much to me. My brother some times he is telling me to shut up and I want to tell them I am not shutting the fuck up.”

It was a night for change. It was a night of change-making. It was a night devoted to spreading the urgent message to save the lives of women and girls across the world. No one else is going to do it. We are lucky to have an organization like Equality Now leading the charge. Equality Now saves the lives of women and girls. It makes it possible for them to live in the world we have now and to imagine a better one in the future where equality is more than a touchstone, more than a word, more than a waking dream.

Embrace the rage. Fuel the change. Feminism and the women driving its mission forward are our future. The time has come to get on board or get out of the way.