"Hope Is Making a Comeback."
BTS from the DNC in Chicago: Long lines, run-ins with Jon Cryer and Uzo Aduba, witnessing Michelle Obama's powerful speech, and a late-night dance party at Hotties for Harris.
Friends, I am running on four hours of sleep and yet cannot remember the last time I felt so alive.
Yesterday, I flew to Chicago for day two of the Democratic National Convention where our organization The Meteor has teamed up with Emerge to host a conversation series today and tomorrow (Wednesday and Thursday) with some incredible artists, activists, and representatives. (If you’re in the Chicago area and would like to attend, my discussion with U.S. Rep. Becca Balint is today at 1pm. You can also livestream the entire two-day event online. Get more information about the lineup and everything else here.)
Upon landing in Chicago yesterday, I hit the ground running. I dropped my bags off at the Airbnb I’m sharing with The Meteor’s Cindi Leive and Meredith Shepherd. By this time it was almost 7pm, and I needed to get my credential for entry into the convention center from my friend Dr. Dara Kass who had picked it up for me earlier in the day. (Yes, that Dara Kass, who saved me from a burst appendix and also brought me bagels which is of equal importance.)
I took an Uber over to the convention center where the line to get in was already a mile long. I walked the line trying to find the end of it while looking at all the incredibly thrilled and excited faces who were more than happy to stand waiting for a few hours so they could watch yesterday’s speakers: First Gentleman Doug Emhoff, former First Lady Michelle Obama, and of course, Michelle Obama’s husband, as I shall now refer to him after her extraordinary speech last night.
As I was walking, I heard someone call my name and found myself running into dear friends, actresses and activists Uzo Aduba and Yvette Nicole Brown. Uzo and I go way back to the creation of #MeToo era’s TIME’S UP organization. Yvette and I have worked together as advocates and surrogates for EMILYs List and have been in each other’s orbits for years. Jon Cryer, who I worked with on Two and a Half Men, was also in line. They were all there as part of the delegation for The Creative Coalition, an incredible organization supporting the arts.
Dara Kass to the credentials rescue! We finally found each other in the madness:
No thank you, Jon Cryer, I’m not signing autographs today:
A walk and talk with Uzo on why we’re here and why we’re pumped for a Kamala presidency: