Issa Rae's TIME Impact Dinner: The Closers 2024 Toast

Issa Rae, who appeared on the cover of TIME’s Closers issue, brought her signature comedic wit to the Closers stage when delivering her remarks as the last speaker of the night. She joked that she was annoyed that the text on the cover read “working to close the racial wealth gap” because, she said, she received texts from family members asking how she’s helping close the family wealth gap. On a more serious note, she shared that the idea of changing the world was “daunting,” but she got there step by step: “I chose to focus on myself and try to be better and focus on what I could do in my small environment and then I focused on my family and then my friends and then my communities, and it led me to realize how I can make an impact in my own way.”