Tarana Burke, the founder of the #MeToo movement, will press the button to kick off the ball drop on New Year’s Eve at Times Square.
“I am delighted to be participating in this momentous occasion,” Burke said in a press release about the event. “I think it’s fitting to honor the Me Too movement as we close a historic year and set our intentions for 2018. With the new year comes new momentum to fuel this work and we won’t stop anytime soon.”
— DeVos met with student protests during Univ. of Baltimore commencement speech —
“We are very proud to highlight Tarana Burke and the important movement she began,” said Jeff Straus, President of Countdown Entertainment. “As the world joins together to welcome 2018, we are inspired as Tarana will lead our countdown and represent our commitment to continue to stand together and support each other in the upcoming year.”
A cultural moment in time
The #MeToo movement swept through the world this year, prompting women to break their silence on the daily deluge of sexual assault and harassment. In fact, the movement had such a cultural impact that Time magazine named it as the Person of the Year.
“This reckoning appears to have sprung up overnight. But it has actually been simmering for years, decades, centuries,” Time’s story said.
“These silence breakers have started a revolution of refusal, gathering strength by the day, and in the past two months alone, their collective anger has spurred immediate and shocking results: nearly every day, CEOs have been fired, moguls toppled, icons disgraced. In some cases, criminal charges have been brought.”
The movement comes in the wake of so many big names in entertainment and other industries losing their jobs and their good names as people come forward. Harvey Weinstein and Matt Lauer are just a couple of the icons being toppled, and the movement isn’t likely to stop anytime soon.
