Around 45 minutes into its airtime, the 74th Emmy Awards ceremony was over. That was the moment "Abbott Elementary" star Sheryl Lee Ralph took the stage, gemstones sparkling in her hair, and accepted the Emmy for best supporting actress in a comedy by effortlessly belting out a lyric from Dianne Reeves's 1993 scorcher "Endangered Species."
"I am an endangered species," she sang, "But I sing no victim's song/ I am a woman I am an artist/ And I know where my voice belongs." One imagines her voice vibrating the very molecules inside the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, the host venue for the show. Fortunately for the relatively few million of us watching at home, Ralph's joy was radiant enough to leap through the screen, demanding that we appreciate the wonder of that moment. Her moment.
