Thanks @RobinRoberts for chatting all things Obama Presidential Center on @GMA, and helping @BarackObama surprise members of Chicago Women in Trades before we break ground later today! https://t.co/Qw2UZRDzP9
— The Obama Foundation (@ObamaFoundation) September 28, 2021
Posts Tagged ‘gma
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May
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Becoming Me
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A #Sesame50 Tribute
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Carrying It Forward
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Owning Who You Are
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Krissah Thompson: In Revealing New Memoir, Michelle Obama Candidly Shares Her Story
As Michelle Obama’s highly anticipated memoir “Becoming” arrives, it’s clear that the former first lady is occupying a space in the culture beyond politics. “I don’t think anybody will be necessarily prepared to read a memoir like this — especially coming from a first lady,” said Shonda Rhimes, the television producer, who read an advance copy of Obama’s book. The first-lady memoir is a rite of passage, but Obama’s is different by virtue of her very identity. “Becoming” takes her historic status as the first black woman to serve as first lady and melds it deftly into the American narrative. She writes of the common aspects of her story and — as the only White House resident to count an enslaved great-great-grandfather as an ancestor — of its singular sweep. “The whole [birther] thing was crazy and mean-spirited, of course, its underlying bigotry and xenophobia hardly concealed. But it was also dangerous, deliberately meant to stir up the wingnuts and kooks,” she writes. “What if someone with an unstable mind loaded a gun and drove to Washington? What if that person went looking for our girls? Donald Trump, with his loud and reckless innuendos, was putting my family’s safety at risk. And for this I’d never forgive him.”
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She divides the memoir into three parts: Becoming Me, Becoming Us, Becoming More. The first section is a deep, often sociological exploration of Chicago and the people and institutions there. Its textured discussion of gentrification, public education, race and class are reminders that Obama majored in sociology and minored in African American studies at Princeton University. The second section, Becoming Us, is a romp through her romance with Barack Obama, starting a family with him and her search for work that she loved. It begins with words that have never before been written by a first lady about her man: “As soon as I allowed myself to feel anything for Barack, the feelings came rushing — a toppling blast of lust, gratitude, fulfillment, wonder.” She also shares intimate details for the first time, for instance, that she and her husband had trouble getting pregnant, suffered a miscarriage, and that both daughters were conceived through in vitro fertilization. And that she did a great deal of this while her husband was away serving in the state legislature, leaving her to administer the shots that are a part of that process herself.
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‘Chasing Light’
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Lauren Sher and Danielle Genet: Behind The Lens: Michelle Obama’s White House Photographer Shares Candid Stories
Photographer Amanda Lucidon had a front-row seat to the events in the Obama White House. For four years, Lucidon was the only female photographer on the White House staff and tasked with covering first lady Michelle Obama. “To be one of the few female photographers in [White House] history was really special. But on top of that, just to work for the administration that had appointed more women and minorities than any other administration; that was a real special thing,” Lucidon said in an interview with ABC News’ Robin Roberts for “Good Morning America.”
Lucidon, 38, is stepping out from behind the lens for the first time and sharing her personal reflections in a new book, “Chasing Light.” The book is a collection of her candid photographs of the first family and is filled with the lessons she learned along the way. “What the first lady has traveled around the country and the world saying candidly, which I learned from her, is that you can be anything; how you grew up and your circumstances do not define you,” Lucidon told Roberts. “Working at the White House was a very transformative time for me. I found confidence. I learned about myself. I learned about pushing boundaries. I learned about embracing my own story and my own background. … The first lady always taught us the challenges that you’ve encountered in your life are actually your strengths. They’re not your weaknesses. They’re the things that teach you resilience.”
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The Obama Diary 
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