ZORA and The Blackness present Moonrakers 2020
How Michelle Obama Left A Permanent Stamp on Our Consciousness
Every first lady has left her mark on the White House in one way or another, but only a handful have emerged as icons. Michelle Obama is, without question, an icon.
Beyond the historical neutron bomb that it meant for a Black family to preside over the White House — a living museum built by enslaved men and women like those from whom Michelle Obama descended — she was definitional. Whether it was her clothes, her cultivation of music and the arts, her featuring and celebrating Black culture in the White House, or her focus on military families and children’s health and nutrition, Michelle Obama redefined what it meant to be a first lady.
For Black families, Michelle Obama made the White House our house. We felt like we knew her — as if a favorite cousin had married the president. For all Americans, she updated the notion of what the partner of a powerful man looked…