Nigerian author pens a beautiful love letter to Michelle Obama

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has been selected as one of amazing writers selected to pen thank-you notes to United States First Lady Michelle Obama.

Obama who is on this week cover of The New York Times Style Magazine received “love letters” from award-winning Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, legendary feminist activist Gloria Steinem, actress and writer Rashida Jones, and author Jon Meacham.

These America's best known men and women describe how Obama “quietly and confidently” changed the “course of American history.”

Adichie, in her essay described Obama as having "rhythm, a flow and swerve, hands slicing air, body weight moving from foot to foot, a beautiful rhythm"

"In anything else but a black American body, it would have been contrived. The three-quarter sleeves of her teal dress announced its appropriateness, as did her matching brooch. But the cut of the dress scorned any “future first lady” stuffiness; it hung easy on her, as effortless as her animation. And a brooch, Old World style accessory, yes, but hers was big and ebulliently shaped and perched center on her chest. Michelle Obama was speaking. It was the 2008 Democratic National Convention. My anxiety rose and swirled, watching and willing her to be as close to perfection as possible, not for me, because I was already a believer, but for the swaths of America that would rather she stumbled.

She first appeared in the public consciousness, all common sense and mordant humor, at ease in her skin. She had the air of a woman who could balance a checkbook, and who knew a good deal when she saw it, and who would tell off whomever needed telling off.

She was tall and sure and stylish. She was reluctant to be first lady, and did not hide her reluctance beneath platitudes. She seemed not so much unique as true. She sharpened her husband’s then-hazy form, made him solid, more than just a dream."

Continue reading on New York Times.

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