January 14, 2009 | Medgar Evers College
Medgar Evers College Professor Andrée-Nicola McLaughlin is a contributor in the groundbreaking new book- Go, Tell Michelle: African American Women Write to the New First Lady. The tome gathers words of wisdom and advice from African –American women across the nation to Michelle Obama- who becomes the United States’ first African-American First Lady on January 20, 2009.
Go, Tell Michelle is the brainchild of Barbara Seals Nevergold, Ph.D. and Peggy Brooks-Bertram, Dr. P.H., Ph.D.- co-founders of the Uncrowned Queens Institute for Research and Education on Women at the University of Buffalo. A week after the general elections, the collaborators sent out an online call for women to “express their hopes and advice for Michelle Obama through letters, poetry and recipes.” Dr. McLaughlin, Chair of Interdisciplinary Studies and Professor of Women’s Studies, English and Cross-cultural Literature; joined hundreds of intergenerational and culturally diverse women in submitting contributions. She was one of a select group of 100 contributors chosen.
Dr. McLaughlin had penned an original poem to President-Elect Barack Obama upon his victory, “The A-B-Cs of Barack Obama,” but decided that prose would better suit her message for Michelle Obama. Her inspiration was drawn from the campaign speeches given by Mrs. Obama and Obama’s interviews from 2007 through 2008. In a letter to the new First Lady, entitled “‘Mom-in-Chief’: Michelle Obama, Mother of the Nation,” McLaughlin contends that Michelle is a reflection of the “hope that the present has brought us.”
Go Tell Michelle is set for release on January 15th and published by SUNY Press/Excelsior Editions (Albany, N.Y.).