SUNY Press is pleased to welcome you to the blog for Go, Tell Michelle! This book (which for expediency may be referred to as GTM from time to time) is a treasury of letters to Michelle Obama and is now available here and everywhere! It consists of very personal letters and poems, written by African American women from all ages and walks of life, who confess their often private fears and dreams, and acknowledge and remember the generations before who endured so much for so long.The story behind the book is inspiring and incredible. Shortly after this past November's election, the Uncrowned Queens Institute in Buffalo, New York, sent out a call across the country for African American women to share their hopes, fears, and advice with the new First Lady. Hundreds of letters and poems poured in, and SUNY Press published the book on a short schedule so it was available in time for the Presidential Inauguration. Word is that the First Lady herself now has a copy of the book, in fact.
We hope that this blog will become a place for members of the GTM network to keep in touch, to share their feelings about the book and about the First Lady, and to reach out to each other and expand the online community that is quickly growing around the book.
So to all those connected to the book, please continue to reach out to others and tell them about this extraordinary book and your role in bringing it to fruition. Tell them to join us here at the GTM blog and also at the GTM Facebook page for dialogue, news, and notes about the progress of the book as we continue to pursue broader media avenues and a response from Michelle.
In the meantime, here are a couple of letters to Michelle from the book. We'll post more over time. Enjoy!
“You are the song, you are the proverb, and you are the symbol of human dignity.”
“To you Michelle I take off my African woman hat from Cameroon, my motherland. You have given us African women the courage and the hope to move on and up. You keep your head high and hold your husband close to your heart. Keep praying my sister, you are the best. You have lived the dream of every ebony woman. Ride on sister, we are with you.”
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The contributors of this book bring to mind the collective thinking of women who see and hear the same voices. Reading this book the letters share a lot of inner thoughts of women who have not met each other but share a lot in common. They see themselves in the first lady Michelle Obama, they feel her spirit, watch her grow in the public's eyes and all these women want to do is protect her from the harsh realities of life. The reality of being the first lady, the expectations and the temptation she would come across. In short the book is a loud prayer and advice bank from ebony women.
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