Michelle Obama News

The New York Guitar Festival and Arts Brookfield will present "Memphis Minnie: In Search of the Hoodoo Lady," a free, outdoor concert celebrating the life and music of influential blues guitarist Memphis Minnie. The Saturday, June 1st, 7pm event will be held at Brookfield Place's Waterfront Plaza in lower Manhattan.

Priya Swaminathan and Tonia Davis, co-heads of Higher Ground Productions, President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama's production company in partnership with Netflix, today announced the company's initial slate of upcoming projects. The content encompasses a wide range of fiction and non-fiction signature productions for all audiences including scripted, unscripted and documentary series, as well as full-length features and documentaries.

It was announced today Steve Silver's Beach Blanket Babylon-a beloved San Francisco institution and the longest running musical revue in the world-will give its final performances on Tuesday, December 31, 2019 (New Year's Eve). Upon its closing, the show will have played a record-breaking 17,216 performances. 

Seven Performers enter, a Pianist is introduced. Set to the backdrop of the history of the Great White Way from past to present, and set to a gut punching-hilarious score based off of one of the greatest musicals to date Spamilton took off full speed ahead. From hilarious lyrics devised by the great minds behind Forbidden Broadway, and including a Lin-Manuel look a-like the audience experienced 90 minutes of unadulterated laughter, song, and dance.

SHOWTIME will premiere the second season of its animated comedy series OUR CARTOON PRESIDENT on Sunday, May 12 at 8 p.m. ET/PT, and will feature an animated appearance from Queer Eye's Jonathan Van Ness. Additionally, SHOWTIME has released the official key art and trailer for season two, which will consist of 10 half-hour episodes.

Sesame Workshop today announced that former First Lady Michelle Obama will accept the Joan Ganz Cooney Award, named for Sesame Street's creator, at the nonprofit organization's annual benefit dinner on May 29. This event celebrates Sesame Street's landmark 50th anniversary year.

Today, YouTube premiered “BookTube,” a learning special featuring Mrs. Obama sitting down with a panel of top YouTube Creators to discuss her memoir 'Becoming.' The YouTubers include Jouelzy, Ariel Bissett, Kat O'Keeffe, Jesse George and Franchesca Ramsey.

Berklee President Roger H. Brown will present three-time Tony and Grammy-Award winning Alex Lacamoire (B.M. '95,), award-winning actor and 10-time Grammy-Award winning musician Justin Timberlake, and five-time Grammy-Award winning Missy Elliott with honorary Doctor of Music degrees at Berklee College of Music's commencement ceremony, Saturday, May 11, at the 7,000-seat Agganis Arena at Boston University.

The Better Brothers Los Angeles (BBLA) in association with award winning actress/activist Sheryl Lee Ralph and her non-profit organization, The DIVA Foundation, are excited to announce that the award-winning director/producer Anthony Hemingway will round out this year's impressive list of award-winning honorees for the fifth annual Truth Awards. 

When Ellen Rowe was a young girl growing up in Ridgefield, Connecticut, there weren't many women making jazz music.   Through her success as a world-renowned jazz pianist, composer and pedagogue, she's spent the better part of the last 35 years trying to change that.  

Jack Paar paved the way for Johnny Carson who inspired the great David Letterman, topping the exclusive list of legendary talk show hosts... But get ready for them to get pawed off their pedestals by legendary kitty icon LIL BUB and her feline-tastic talkshow, Lil BUB's Big SHOW on Animalist (Discovery Network's exclusive YouTube channel). Over 13 star studded episodes and multiple live events, Lil BUB interviewed superstars like Michelle Obama, Andrew W.K., Whoopi Goldberg, and Jack McBrayer all while showcasing a different animal welfare organization in each episode!

Last week (week #22 of the 2018-2019 broadcast season), THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT (3.95m) beat both 'The Tonight Show' (2.42m) and 'Jimmy Kimmel Live' encores (1.49m) according to Nielsen live plus 3-day ratings. Over the last five weeks, THE LATE SHOW has delivered its top five live plus 3-day weekly audiences of the season and has delivered more than 3.5 million weekly viewers with 3-day lift every first-run week this season.

YouTube today announced a new learning special “BookTube,” that will feature a panel discussion with former First Lady Michelle Obama who will discuss her #1 national bestselling memoir Becoming. Best-selling author John Green, co-founder of YouTube channels vlogbrothers and Crash Course will lead the discussion alongside a panel of YouTube creators that includes Jouelzy, Ariel Bissett, Kat O'Keeffe, Jesse George and Franchesca Ramsey. The special will debut in March during Women's History Month.

Girl Rising, the nonprofit behind the global campaign for girls' education and empowerment, today released the trailer for the upcoming short film, Brave Girl Rising, which will debut on International Women's Day, 2019. The 20-minute film, written by a refugee, performed by a cast of refugees, and made in collaboration with refugees, is about how hope, love, and friendship can propel us beyond even the most bleak of circumstances. It tells the story of Nasro, a 17-year-old girl whose courageous drive to continue her education is inspired by the magical dreams of her mother and the sisterhood of her friends.  Brave Girl Rising will debut Friday, March 8, at https://girlrising.org/brave.

Playwrights Horizons (Artistic Director Tim Sanford, Managing Director Leslie Marcus) has announced that Carla R. Stewart (Broadway, National Tour, and Regional: The Color Purple) will play The Voice of the River in the world premiere production of Tori Sampson's If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must Be a Muhf**ka, directed by Obie winner Leah C. Gardiner (Born Bad) and choreographed by Raja Feather Kelly. Performances begin Today, February 15, and continue through March 31 in the Mainstage Theater at Playwrights Horizons (416 W 42nd St, New York, NY 10036). The production opens officially on the evening of Sunday, March 10.

The nominees for the 50th NAACP Image Awards were exclusively announced today at the Television Critics Association's (TCA) TV One's joint press conference with Derrick Johnson, President and CEO of the NAACP and Alfred Liggins, Chairman and CEO of TV One. The winners will be revealed during the Two-Hour LIVE TV special airing on TV One on Saturday, March 30, 2019.

Playwrights Horizons (Artistic Director Tim Sanford, Managing Director Leslie Marcus) has announced that Carla R. Stewart (Broadway, National Tour, and Regional: The Color Purple) will play The Voice of the River in the world premiere production of Tori Sampson's If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must Be a Muhf**ka, directed by Obie winner Leah C. Gardiner (Born Bad) and choreographed by Raja Feather Kelly. Performances begin Friday, February 15, and continue through March 31 in the Mainstage Theater at Playwrights Horizons (416 W 42nd St, New York, NY 10036). The production opens officially on the evening of Sunday, March 10.

What does a black Christian man and a white Jewish man have in common? Griffin Matthews, a black Christian man, and Matt Gould, a white Jewish man, are co-directors of a non-profit, co-writers of a docu-musical, and co-parents to a beautiful little boy. Their theatre piece WITNESS UGANDA (based on their non-profit UgandaProject) will begin February 8, 2019 at The Wallis. They took some time out of their combined multi-tasking to answer a few of my inquiries.

Edward R. Matthews, CEO of ADAPT Community Network, announced its 2019 ADAPT Leadership Awards Gala to take place on Thursday, March 14th, at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York City. The event will be hosted by Cara Buono, co‐star of the hit Netflix series Stranger Things, and Emmy‐ nominee for her role on Mad Men. The awards honor the accomplishments of extraordinary individuals and corporations who have made an impact on people with disabilities and have inspired others through their professional and charitable endeavors. The gala benefits the important ongoing programs and services of ADAPT Community Network. This year's honorees will be announced next month.

Long Beach Opera believes that discussions inspired by art should extend beyond the lobby of the theater. For this reason, LBO is using its 40th anniversary season theme, Justice, as a catalyst to present its brand new five-event series called Community Conversations February 9 through June 6.