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In writing her memoirs, former first lady Michelle Obama said that she wanted to share a complete picture of her life, as she wanted her readers and followers to see how the ups and downs shaped her character and put her on her way.
She did not let her husband read the rough draft; she did not let friends go around chapters until it was over. What emerged was a new image of herself.
"I finally argue that my story is the quintessence of American history," she told an audience of 14,000 sold-out spectators at the United Center on Tuesday night. "Yes, I am black Yes, I am a woman and yes, I grew up in the working class and my parents could not finish their studies.
"How dare anyone tell me that I do not like my country?"
Long before the old first lady stepped onto the stage for the first leg of her much-anticipated book tour, the crowd had gathered.
They slipped inside 57th Street Books in Hyde Park on Monday night to collect their ordered copies at midnight. They gathered before sunrise on Tuesday for a recording session resembling a rally. Obama has spent some of his time with his older brother, Craig Robinson, at the South Shore Cultural Center.
They dubbed the sidewalk of South Woodlawn Avenue on a freezing cold Tuesday for the chance to have their books signed by the seminar co-op.
READ MORE: Fans wait hours for the signing of Michelle Obama's book at Hyde Park: "It's history"
Tuesday night, the United Center was electric. Outside, people took pictures in front of the billboards, wrapped in their coats, some holding their books in their arms. A man was wearing his Obama – bright orange coat with Obama written in big white letters on the front. When a photo montage of family photos was displayed on the screen, the crowd started cheering and applauding.
Inside, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson and Chuck Brown escaped from speakers as Obama supporters rushed to sit down. Video montages have played for the growing audience
The title attraction? Obrah Winfrey interview with Obama.
In the past, Obama appeared measured and disciplined when he appeared in public, delivered speeches or gave interviews. But Tuesday night, Obama did not seem to restrain himself.
"If a memoir speaks about the truth, then I say it," she said. "Having the opportunity to reflect on one's life is a luxury. It was a real healing for me to look into my life and understand how all those little stories that seem meaningless" have value, she said.
And so she spoke in detail about her last day at the White House and how she could not bring herself to continue smiling at Donald Trump's inauguration.
While she and her family fled Washington, Michelle Obama sat in the plane and cried, she told the public at United Center.
It was a moment she had forgotten to put in the book, she told Winfrey, but as she had been thinking about their last day, she remembered the last wave of emotions.
"When I got on the plane, I think I cried for 30 minutes," she said. "I think it was just the release of 8 years trying to do everything to perfection." I told Barack: "It was so difficult, what we just to do, it was so difficult. ""
While she was on stage at the inauguration of Trump, Obama admitted that she could not force herself to smile.
"Something in me, I could not do it," she says. "I'm usually better than that … but it was difficult."
Michelle Obama's book review: an old first lady says her story in "Becoming" "
From the moment Obama announced on social media that she had finished writing her memoirs, the anticipation was built. Thousands of her fans across the country have paid between $ 29 and $ 2,500 for the former first lady to discuss her memories and reflections with her closest friends in stadiums, including in New York City. Dallas, Washington DC and Phoenix.
But even preparing for the United Center event was a carefully orchestrated blitz. Critics of the book were published with synchronized synchronization, followed by special issues of magazines and an hourly television show.
In Chicago, Obama began his tour of the city with a conversation with 20 teenage girls at his high school, Whitney Young Magnet High School. Successful novelist Tayari Jones went on social media to publish images of a meeting of a reading club organized by Obama and which included the television producer Shonda Rhimes, the reporter Michele Norris and writers Jacqueline Woodson and Elizabeth Alexander. And then, Obama issued a letter about his love for the South Side in the Chicago Defender.
But there was little doubt that the main event was.
READ MORE: Michelle Obama delivers a message of resilience to her mother alma Whitney Young: Tell your story »
As the show drew near, Beth Winer struggled to find her seats with dizzying nervousness. She did not expect Obama to go beyond what she wrote in her book, but she wanted to hear everything, in person, at Obama's voice, did she say.
"It will reinvigorate everyone," said Winer of Lincoln Square. "She's going to send excited people of this stage about change and their identity, we'll get to know her a little more as a person and understand how she became what she is."
Winfrey lost little time warming the crowd.
"You're wearing your best clothes, I'm going to meet Michelle-Obama's clothes," Winfrey said at the opening.
She joked with the audience when it opened. "Some of you got your ticket and then you said," Who am I going to take with me? Who deserves it, "she said.
"I see some men awake here," Winfrey added, laughing.
Finally, Obama has come on stage. She came out casually, dressed in a glittering white blouse that hung on her shoulder, as she looks on the cover of her book. There was a standing ovation from the crowd.
Winfrey asked how life was in the White House. "I describe it as living in the most chic hotel," Obama said. And she explained that even if the family lived there for free, she was charged a fee.
"A lot of people think … taxpayers pay for it, yes, you do not pay rent … but you get an invoice," she said. But as the public began to moan with pity, Obama, still dull, stopped them. "It's not a" Aww, we lived in the White House, "she said." You pay for your food, you pay for your guests … we have the bill. "
As the big event approached, Obama's supporters, like 28-year-old Alex Hofmann, seemed both to adore and absorb.
"It helps us capture the feeling of a happier and more inspiring time," said Hofmann, who spent nearly three hours in the cold Tuesday to get a glimpse and buy a book directly to Obama at the bookstore from Hyde Park. "She is a model of decency. I am all the more grateful that she has not forgotten her roots here in Chicago or in the South District. "
Twitter @lollybowean
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