Remarks by the First Lady at the Gospel Music Student Workshop

East Room

11:04 A.M. EDT

MRS. OBAMA:  Well, looky here, look who we've got here.  How are you guys doing?

AUDIENCE:  Good.

MRS. OBAMA:  Are you excited?

AUDIENCE:  Yes!

MRS. OBAMA:  You a little nervous?

AUDIENCE:  Yes.  (Laughter.) 

MRS. OBAMA:  Okay, relax, shake it off.  (Laughter.)  Okay, you're just in the White House.  It happens all the time.  (Laughter.)   What have you all been doing since you got there?  Just waiting?  (Laughter.)  Didn’t you do something yesterday?  You shopped?  (Laughter.)  Walk -- a lot of walking?  That's good.  That's good.  Too much?  There’s no such thing as too much walking.  Let's Move -- you remember that?  (Laughter.)

Well, we're excited to have you here as we enjoy the latest edition of the White House Music Series.  Yay for us.  We're very excited.  (Applause.)   Today we are celebrating Gospel music.  And we have some wonderful singers and songwriters who are going to participate in this conversation.  We have Michelle Williams. (Applause.)  We have Lyle Lovette.  (Applause.)  We have Darlene Love.  (Applause.)  Rodney Crowell.  (Applause.)  And Rhiannon Giddens is here.  (Applause.) 

And to lead the discussion, my dear, dear friend, who is -- he is there for us through all of this -- Bob Santelli from the Grammy Museum.  Give Bob a hand.  (Applause.)

But most importantly, we have all of you.  You all are really the stars of this portion of the day.  This is my favorite part of the music, so, yes, give yourselves a hand.  Really.  (Applause.) 

We started doing these workshops because we work closely with the Grammy Museum.  They have a wonderful education and outreach initiative.  But you know we have this big concert tonight, and there are a lot of fancy people who are coming to see it.  They’re diplomats and rich people and -- (laughter) -- and they go in the East Room.  But we started thinking, well, when is there space for us to connect all these wonderful people to young people all across the country.  You all should have the opportunity to connect with some of these entertainers and artists that come and visit.

So, with the help of the Grammy Museum, we have always paired a workshop like this where we invite young people like you guys from all over the country to have an opportunity to talk about the music that we're focused on, to meet some of the artists that we get to hear from tonight.  Some of them do a little singing while they’re doing it.  So it's really one of the most important and one of the most exciting parts about the Music Series -- that we get to open this house up to you all.  And hopefully this experience feels special, because it's special for us.

We've got students here from Hawaii --

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Whoo!

MRS. OBAMA:  That's okay.  (Laughter.)  Shaka!  (Laughter.)  Let’s hear it!  Yes, hometown.

California.  (Applause.)  New York is here.  (Applause.)  Got a little Jersey in the house.  (Applause.)  Mississippi is here.  (Applause.)  Tennessee.  (Applause.)  And our backyard --- Maryland and Virginia.  (Applause.)  So, pretty good representation.

Now, over the past few years, we have discussed everything from country to soul to classical music here at these workshops. And I'm really thrilled that we're really focusing on Gospel.  It's something that I've wanted to do since we started, so we finally got it done.  Because this music, Gospel music, has really played such an important role in our country’s history.  It really has -- from the spirituals sung by slaves to the anthems that became the soundtrack of the Civil Rights Movement, and to the hymns that millions of Americans sing every single day in churches all across the country.

For so many of us, these songs are some of the very first melodies we ever hear.  That was certainly true for me.  I come from a very music-loving family.  My grandfather -- my maternal grandfather was a big, huge jazz collector from way back.  He used to wire his house for sound.  And he played jazz every single day, all day, 24/7.  And his sister, my Aunt Robbie, she was the director of the church choir, and so she taught piano lessons to a lot of the kids in the neighborhood.  And she taught those lessons in our home.  So I would hear music lessons every day.  My mother and some of her sisters were members of the church choir.

So those are some of the earliest memories for me of having exposure to music.  And it moved me so much that I wanted to start taking piano lessons at the age of 4.  I didn’t keep it up -- so I hope you all don’t follow my lead on that.  But it's important to me.  Gospel music is what fuels my love of music, in general. 

So I'm excited to be hosting this here.  And I know that for many folks across the country and around the world, there’s nothing like hearing a choir sing an old Gospel classic.  When you hear that music, it gets your feet tapping and your heart pumping.  It gets you ready and prepared to take in that sermon for the day.  It’s what helps connect us to God, to that Higher Power.  And for so many, when times are dark and when you’re struggling, Gospel music is that ray of hope and it gives you that strength.

And I know that that’s the role that Gospel music plays for so many -- because when you really think about it, we all are going to face some kind of struggle one day.  We all do.  No one on this stage is exempt from struggle.  We’re all up here because of some kind of struggle or dark thing we had to overcome.  And I hope that the folks up here will share some of their stories with you. 

But I’d like to take a moment just to share a bit of Darlene Love’s story right now, because Darlene got her first break back in 1962?  I may get dates wrong, but she sang the lead on the song called, “He’s a Rebel,” which was a song that went to the top of the charts.  But something that happened to her that happened to a lot of artists, a lot of African American artists, is that the producer released the record under someone else’s name.  And so nobody even knew that it was Darlene’s voice providing the power behind that song.

And even as Darlene went on to sing backup on some of the biggest hits in the ‘60s -- like “Chain Gang,” “Rockin’ Robin,” and “You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feeling” -- her name remained completely unknown -- which is the case for many backup singers and great singers alike.  They were unknown voices.  And as the years passed, her career slowed down, and by the early ‘80s, she was completely out of music and she was cleaning houses.  She was cleaning homes and working at a dry cleaning shop to get by.

But one day, while she was cleaning someone else’s bathroom, Darlene said she heard one of her songs on the radio, and that’s when it hit her that she needed to get back to her passion -- that she had gone so far away from what she cared about and what moved her -- that song woke her up.

So she started singing again.  She started singing on a cruise ship.  And then she wrote her own album.  And slowly but surely, she started getting more and more recognition for all those classics.  And they did a beautiful documentary of backup singers that I hope you all will see if you haven’t seen it.  But Darlene is featured in that documentary, which highlights all the amazing backup singers that make the music of our day.   And now she is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, finally earning her place among the legends.  (Applause.)

Now, hopefully you go even further into your story for these young people.  But one thing, one line I want to use that she quoted -- she said about her journey -- she said, “Anytime I got knocked back, I just looked at that as a hurdle I had to get over.”

And I share that with you because I want you all to know that you all have to prepare yourselves for those hurdles.  That’s the main thing I want young people who come through this house to understand, is that life is inevitably filled with hurdles.  You are going to fail, and fail big, a lot.  But the best way to prepare yourself for recovering from that failure is to get your education.  And I say that everywhere I go because if there is anything you all need to be doing right now, it's taking your education seriously.

And seriously means that every day you show up strong.  You go to class.  You do your work.  You get the best grades you can get.  You graduate from high school.  And you have to do more.  You have to go to college or go to a junior college.  You have to.  The jobs of the future are going to require you to be prepared.  You’ve got to get some advanced training if you don’t do that.  There are many paths you can follow, but you’ve got to make that happen for yourselves.

So if you’re passionate about anything -- whether it’s music, or business, or medicine, or rocket science -- school is your pathway.  Education is your pathway.  If it's music, you’ve got to have a fallback plan.

AUDIENCE MEMBER:   That’s right.  (Laughter.)

MRS. OBAMA:  Having a fallback plan helps.

But don’t get discouraged when you hit those hurdles.  And I'm sure many of you have already felt like you’ve hit some hurdles already.  But we all have done it.  And the power is your ability to recover and to be resilient.  That’s what makes people great.  It's not that they’ve just glided through without any form of struggle.  The people who are successful are the people who can get back up when they’re knocked down.

So don’t be discouraged.  Just keep working hard.  It is all hard work, but it is absolutely worth it.

And I hope that you learn from the folks on this stage.  That’s why we wanted them here.  We wanted to talk about the genre, but we also hope that you walk away a little more inspired to be as great as you can be.  Because we’re counting on you.  The President, First Lady, we’re all counting on you to take over that baton and to be the leaders of tomorrow.  And you all can do it.

So use this time here wisely.  Relax.  Get comfortable.  Ask a lot of questions.  Do not be shy.  This is your home, and we are all here because we believe in you.  This is the best part of the day, so take advantage of it.  Okay?  Don’t be shy.  All right?

Now, I have to go, because they make me work all day long.  (Laughter.)  So I'm going to turn it over to Bob and to all our performers and our entertainers and songwriters.  And I hope you guys have a terrific time.  Thank you for being here.  Keep working hard.  We love you guys.  (Applause.)

END                     11:16 A.M. EDT  

Prepared Remarks of First Lady Michelle Obama for White House Convening on Creating Opportunity for Native Youth

As Prepared for Delivery

Washington, DC

Good morning everyone, and welcome to the White House.  We are so thrilled to have you here today for our Generation Indigenous convening. 

I want to start by thanking Walter Isaacson and Senator Dorgan for their outstanding leadership and for the terrific work that they’re doing at the Aspen Institute.

And as for T.C – there really are no words to express how proud I am of this young man and how impressed I am by his courage, determination and maturity.  Barack and I were blown away by T.C. and by the other young people we met when we visited T.C.’s tribe, the Standing Rock Sioux Nation, last June.  And I want to start off today by telling you a little bit about that visit.

It began when we arrived in North Dakota, and as we left the airport where we’d landed, we looked around, and all we could see was flat, empty land.  There were almost no signs of typical community life, no police stations, no community or business centers, no malls, no doctor’s offices, no churches, just flat, empty land. 

Eventually, we pulled up to a little community with a cluster of houses, a few buildings, and a tiny school – and that was the town of Cannon Ball, North Dakota, which is part of the Standing Rock Sioux Nation.  And at that school, a small group of young people gathered in a classroom, anxiously but quietly waiting to meet with the President and the First Lady.

These teens were the best and brightest – hand-selected for this meeting – and after we all introduced ourselves, they shared their stories.

One young woman was in foster care because of substance abuse in her household.  She talked about how hard it was to be separated from her five siblings.  One young man had spent his high school years homeless, crashing on the sofa of his friends, even for a period living in the local community center.  Another young man had gotten himself into college, but when he got there, he had trouble choosing the right classes; he realized that he’d never been taught how to properly write an essay; and when family problems arose back home, he struggled to balance all the stress and eventually had to drop out.

And just about every kid in that room had lost at least one friend or family member to drug or alcohol-related problems, or to preventable illnesses like heart disease, or to suicide.  In fact, two of the girls went back and forth for several minutes trying to remember how many students in their freshman class had committed suicide – the number was either four or five…this is out of a class of 70. 

Just sit with that for a minute: four or five kids out of a class of 70 taking their own lives.

So these are the challenges these kids are facing.  This is the landscape of their lives.

But somehow – and this is what truly blew us away – somehow, in the face of all this hardship and all these tragedies, these kids haven’t given up.  They are still fighting to find a way forward, for themselves and for their community. 

After losing her classmates to suicide, one young woman started volunteering at a youth program to help other kids who were struggling.  One young man told us that when his family was struggling, he fended for himself for years, sleeping on friends’ couches until he was old enough to become a firefighter. 

And that young man who had to leave college?  Well, when he got back home, he discovered that his family problems were worse than he had thought.  He found that his stepmother was on drugs and his four younger brothers were wandering the streets alone in the middle of the night.  So at the age of 19, he stepped in and took over – and now, he’s back in college while raising four children all by himself.

And then there’s T.C. 

He was the last young person to speak that day, and after telling us his story – how he was raised by a single father, how he’s lost so many people he loves, how his family struggles to get by – he then said to my husband “I know you face a lot as President of the United States, and I want to sing an encouragement song for all of us to keep going.”

After everything these young people had endured, T.C. wanted to sing a song for us. 

So if you have any doubt about the urgency or the value of investing in this community, I want you to just think about T.C. and all those other young people I met in Standing Rock.  I want you to think about both the magnitude of their struggles and the deep reservoirs of strength and resilience that they draw on every day to face those struggles.  

And most of all, I want you to remember that supporting these young people isn’t just a nice thing to do, and it isn’t just a smart investment in their future, it is a solemn obligation that we as a nation have incurred. 

You see, we need to be very clear about where the challenges in this community first started. 

Folks in Indian Country didn’t just wake up one day with addiction problems.  Poverty and violence didn’t just randomly happen to this community.  These issues are the result of a long history of systematic discrimination and abuse.

Let me offer just a few examples from our past, starting with how, back in 1830, we passed a law removing Native Americans from their homes and forcibly re-locating them to barren lands out west.  The Trail of Tears was part of this process.  Then we began separating children from their families and sending them to boarding schools designed to strip them of all traces of their culture, language and history.  And then our government started issuing what were known as “Civilization Regulations” – regulations that outlawed Indian religions, ceremonies and practices – so we literally made their culture illegal. 

And these are just a few examples.  I could continue on like this for hours.

So given this history, we shouldn’t be surprised at the challenges that kids in Indian Country are facing today.  And we should never forget that we played a role in this.  Make no mistake about it – we own this. 

And we can’t just invest a million here and a million there, or come up with some five year or ten-year plan and think we’re going to make a real impact.  This is truly about nation-building, and it will require fresh thinking and a massive infusion of resources over generations.  That’s right, not just years, but generations.

But remember, we are talking about a small group of young people, so while the investment needs to be deep, this challenge is not overwhelming, especially given everything we have to work with.  I mean, given what these folks have endured, the fact that their culture has survived at all is nothing short of a miracle. 

And like many of you, I have witnessed the power of that culture.  I saw it at the Pow Wow that my husband and I attended during our visit to Standing Rock.  And with each stomping foot – with each song, each dance – I could feel the heartbeat that is still pounding away in Indian Country.   And I could feel it in the energy and ambition of those young people who are so hungry for any chance to learn, any chance to broaden their horizons. 

Even the smallest opportunity can make such a huge difference for these kids.  I saw that firsthand when Barack and I invited the kids we met in Standing Rock to come visit us at the White House.

They arrived one morning last November, and we showed them around, and took them out for pizza and burgers, and spent some time talking and laughing and hanging out.  Altogether, their visit to the White House was just one day long, but as we hugged each of those kids goodbye, one young woman said to Barack, “This visit saved my life.”

And given the odds these kids face, I don’t think she was exaggerating.  So if we take a chance on these young people, I guarantee you that we will save lives.  I guarantee it.

So we all need to work together to invest deeply – and for the long-term – in these young people, both those who are living in their tribal communities like T.C. and those living in urban areas across this country. These kids have so much promise – and we need to ensure that they have every tool, every opportunity they need to fulfill that promise.

So I want to thank you for your commitment to their futures and for everything you have already done for their communities.  I want to thank you for coming here today to learn more about Generation Indigenous and how you can help.  And I look forward to seeing the extraordinary impact that you all will have in the years ahead.

Thank you so much, and God bless.

East Wing Announcement

The White House today announced that White House Social Secretary Jeremy Bernard will be stepping down from his post next month following the Japan State Dinner. His replacement will be announced in the coming weeks.

Statement from Mrs. Obama:

“For the last four years, Jeremy has worked tirelessly to open the doors of the White House to as many people as possible and to make each and every event in the White House one to remember, not only for Barack and me, but for the tens of thousands of guests who pass through our doors each year.  I was lucky to have such a talented individual on my team, and I am equally lucky to have made a lifelong friend in Jeremy. Jeremy will be missed, and Barack and I wish him the very best in all of his future endeavors.” 

Statement from Jeremy Bernard:

“It has been an honor to serve the President and Mrs. Obama as Social Secretary for the last four years.  From State Dinners to Student Workshops to celebrating the holiday season, Mrs. Obama has welcomed every guest to the White House with her signature warmth, grace and style.  I feel so privileged to have worked for such an extraordinary President and First Lady.”