BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts.

Hello, I'm Tina Deheelie. You're listening to Beyond Today from BBC Radio 4.

A space to ask one big question about one big story.

Today, who is Michelle Obama?

The obvious answer is that she's one of the most famous women in the world.

She's adored, admired and respected globally.

She's funny, she's smart and she is the ultimate icon for me as a woman of color, but she's so much

more than the wife of the first black president of the United States.

There's a lot we already know about her, like her focus on public health,

LGBT rights and girls education which in fact brought her to an inner city school in London.

But there's still a lot we don't know.

And for the first time, she's telling her story in her own words

with her new book, Becoming.

You can listen to Michelle reading it on BBC Sounds, but we thought we'd like to bring

you a few of our favourite moments.

Charmin Lovegrove is a publisher based in London who specializes in work by B. A. M. E. and LGBT-Q-plus writers.

And she wanted to tell us why the former first lady means so much to her.

I thought it was really important when Michelle and Barak Obama, their whole campaign around hope and what that really meant and I think that that's the signifier for

me as a black woman was hope and dreams and if you dream big and if you hope for it all then it can all come to you.

I walked on to the stage stepping into the blinding lights wearing high heels and a white suit to give Barack a congratulatory

hug before turning to wave with him at the whipped up audience.

There is not a liberal America and a conservative America.

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