This morning First Lady Michelle Obama celebrated Black History Month and welcomed 80 middle and high school students from the DC area and New Orleans to take part in an interactive student workshop with the cast and crew of the film Beasts of the Southern Wild.

FLOTUS @ 2010 State of the Union Address

Courtesy of the White House Press Office ...

Dr. Jill Biden

Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor to the President

 The following individuals will be seated in the box with the First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Biden at the State of the Union Address:

Sergeant Sheena Adams (Vista, CA)

Team Advisor & Lead Instructor, Female Engagement Team

A native of Kauai, Hawaii, Sergeant Adams joined the Marine Corps in 2003 and attended recruit training in Parris Island, S.C.  In 2010, Sergeant Adams joined the Female Engagement Team (FET) and was deployed to Helmand Province, Afghanistan from September 2010 to April 2011 in direct support of 1st Battalion 8th Marines in Musa Qal’eh District.  Sergeant Adams received her Combat Action Ribbon and Navy and Marine Corp Achievement Medal (second award) after successful completion of the deployment.  In September 2011, Sergeant Adams returned to 1st Marine Expeditionary Force Advisor Training Cell, as Team Advisor/Liaison and lead FET instructor, where she re-engineered the Period of Instruction for future FETs.

Alan Aleman (Las Vegas, NV)

DREAM Student

Alan Aleman was born in Mexico City, Mexico.  In high school, Alan watched his friends come of age – driving around town with their new licenses and earning some extra cash from their summer jobs at the mall.  Although Alan knew he could not do those things because of his immigration status, he was determined to get a good education.  Last year, when Alan heard the news that the Obama Administration was going to provide Deferred Action for undocumented youth like him to emerge from the shadows, he was one of the first to sign up.  Alan was among the first people in Nevada to get approved.  In that moment, Alan said, “I felt the fear vanish.  I felt accepted.”  Today, Alan is in his second year at the College of Southern Nevada.  He’s studying to become a doctor and he hopes to join the Air Force.  Alan is currently working at Hermandad Mexicana, where he is in charge of final review for DACA applications. 

According to the White House Press Office...

On Wednesday, February 13th, in celebration of Black History Month, First Lady Michelle Obama will welcome 80 middle and high school students from the DC area and New Orleans to take part in an interactive student workshop with the cast and crew of the film Beasts of the Southern Wild. Beginning at 11:00 AM ET in the State Dining Room, the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH) Executive Director Rachel Goslins will moderate a discussion about the film, its production, and the inspirational themes within it that students can apply to their own lives. Featured members of the cast and crew, including Quvenzhané Wallis, will share their experiences as well as answer student questions.

The workshop will stream live on www.whitehouse.gov/live.

Quvenzhané Wallis

According to the Daily Herald, Deerfield, Illinois Democratic Rep. Brad Schneider has reached out to Cleopatra Cowley-Pendleton, the mother of 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton, the King College Prep honors student and majorette who was shot to death in a Chicago park on January 29th.

For information on the upcoming State of the Union Address click here.

Before Hadiya’s murder I heard reports that there were request being made for President Obama to come to Chicago and make a speech addressing violence. I thought how is that going to help. Will the President’s speech erase decades of Jim Crow like segregation in Chicago? Will it heal a city suffering from the legacy of a Mayor named Daley? Will a speech from Obama help erase the legacy of crack cocaine as the children born addicted to the drug come of age and have children of their own? Will it reconstruct the State Street Corridor, that was once home to the largest housing project in the country, and give the city an opportunity to think critically about how it would place and/or acclimate people who existed in an almost subhuman subculture before they were nonstrategically dispersed throughout the city decimating once vibrant middle class neighborhoods?  

First Lady Michelle Obama wowed the crowd in a red Jason Wu gown and Jimmy Choo shoes tonight at the Commander-in-Chief Inaugural Ball. I must say this year's gown slays her 2008 choice. FLOTUS shows us once again why she is the First Lady of Fashion.

More photos after the jump.

MOW would like to wish First Lady Michelle Obama a Happy Birthday!