AUSTIN, Texas — Former First Lady of the U.S. Michelle Obama is among the newest list of speakers announced for South By Southwest (SXSW), which starts on Friday.
Obama will be joined by her brother, Craig Robinson, for a featured session on March 13 at 1 p.m.
“Michelle Obama has long been an inspiration to us at SXSW and to millions of people around the world,” SXSW President and Chief Programming Officer Hugh Forrest said. “Her belief that we lift each other up by sharing our stories with one another is a core part of the SXSW experience and a key catalyst in helping creative people achieve their goals.”
Obama was first lady from 2009 until 2017, during the presidency of her husband, Barack Obama. Since leaving the White House, the couple has stayed in the public light with various media endeavors.
In 2018, Obama released her memoir, “Becoming,” which spent over 130 weeks on the New York Times Bestsellers list, sold more than 17 million copies worldwide and won a Grammy Award. The film “American Factory,” which was the first produced by the couple’s media company, Higher Ground, won the Academy Award for Best Documentary in 2020, and The Michelle Obama Podcast, which she launched in 2020, was the most successful original in Spotify history, bringing in more women listeners over 40 than any other podcast.
Robinson is the executive director of the National Association of Basketball Coaches and host of the Higher Ground-produced podcast Ways To Win. From 2017-2020, he served as the vice president of Player Development and Minor League Operations for the New York Knicks, and prior to that served as the head men’s basketball coach at Oregon State and Brown.
In addition to Obama, SXSW added a handful of other high-profile featured speakers to its conference lineup, including Tom Morello, Bryan Johnson, Lars Ulrich, Ben Stiller, Eddy Cue, Holly Herndon, Zane Lowe, Ayanna Pressley, Priscilla Chan, Shreya Murthy, Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Rodriguez.
The full SXSW schedule can be found here, while registration for the event can be found here.