Novem Life, Yo!

The Chicago Beauty and Novemette of the Month for November 2008 is a woman who was born and grew up on the South Side of Chicago, graduated from Princeton University and Harvard Law School. After completing her formal education, she returned to Chicago and accepted a position with the law firm Sidley Austin, and subsequently worked as part of the staff of Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, and for the University of Chicago Medical Center. She and her brother skipped the second grade. By sixth grade, she joined a gifted class at Bryn Mawr Elementary School (later renamed Bouchet Academy).

She attended Whitney Young High School, Chicago’s first magnet high school, where she was on the honor roll four years, took advanced placement classes, was a member of the National Honor Society and served as student council treasurer. She was a high school classmate of Santita Jackson, the daughter of Jesse Jackson and sister of Jesse Jackson, Jr. She graduated from high school in 1981, and went on to major in sociology and minor in African American studies at Princeton University, where she graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in 1985.

At Princeton, she challenged the teaching methodology for French because she felt that it should be more conversational. As part of her requirements for graduation, she wrote a thesis entitled, “Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community.” She obtained her Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School in 1988. While at Harvard, she participated in political demonstrations advocating the hiring of professors who are members of minorities. She met Barack Obama when they were among very few African Americans at their law firm and she was assigned to mentor him while he was a summer associate.

The legacy of this beautiful woman is not marked by runways, or fashion shows. Rather, in May 2006, Essence magazine listed her among “25 of the World’s Most Inspiring Women.” In July 2007, Vanity Fair magazine listed her among “10 of the World’s Best Dressed People”. In September 2007, 02138 magazine listed her 58th of “The Harvard 100″, a list of the prior year’s most influential Harvard alumni. She often wears clothes by designers Calvin Klein, Oscar de la Renta, Isabel Toledo, Narciso Rodriguez, Donna Ricco and Maria Pinto (how can we get her in a shirt).

Even James Brown himself said, and I quote

This is a man’s world, this is a man’s world
But it wouldn’t be nothing, nothing without a woman or a girl

You see, man made the cars to take us over the road
Man made the trains to carry heavy loads
Man made electric light to take us out of the dark
Man made the boat for the water, like Noah made the ark

This is a man’s, a man’s, a man’s world
But it wouldn’t be nothing, nothing without a woman or a girl

This months Chicago Beauty and Novemette of the Month is none other than, President-Elect Barrack Obama’s wife, the future First Lady of the United States, foxy, phenomenal, and flawless…

Michelle LaVaughn Obama

———
Mr. Menace