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First lady goes with SXSW flow

Last week, POTUS came to SXSW. On Wednesday, it was FLOTUS' turn. After her husband appeared at the South by Southwest Interactive conference in Austin on Friday, first lady Michelle Obama arrived in town on Wednesday morning, and on the day her husband was back in Washington introducing a new Supreme Court nominee, she

AUSTIN, Texas _ Last week, POTUS came to SXSW. On Wednesday, it was FLOTUS' turn.

After her husband appeared at the South by Southwest Interactive conference in Austin on Friday, first lady Michelle Obama arrived in town on Wednesday morning, and on the day her husband was back in Washington introducing a new Supreme Court nominee, she brought along Missy Elliott, Queen Latifah, actress Sophia Bush, and songwriter Diane Warren for her keynote to SXSW Music in support of her Let Girls Learn global education initiative.

The first lady's SXSW appearance launched the website 62milliongirls.com - its name reflects the 62 million school-age girls worldwide who are not being educated - and the initiative's would-be anthem in the FLOTUS-commissioned, Warren-penned "This Is for My Girls," a charity fund-raising tune featuring Zendaya, Kelly Rowland, Lea Michele, Kelly Clarkson, Janelle Monae, and Jadagrace, as well as Beyoncé teenage proteges Chloe and Halle, who opened the show Wednesday morning. The first lady said all proceeds would go to the Peace Corps' Let Girls Learn international fund.

The event was structured as a panel discussion, with Queen Latifah leading and each of the panelists telling personal stories about transformative moments on their paths to empowerment. "As artists, when we have been given vision, we need to speak," said Elliot. "All hope is not gone because somebody told you you couldn't do something. Nobody becomes anything without a struggle."

Michelle Obama told the audience in the packed ballroom and the streaming SXSW.com audience about the kidnapping of more than 200 girls by the Nigerian terrorist organization Boko Haram in 2013 as a flashpoint.

"Just that sense of anger and unfairness and iniquity," said the first lady, who later, at Queen Latifah's prompting on the subject of her time left in the White House, broke into a chorus of Boyz II Men's "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday."

(She also answered a favorite-album question from the audience with Stevie Wonder's Talking Book. "I played that album over and over and over. And then Songs in the Key of Life came out -.")

"It starts with something that moves you personally," she said about her commitment to Let Girls Learn. "And for me, 62 million girls not getting an education, that's personal."

Queen Latifah, who advised conferencegoers to "find your passion, turn it into action," closed the show by asking FLOTUS the questions she said were the two that most people had asked her to pose: What will she miss the most? And will she run for president?

Short answers: Working with young people. And no - though she will continue championing causes she's advocated in the White House.

"One reason for that is I have these young people at home," she said, referring to daughters Sasha and Malia. "And they've handled it with elegance and grace. But enough is enough."

ddeluca@phillynews.com

215-854-5628@delucadan

www.philly.com/inthemix