PRH launches three-day festival to celebrate Obama at the O2

Penguin Random House is partnering with the Black Girl Festival to create a free three-day event at Canada Water Library celebrating Michelle Obama’s memoir Becoming (Viking) and her second live appearance to accompany it in the UK next month.

The ‘BGF x Becoming Festival’ will run from 9th-11th April at the Canada Water Library in Southwark, ahead of Obama's return appearance in London on 14th April at the O2 Arena. Aimed at age 11 and upwards, the preceeding three-day festival will offer poster-making workshops, “bite size history lessons” on Black British feminism, creative writing workshops, as well as “conversations between rising stars within the creative industries”.

More details on the line-up will be announced soon with booking for the free festival essential due to a limited number of places.

The former First Lady’s will appear at the O2, with a capacity of 20,000, for her much-anticipated second live event to discuss her memoir, ‘Becoming: An Intimate Conversation with Michelle Obama'. Tickets for her first live appearance in the UK, on 3rd December at the Royal Festival Hall, sold out within minutes.

Becoming was published by Viking on 13th November and since sold 614,268 copies, for £9.06m, according to Nielsen BookScan. The audiobook, read by Obama, was the fastest ever selling PRH audiobook on publication and has been its biggest selling audiobook of 2019, the publisher said.

The Black Girl Festival is an arts and culture event celebrating Black British women and girls, founded by writer Paula Akpan and producer and consultant Nicole Crentsil in 2017. It includes curated talks, workshops and masterclasses offering insights across a range of industries.

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