TIME Writer Shares How it Felt to Interview the First Black President of the U.S.
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Imagine being approached by your boss and asked if you could interview the President of the United States. On February 29, Maya Rhodan walked into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and had the opportunity of a lifetime to interview our nation’s first Black President and the first Black principal dancer for the American Ballet Theatre. Can we say #GOALS?
Nervous, anxious, yet ecstatic for the opportunity, this Howard grad had a moment she’ll always remember. “You always hope you would one day be on TV talking about your work. It didn’t come across my mind, my goal everyday is to tell the news and I’m so grateful my editors believed that I would do a good job!” Maya exclaimed.
The opportunity to interview POTUS came about when the White House considered TIME’s pitched to do a non-traditional interview. When approached about the opportunity, Maya felt a variety of emotions. “I’m scared to do this but I didn’t want my nerves to get in the way of the opportunity. I’m definitely going to take the opportunity and run with it. I thought of it as my ‘Oprah moment’,”Maya shared. Once she was asked to do the interview, she immediately started brainstorming her questions. “It was a challenge coming up with questions and make them a collective unit, because they wanted it to be more of a conversation than an interview,” she added.
Maya led an impressive and interesting dialogue with Misty and President Obama on race, what it means to be a barrier breaker and how they are using their position to empower the next generation. In the 30-minute conversation, Maya was able to show the similarities of the two powerhouses that she interviewed. “I really appreciated Misty Copeland’s openness about her experience with race. She revealed that she experienced racism subtly, because it was something that I was interested in getting both of them to open up about. I wish the President would of opened up a little more about that, but I appreciated her willingness to express her experience with race and the things she’s learned. I liked how the President talked about how he talks to young people about race and it kind of speaks to his own personal experience as a father. I also appreciated some of stuff that he wants to instill in children as a person in the position he’s in. It ended up being a very interesting conversation,” Maya shared.
After the interview was posted on TIME.com and ESSENCE.com, someone tweeted Maya and shared with her that they saw themselves in every minute of the conversation. “… that imagery is just as powerful than any work that they do. In an interview the President said that young boys look at him, and see that it’s possible to achieve what he’s achieved. I think the fact that all three of us were black, it kind of spoke to that in a completely different way. Not only could you be the President, if you aspire to be that, but you could also be the person that finds themselves in a position to where you are asking people in power questions – people in authority, and feel comfortable doing that no matter what your age is. It’s something that I didn’t think about going in, but it struck me like ‘wow this is a powerful image to see three black people in various positions of authority all having a conversation together.’ I hope that meant something to somebody.“
If you had the chance to interview President Obama, what would you ask him?
*Photo courtesy of TIME Inc.
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