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Later, awed guests shook hands with the Obamas against the
backdrop of a colorful, 38-foot-tall painting depicting a map of
Chicago stretching to the ceiling, inspired by Carl Sandburg’s
1914 poem about the city: “stormy, husky, brawling, City of the
Big Shoulders.”
“It was perfect. It was great,” said 18-year-old Houefa
Agassounon from Chicago after the surprise visit from the Obamas.
“I was literally crying. I asked for a hug and everything.”
She wrote a letter to the Obama Foundation last year, asking if
she could be there when it opened. She said meeting the Obamas
was a bonus.
“This is just the greatest thing of my 18 years of life,” she
said.
The Juneteenth opening followed a star-studded dedication
ceremony where the Obamas gave rousing speeches to an audience
including three former presidents, their former first ladies,
and a host of politicians, A-list celebrities, musicians,
athletes and others. Thousands more joined the livestream from a
nearby park.
A weekend of events is planned for the sprawling campus on
Chicago's South Side near where the Obamas lived and began his
political career. It is adjacent to the Griffin Museum of
Science and Industry in the lakefront park, and not far from the
University of Chicago.
Tickets for the general public are sold out through the end of
November. But those lucky enough to score them for the first day
got the unexpected thrill of meeting the Obamas themselves.
The campus includes a towering museum that covers the political
and personal realms of the nation’s first Black president and
first lady, while public spaces include a branch of the Chicago
Public Library, a playground and athletic center, basketball
courts and a picnic area with grills.
The tower’s design is meant to depict four hands coming together
in solidarity. Wrapped around one side are 5-foot tall concrete
capital letters, an excerpt of Obama’s 2015 speech commemorating
the 50th anniversary of the Selma-to-Montgomery march. It
begins, “You are America.”
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