CHICAGO – It’s a funny thing.
As my wife and I recently toured the wonderful Obama Presidential Center on the south side of Chicago, which opened in June of this year, I kept comparing Obama’s message of hope and his reasoned approach to politics to the current administration in Washington.
After having spent a half hour or so tracing his Chicago roots and his early years in the White House, my wife turned to me and asked what I thought.
I’m a dual Canadian-American citizen who was born and raised in northern California, with a conservative but socially progressive judge as a father, and I twice voted for Obama to lead the U.S.
“It’s kind of depressing,” I told my wife. “Obama was so inspiring and carried himself so well. I worry the U.S. will never get back to the level of civility we had during those eight years.”
The Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. Jim Byers Photo
What about you, I asked.
“Well, you know me. I’m always the optimist. This gives me hope that the U.S. will have a course correction and return to some kind of normalcy.”
Whatever their approach to life, it’s fair to say that a visit to the Obama Presidential Center will stir the feelings of visitors.
As we strolled around the campus waiting for our morning appointment to arrive (ticketed), I saw dozens of people of all ages and colours lining up to have their photo taken beside a statue of Barack and Michelle Obama. I also walked past a bench where several women and a man were openly weeping.
A powerful place, indeed.
The center is located a few minutes south of downtown in the Jackson Park neighbourhood, not far from where Barack Obama lived and where Michelle Obama grew up
It’s an awkward looking obelisk that rises up out of the park with odd angles. From afar, I wasn’t terribly impressed.
Up close, however, the facade is almost a lacy design of delicate patterns that started to grow on me. If you go around the corner to the entry way and welcome plaza, you can gaze up and see a quote from speech honouring the 50th anniversary of the civil rights marches from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.
A display in the museum at the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. Jim Byers Photo
The center is made up of a museum, a forum building (free) and a branch of the Chicago library (also free).
I was told that tours at the center are sold out for the next few months, but there’s no charge to visit the forum, or to wander the grounds and take photos.
The main focus (entry is just $30 for adults) is the multi-storey museum, a multi-storey affair that traces Obama’s rise from humble beginnings in Hawaii to his days as a community organizer in Chicago and then to the most powerful political position on the planet.
There are fun photos of him as a boy, as well as Michelle Obama with her family in Chicago.
On one of the lower levels of the museum you can watch videos of him talking about his early days in the city, which he said were filled with mostly small victories. The displays quickly jump to his early days in Illinois politics and then his successful tangle with Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Party nomination for president in 2008.
One of the most poignant video clips, especially considering the times we live in, shows a woman talking to Republican presidential candidate John McCain. “He’s an Arab,” the woman tells McCain. The Senator from Arizona shakes his head. “No, he’s a decent family man citizen that I just happen to disagreements with on fundamental issues.”
Posing for a photo at the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. Jim Byers Photo
There are plenty of stories about civil rights and U.S. history, and Obamas’s time in office, including clips of Motown stars performing at the White House, and Paul McCartney singing “Michelle” to the Obamas at a special concert.
One of the cool things I didn’t know about in advance was the replica Oval Office from when it was a much less ostentatious place than it is today. Visitors can sit behind the president’s desk and have their photo taken.
When I was there, one cheeky fellow insisted on putting his New York Yankees cap on the desk, much to the chagrin of the Chicago resident snapping his picture.
The display of Michelle Obama’s dresses and clothing through the years are a big draw for many. My wife cleverly noticed how the height of her heels became gradually lower as time went by.
In addition to the fine displays of the Obama’s life, the museum has several dozen lovely, inspiring works of art, including the eight-storey high Uprising of the Sun, which combines painted marks, digital imagery, and abstract forms inspired by histories of struggle, resilience, and transformation.
The Sky Room at the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. Jim Byers Photo
The Nelson Mandela Sky Room is the architectural highlight, a top floor space that provides fabulous views of the city. The ceiling features a work of art called Sky of Hope, which features words drawn from Obama’s 2015 “You Are America” speech.
The words radiate out from the ceiling in dramatic fashion. The centre’s website says it’s a “culminating experience” designed as a “quiet space for reflection on the power of hope.”
Like I said, it’s a powerful place.
PRESIDENTIAL CENTER FACTS
The campus is made of three buildings, a branch of the Chicago Public Library, the forum and the museum. The first two are free. The forum contains an auditorium for live talks, poetry readings, musical performances and other events, as well as an atrium with commissioned artwork. There’s also a snack bar and a cafe, which is wildly popular. The public grounds feature the Women’s Garden, which is quite attractive, as well as a vegetable garden and a large lawn for picnics or a snooze in the sun. There’s also a playground, jogging paths and a hill for winter sledding. A short walk to the south is the 6,000 square foot Home Court facility provides athletic and community programming space, including NBA-sized basketball courts. Obama is a big basketball fan.
The Osaka Garden at Jackson Park in Chicago is quite close to the Obama Presidential Center. Jim Byers Photo
DON’T MISS JACKSON PARK
The Obama Center is in Jackson Park, a marvellous slice of south Chicago that’s very much worth your time. The park is a Frederick Law Olmsted design, which is as good as it gets for urban parks. We strolled along a path a little east of the Obama Center (maybe a five-minute walk) and took a bridge over to Wooded Island, where there’s a small but stunning Japanese park called Osaka Garden. A remnant of the World’s Fair, the garden contains beautiful ponds, a small waterfall, a perfect arching bridge, a koi pond, as well as flowers and sculpted bonsai trees. As we headed toward the bridge, an enormous blue heron flew past at great speed and gently landed near a tiny waterfall. The Yoko Ono “Sky Landing” sculpture, which features tall, delicate looking silver leaves rising out of the ground, is a lovely piece that marks her first permanent installation in North America. Jackson Park also is home to the Jackson Park Golf Course, which opened in 1899 as the first public golf course west of the Allegheny Mountains.
