9/6/26: Obama! A Day in Chicago (From Walmart City to the Windy City)

Before we left Bentonville, we strolled a bit and came upon “Making Change” — a cadillac that has thousands of nickels dimes and pennies glued on… It was built in 1962, apparently the same year Walmarts was founded in Bentonville. The inspiration came from the original Waltons five and dime which was founded in 1962. In that year, these new cadillac limos sold for $9,937; while the average cost of a new car was $2,500 and the average cost of a house was $15,000. The average income was $6,000. Gas was .25. Walmarts claims to save the average household $952 annually— so that’s the same dollar amount represented by the coins on the limo… Monica Mahoney is the artist.

After brunch and a quick walk through the Bentonville Farmer’s Market, we headed to the Bentonville Airport (paid for by the Walton family or Walmarts… and flew to Chicago. About 20% of the plane was filled with pilots and United staff headed to catch other flights in Chicago. We taxied to our hotel — the Millenium Knickerbocker which is located very close to the Lake and whefre Adrienne lives (in one of the Miis towers). But it is a far cry from the well-designed Compton Hotel in Bentonville. It was probably a grand hotel in its day, but thoe days are long gone! But, it’s convenient and we are only here for two nights. In fact, as I write this, I’m packing since we leave in the morning.

We had dinner at BOCA last night, and this morning Carol and I headed off by taxi to the South Side to visit the Obama Center, located near the University of Chicago campus. As most peopler have read, the reviews of the architecture are pretty bleak, and indeed it is (in my humble opinion) a rather inelegant monolith. But the design of the building’s exterior fades when you get inside. As we approached the building there was a long line. We figured it was the ticket holder’s line. But alas (and we were relieved to find out) it was the line to take selfies with the statue of Barack and Michelle (on the day of the first inauguration).

It was extremely powerful to go through the center. It was inspiring, nostalgic, and made you feel both hopeful and also totally upset about the current political situation. The majority of visitors were African American and I think there was a large percent of Chicago residents. There are four exhibition floors that are divided up thematically — Toward a Mote Perfect Union which focuses on Civil Rights history and the key figures who led those movements. There’s the floor that covers the 2008 campaign and the four years that follow and then the second campaign and the four years that follow.. But it’s not really a chronological exhibit with lots of timelines. It’s a very dynamic, visual (and auditory) splash that is comprised of large scale (some video images spanning about 50 or 60 feet tall). Most of it is video as opposed to static photography. Throughout there is narration, with Barrack as the main narrator, so much is in the first person. There’s great acknowledgement of Michelle’s role over 8 years. And everywhere people are trying to take photos of themselves next to images of Barrack or Michelle.

The 5th floor covers marriage equality and gender pay equity as well as science and technology work. There’s a life-sized Oval office replica where you can have your photo taken standing at the resolute desk.

In the Nelson Mandela Sky Room, which is on the top floor (8th) you get amazing views of the city and a trapezoidal skylight that is surrounded by overlaps of hand stamped words from Obama’s speeches honoring civil rights leaders. The room is surrounded by 5′ high words taken from a speech commemorating the anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery march. So you are looking out over the city through the letters and words of the speech. On one floor there is a wrap-around image (floor to ceiling) made of dots.. and the statement that “one dot doesn’t do much but together you’ve got a movement” and there are places for visitors to mark their own name and a few minutes later it shows up on that dot drawing and floats around the space.. representing that collective action can make change.

There’s one set of changing and immersive images that can be seen from the lobby all the way up to the fifth floor. And then ofcourse there are the requisite walls of buttons and memorabilia…

From there we made a quick stop to see Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House (which we’d seen before)… and then back to the hotel to meet up with Adrienne who took us on a little driving trip to see where she grew up in Rogers Park– her apartment house, her grandmother’s apartment house, her elementary school and her high school.

We then had a wonderful Lebanese dinner at Beity. Highly recommend it. OK.. that’s it for today. Tomorrow we begin our road trip to Des Moines with several quick stops along the way.