Inhabitant of Altgeld Gardens
Audio Slideshow: Altgeld Gardens Has High Hopes of Obama
On the day after Barack Obama’s victory in the 2008 US presidential elections, NPR reporter Linda Paul and photographer Richard Cahan visited Altgeld Gardens, one of the places Obama planted his Chicago working roots. Altgeld Gardens is the most remote of Chicago’s public housing developments. The collection of two-story brick row houses was built for returning World War II veterans. It's ringed by a polluted Calumet River, aging landfills and a sewage treatment plant. People worry about pollution, crime and finding a job. But on the day after the election, what everyone there was talking about was Barack Obama—and what was to come.
Centers for New Horizons, Chicago
Community organizer Johnnie Owens currently works for Centers for New Horizons, located on the South Side of Chicago in the historic Bronzeville community. The organization’s mission is to help develop the capacities of families to become self reliant, to improve the quality of their lives and to help them participate in the rebuilding of their community. The Centers’ programs are: Community Building, Employment Services, Foster Care and Adoption, Provider Services, Senior Services, Youth Development, and Early Childhood Education. This short video clip is one of three public service announcements to the Bronzeville community. More information at www.cnh.org.
„A More Perfect Union“: Obama’s speech on race
Throughout his presidential campaign, Barack Obama scrupulously avoided the topic of race, both regarding his own skin color and US race relations in general, in order not to alienate white voters by coming across as a “black” candidate. At the peak of the controversy over his former pastor Jeremiah Wright, however, who had labeled the US as racist and unjust in several of his sermons, Obama felt he had to confront the issue of race in America in a fundamental way. In his powerful 40-minute speech “A More Perfect Union”, delivered on 18 March 2008 in Philadelphia, Obama gave an intensely personal and at times emotional account that tackled black anger, white resentment and the legacy of slavery. The speech, which was quickly labeled historic by some commentators, became a hit on YouTube, where more than seven million people have watched it to date.
Musician and poet Cheo Solder,
© Cheo Solder
About the poetry by Cheo Solder
Read some of Cheo Solder’s poetry that will be performed (words and music) at the event. “False Dawn” is a prayer for Barack Obama written after he accepted the nomination from the Democratic Party to run for President. The poem is intended as a warning to African Americans that Obama is not the “savior” they may have been looking for, but the President of the entire United States, who has not been elected to represent African Americans or their specific interests. “Elephants and Memories” addresses the personal responsibility of Blacks to represent themselves and to avoid the obvious traps that are laid every day in America, Black President or not. It talks about the ways in which African Americans have been programmed for self-destruction and what they must do to overcome it. “His Story” speaks to the plight of urban young black men all over the country, and “Requiem” explains the poet’s disdain for one of the most cherished African American art forms, the blues.
Jon Sass Live
Tuba giant Jon Sass performing live at the “Porgy & Bess” Jazz Club in Vienna, Austria (May 2009).
