Michele Norris
speaker
715 appearances
2 recordings
1 series
first heard Jun 2026
last heard 20 Jun
Michele Norris’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 2 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 2.
Appearances
I was on that committee and got a firsthand look at the thinking behind the exhibits, the architecture, and the commitment to create a campus that served the surrounding community.
Today, the Obama Presidential Center is more than a museum or a space for archival study.
The $850 million campus has a regulation-sized basketball court, an auditorium and performance space, a recording studio for creators.
And since Barack Obama worked as a community organizer in this same neighborhood...
It's not surprising to see that the center also has classrooms and meeting spaces for workshops and organizing.
There's a teaching kitchen and a fruit and vegetable garden, a flourishing beehive that's part of a sustainable ecosystem, barbecue grills dot the walking paths.
There's also a brand new branch of the Chicago Public Library and a children's playground.
That equipment has been stress-tested by the president himself.
The Obamas want this place to be a community hub, a place for kids to frolic in a fountain when it's hot, the water terrace is named for his mom, Stanley Ann Dunham, or come in from the Chicago cold to check out a book or just hang out in a comfortable chair under the artwork in the lobby.
a place where families could picnic or where tourists might enjoy a meal in the restaurant.
Almost every space on this campus is open to the public, much of it free of charge.
It is designed to be a magnet for people to meet and gather.
and organize.
This is the humility of Barack and Michelle Obama.
The permanent exhibit in the museum could have opened with memorabilia from Barack Obama's childhood or his early life in politics or a list of his accomplishments in office.
Instead, it begins with our nation's founding contradictions.
The Declaration of Independence spoke of universal equality in a country that also institutionalized slavery.
Our nation was rooted in the right to vote, but not for all.
Unalienable rights, but not for all.
Progress for some, alongside poverty for many.
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