November 4, 2008– (Obama responses/ephemera)

Just a thought—I have lived through 81 years, 15 Presidential elections and this is the year that hope prevails! I watched the miracle of Grant Park cherishing the fact that 4 of my grandchildren were there for me. love, grandma
I was walking around Astoria the morning after the election, unable to find a New York Times because they had sold out to souvenir-hunters who normally couldn’t go off-line long enough to buy an old-fashioned newspaper. As I searched increasingly remote newstands, I was dogged by the sense that Obama’s election reminded me of something I couldn’t quite put my finger on. A black family in the White House… hmmm….And then it came to me: a sit-com! A movie. As recently as fifteen, twenty years ago, the entertainment industry would have seen this as the premise of a comedy. The conceit would have been unnecessary to explain. I could see the titles. Cotton Goes to D.C. The Atwaters in Charge. The Black House. Even The Cosby Show, an actual program, was premised on the apparently funny fact the a black middle class family could experience the same problems as a white middle class family. That’s funny stuff. But a black family in the White House-once upon a time that would have had folks rolling in the aisles.
Will Blythe, writer, Astoria, New York

The catharsis of emotion I felt on November 4, 2008 bridged back 40 years to the ideal smashing years of the 60’s. I shared my formative teenage years with horrific disappointment as the deaths of John and Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King took place. I must have let go of the hope that America could, and would, get it right – ever. Like the memory of labor passing when a mother holds her baby for the first time, I spent the late night of Election night crying tears of the deepest and most profound relief I have ever known. He’s not even in office yet and It is all OKAY.
Tancy Ellis, RN Pediatric Nephrology, Omaha, Nebraska

And my father came from Kenya – that’s where I get my name.
Those words in Obama’s closing statement for the first debate sent a mild panic through his supporters. Jon Stewart said he should have brought up his white mother. But that sentence as much as anything sealed the deal for the old ladies in Florida. I wanted to hug him after that. He was facing 40 years of fear and racial division in Presidential politics head on.
Jim Finn, filmmaker, Troy, New York

New (pop)icon is born but in the intellect —
there is still more laziness than in the body!?!
Gregor Podlogar, poet, Ljubliaja, Slovenia

It was unforgettable. As the news unfolded that Obama was going to be elected president the news coverage shifted to Grant Park. I texted my children who were somewhere between Grant Park and their home in Wicker Park to encourage them to join history. Seeing all of the people and the incredible look in their eyes provided a rare view into the soul of America, an America that just elected its first black president. And my children were there. I will never forget their call to tell me after President Obama spoke.
Leonard Sommer, CPA, Omaha, Nebraska

I did not feel much till the next morning when I was walking to campus. It was different this morning. The feeling was right. But I couldn’t put my finger on it. Was it the fact that now George was on his way out? Or that our candidate was victorious? I think I fall more in line with the former sentiment. Michael Heim, student, Omaha, Nebraska

I knew November 4th, 2008 was going to be different from other days because at 6am I was walking around in the dark in North O with another white girl hanging door hangers on houses for GOTV. Any other day we would have been out place, but on that day we were met with smiles instead of suspicion. A woman on her stoop thanked us. It was extraordinary before Obama even won.
Hillary Sinn, studio assistant, Omaha, NE

I still don’t know that Obama’s victory means what everyone thinks or wants it to mean. But when I think about the fact that my parents and my one surviving grandparent are alive to see this, I’m heartened and want to stop being cynical at least for a day.
Gillian Rosheuvel, copywriter, Chicago

Obama took the stage in Grant Park and the thirty-foot televisions in Time Square went blank. Soon a hand-held black and white television transmitted the image, and a cell phone delivered audio from a television in Omaha. The group drew closer and closer. It was Armstrong’s first step, and Ali knocks down Frazier, but we were standing in the verdant landscape of a new America.
Daniel Wuebben, PhD Candidate, New York City

I felt a guilt-free pride with an impatience justified by urgency.
Mitch Bandur, humbolt park, record distributor, Chicago

this takes some of the hiss out of history, makes room for all in hallelujah, puts a load of those age-old blues back in the skies. on january 20th, the white house will be replete with rememory, full of future, and packed with present: equal parts joy and hard work, and enough of both to go around.
Evie Shockley, poet and English professor, New Jersey City, New Jersey

Well, I didn’t go to the rally, just spent the evening with some friends, going back and forth excitedly from the computer to the bottle to the tv as the state results poured in. But I do remember, after hearing McCain’s concession speech and then Obama’s victory speech, thinking I could almost hear the sound in the distance, if I just listened hard enough, of that violent thrashing and wailing and then finally the dull thudding boom (that Bill Hicks did oh so well) of the Elephant crashing to the ground.
Paul Grens, translator, Chicago, IL

The caged-in grandeur of Grant Park, November 4th, 2008, allowed a swarming cross-section of Chicagoans to become privileged, shoulder-spaced voyeurs, and I was there watching my neighbors watching me, smiling: obama. We all were smiling, swapping the same ecstatic air, savoring the nourishment that might fill our lungs, then veins, then brains for an engaging 4 years: obama.
Ryan M Wilson, landscape architect, Chicago

He’s right–we knocked on doors, we made calls, we took the bus to Iowa¬¬–but we didn’t do it for him. We did it because we needed to believe again that people could unite around our common ideals, and that hope could win out over fear. Yes, we can. Yes, we did.
Julie Froman, librarian, K – 8, Chicago

Watching Barack Obama,
thinking of John Brown, mouldering
150 years in his grave, up and antic
dancing,
more alive this day, than ever in his own.

No man walks on water
but a few make history
which, sometimes, is no less miraculous.
Bruce Olds, novelist, Chicago

I heard an good interview on WBEZ and with a mentor (I cannot
recall his name) of President-elect Obama, from his community
activist days. He was asked if we should thank him for shaping Mr.
Obama. His response was simple and poignant. He said, “No. The
city of Chicago deserves the credit.” Wow. I’ve always been a
proud Chicagoan, but now even more so.
Martin Murphy, photographer, Chicago

People standing atop port-a-potties, garbage cans, propped
up in trees to see, to hear, to celebrate together. What the word
“festive,” maybe even “freedom,” connotes without drugs, music, or too many cops.
Kristen Cox, Cultural Community Convener, Chicago IL

Obama’s victory began in Iowa. I was never prouder of my home state. The election of a person of color is more thrilling, even, than the rejection of right-wing Republicans, but both give me hope.
Marvin Bell, Iowa’s first Poet Laureate, Iowa City, Iowa

The air is filled with electricity, and we can all breathe a bit easier.
Adam, formerly of Atomix, but still residing in Chicago.

Led through the dawn of a new century kicking and screaming against the outsize shovels, pick axes and hand grenades their figureheads brandished on the other, the people finally came to rest in Chicago. The city was the world, and the people were the city, and their ultimate anticipation was palpable.
Todd Dills, Editor, Birmingham, Alabama

The election made me think that those of us here in Chicago have greater responsibility than we had the day before. We are responsible for making sense of this place which will have such an influence on national and international politics in the years to come. We are responsible for sharing stories about Chicago that re-enforce what we think is good, and articulate different depictions than those which get spread to then world. The policies which originated here and many of the thinkers and politicians who made them here, are going to have a huge influence on President Obama. Some great experiments might be taken from the labs of Chicago streets and adapted to the world stage, but some of those experiments might not be so good for the world stage. Do we want the US to be beholden to Mayor Daley? Do we want the US to have the same people planning national education and housing policies as we have had here? Let’s creatively think of the different ways in which we, as Chicagoans, have a greater responsibility to this country and world.
Daniel Tucker, Editor, Chicago

In those moments of grace where time stands still, and you have to remind yourself to breath, a miracle comes alive and you have to look into the eyes of another human being to believe it’s real. These are what you keep.
Pat Dodson, labor and delivery nurse, Stephenville, Texas

Communiqué from Chicago: Election 2008
11/2/08

There It Is

And if we don’t fight
if we don’t resist
if we don’t organize and unify and
get the power to control our own lives
Then we will wear
the exaggerated look of captivity
the stylized look of submission
the bizarre look of suicide
the dehumanized look of fear
and the decomposed look of repression
forever and ever and ever
And there it is

— Jayne Cortez

Hope is the thing with feathers and permanent marker. The word scrawled in big letters on the entrance of a school playground down the street, H O P E. This collection of stories with multiple narratives. We made it up.

Begin at the beginning. Chicago is a city of historical sparks. Flash to: May 1, 1867 a city-wide strike demanding the eight-hour workday; September 3, 1955 an open-casket funeral for teenager Emmett Till after his Mississippi lynching; August 28, 1968 an anti-war protest in Grant Park during the Democratic National Convention. The protesters assaulted by police in front of the Hilton Hotel and chanting “The whole world is watching. The whole world is watching.” On November 4, 2008, the whole world will be watching as Barack Obama gives his speech in Grant Park. We are told to register for online tickets and bring photo ID.

To participate in history is to acknowledge history is to celebrate history. The trial of the leaders of the ’68 DNC protests becomes a mixed up world of animation and archival footage in the recent film Chicago 10, written and directed by Brett Morgen. The Yippies look like superheroes. Abbie Hoffman’s hair fills the screen and Allen Ginsberg literally levitates himself. Satire is the main weapon and authority is lampooned by any means necessary. Does what we do make a difference?

The night of the first 2008 presidential debate David Dorfman and his dance company performed in Chicago. Dorfman described the inspiration for this piece, entitled underground:

“Although I was only 13 during the ‘Days of Rage’ in 1969, too young to be protesting in the Chicago streets, I remember being awed by the audacity of the Weathermen. Now I am interested in the legacy of the Weather Underground’s principles, and also in its foibles and its regrets.”

A dancer kneeled on the stage with fist in air, frozen in time. Others soon entered, examining the statue and asking “What’s that?” After some deliberation, the group realized that they had found an activist. One performer suggested “Hey, let’s make it do something.” So, the group began pushing their bodies up against the sole activist, helping him to stand up, helping him to move again. Suddenly, more people appeared on the stage and they too cheered for the activist who was now upright. We are reminded of possibility.

Last week the children at the local Boys & Girls Club organized a neighborhood peace march. They painted slogans on bright colored umbrellas and walked around together yelling “What do we want? PEACE! When do we want it? NOW!” In the autumn sun, they strutted past the community gardens, the murals, the gang members, the police, the condos, and the public housing. We know, there it is.

[for Studs Terkel: May 16, 1912 – October 31, 2008]
Jennnifer Karmin, poet and activist, Chicago

In this shift in American history, I am reminded that each step in a nation’s progress is a chance to reflect on steps taken to have achieved this progress. I am reminded of the Black forefathers who came here as slaves to have endured and endured the inhumane brutality of slavery, Civil War, Jim Crow Laws, the Civil Rights Movement for it to culminate into a Black President. Progress comes slow in America, but progress does come.
Dibya Phuyal, engineer, Chicago

Obama Mama
Baby, I don’t care when your due date is. I’m keeping my legs crossed until January 20th, 2009. That’s when, little one, I’ll be proud to say it and mean it and feel it: welcome to America.
Josie A.G. Shapiro, nonprofit development director, Chicago

With Barack Obama’s acceptance speech, we were fortunate witnesses to what should prove to be the most profound use of the English language in the 21st Century. We should all be sincerely grateful for having heard those words firsthand, and never forget those who longed and struggled to hear them, but aren’t here with us.
Scott Schafer, record label marketing director, Chicago