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  "path": "/wbez-newsletter/2026/06/04/the-rundown-the-obama-centers-democracy-lesson",
  "publishedAt": "2026-06-04T20:45:00.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.wbez.org",
  "textContent": "<p><i>Good afternoon! It’s Thursday, and today could be the warmest day of the year so far. Watch out for </i><a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://wgntv.com/weather/\" target=\"_blank\" ><i><u>possible storms</u></i></a><i> tomorrow. Here’s what else you need to know today.</i></p><p><a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.wbez.org/museums/2026/06/04/obama-presidential-center-democracy-exhibition-theme-louise-bernard-valerie-jarrett-art-history\" target=\"_blank\" ><b><u>1. The Obama Presidential Center delivers a lesson in democracy — and what it means to be a country in progress</u></b></a></p><p>The Obama Presidential Center is full of intriguing juxtapositions, starting with its address, columnist Natalie Moore writes for WBEZ. The site in tribute to the country’s first Black president sits on parkland named after a slave-owning former president.</p><p>Democracy is the throughline in museum exhibitions and programming, even as the nonpartisan organization behind the complex, the Obama Foundation, remains mum about the current White House administration.</p><p>“[Young people will] discover that ordinary people have the capability to do extraordinary things if they put their mind to it, through the stories that we tell of the history of our country, which has been really challenging at times,” Obama Foundation CEO Valerie Jarrett said. [<a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.wbez.org/museums/2026/06/04/obama-presidential-center-democracy-exhibition-theme-louise-bernard-valerie-jarrett-art-history\" target=\"_blank\" ><u>WBEZ</u></a>]</p><p>It’s been a long time coming for the $850 million presidential center, a sprawling concept first announced more than a decade ago, centered around the museum that chronicles the rise of Barack Obama from Chicago’s community organizing circles to the White House along with South Side-born first lady Michelle Obama.</p><p>The surrounding campus includes a playground, green space, sledding hill, public art installations, public forum, Chicago Public Library branch and athletic facility, among other attractions in the heart of historic Jackson Park. Up to 1 million visitors per year are expected. [<a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.wbez.org/parks-nature/2026/06/04/obama-presidential-center-opening-jackson-park-photos\" target=\"_blank\" ><u>Chicago Sun-Times</u></a>]</p><p><a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.wbez.org/health-medicine/2026/06/03/fired-nurses-voice-concerns-over-working-conditions-st-mary-of-nazareth-hospital-amidst-push-to-unionize-chicago\" target=\"_blank\" ><b><u>2. Fired nurses alleged retaliation for voicing concerns about conditions at St. Mary of Nazareth Hospital</u></b></a></p><p>Since Prime Healthcare acquired St. Mary of Nazareth and seven other area hospitals, several nurses at the Chicago hospital say conditions have deteriorated, prompting them to speak out and consider unionizing. They were fired soon after, my colleague Mohammad Samra reports for the Chicago Sun-Times.</p><p>Concerns include a disproportionate number of inexperienced nurses, cheaper supplies and staffing shortages. When staffers launched an effort to hold an election to unionize with National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United last month, at least six nurses were fired in what the union calls a “troubling pattern of going after experienced nurses who are advocating for their patients and coworkers.”</p><p>Registered nurses at St. Mary’s plan to hold a one-day strike on June 11, and the fired nurses are petitioning to get their jobs back.</p><p>In a statement to the Chicago Sun-Times, a St. Mary’s spokesperson said, “We have not and will not retaliate against employees for exercising their rights and have consistently applied long-standing hospital policies that protect safety and patient care.”</p><p>“Saint Mary’s of Nazareth Hospital respects the right of nurses to make their own decisions regarding union representation and to engage in lawful protected activity,” the statement said. St. Mary’s added that “comprehensive plans” were in place to ensure operations are uninterrupted during the one-day strike. [<a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.wbez.org/health-medicine/2026/06/03/fired-nurses-voice-concerns-over-working-conditions-st-mary-of-nazareth-hospital-amidst-push-to-unionize-chicago\" target=\"_blank\" ><u>Chicago Sun-Times</u></a>]</p><p><a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.wbez.org/money/2026/06/04/comed-offers-500-dollars-small-businesses-electric-bills-grants-data-centers\" target=\"_blank\" ><b><u>3. ComEd will offer up to $500 for small businesses struggling to pay electric bills</u></b></a></p><p>Business owners will be expected to pay some amount of money as part of the “matching” requirement of the grant application. For example, if you owe $1,000, you can apply for $500 but also have to pay ComEd the other $500.</p><p>The payouts are part of a $2.5 million assistance program the utility determined was needed as residents and businesses face higher electric bills in large part because of the energy demand from massive artificial intelligence data centers. The Sun-Times previously reported ComEd customers will see at least a 12% increase in monthly charges starting this month.</p><p>Grant applications will be available June 15 on a first-come basis. You can find more information at <a class=\"Link\" href=\"http://www.comed.com/SMBrelief\" target=\"_blank\" ><u>www.comed.com/SMBrelief</u></a>. [<a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.wbez.org/money/2026/06/04/comed-offers-500-dollars-small-businesses-electric-bills-grants-data-centers\" target=\"_blank\" ><u>Chicago Sun-Times</u></a>]</p><p><a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.wbez.org/arts-culture/2026/06/03/chicagos-cultural-department-dcase-new-grant-progam-emerging-theater-companies\" target=\"_blank\" ><b><u>4. Chicago’s cultural department launched a new grant program aimed at helping emerging theater companies</u></b></a></p><p>As my colleague Courtney Kueppers reports, Next Stage Chicago will provide a maximum of $50,000 to up to eight nonprofit theater companies that have been in business for at least three years but no more than 10. Cultural commissioner Kenya Merritt said the $400,000 program is an investment in organizations “essential to the vitality of Chicago’s neighborhoods.”</p><p>Grantmaking has long been a core tenet of the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, in addition to its role in organizing large-scale Downtown events, such as this weekend’s Blues Festival.</p><p>Next Stage Chicago will give funds to organizations “that are actively building their audiences, strengthening their infrastructure and expanding their artistic impact,” according to the city. [<a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.wbez.org/arts-culture/2026/06/03/chicagos-cultural-department-dcase-new-grant-progam-emerging-theater-companies\" target=\"_blank\" ><u>WBEZ</u></a>]</p><p><a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.wbez.org/arts/2026/06/04/roger-brown-artist-home-studio-chicago-landmark\" target=\"_blank\" ><b><u>5. What will become of artist Roger Brown’s house? Ask the developer who bought it</u></b></a></p><p>How do you renovate a local landmark?</p><p>Ben Yeshurun, 31, who has redeveloped Chicago residential properties for about six years, faced that question after he agreed in October to purchase the Lincoln Park home and studio of painter Roger Brown.</p><p>As arts contributor Kyle MacMillan reports, Brown gained national fame in the 1960s and ‘70s as one of the Chicago Imagists. A year before his death in 1997, the celebrated artist gave the 1880s residence at 1926 N. Halsted and its contents to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, which maintained it as a study center until closing it in 2020.</p><p>Last year, the school stunned the local art world by putting the home on the market as a possible teardown. Historic preservationists and Brown enthusiasts rallied to have it listed as a local landmark — and prevailed.</p><p>Yeshurun does not plan to live in the house or return it to the previous use as a study center. Instead, he intends to gut the interior and rearrange it with six bedrooms (four upstairs and two in the basement) and an open floor plan on the first floor. Then he will sell it and play up the connection to Brown and Chicago art history when he puts it on the market. [<a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.wbez.org/arts/2026/06/04/roger-brown-artist-home-studio-chicago-landmark\" target=\"_blank\" ><u>WBEZ/Chicago Sun-Times</u></a>]</p><p><b>Here’s what else is happening</b></p><ul class=\"rte2-style-ul\" style=\"margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;padding-inline-start:48px;\" id=\"rte-0f1eac20-604e-11f1-bb14-c3a88d5c0089\"><li>The U.S. Senate started voting on immigration enforcement funding after Trump’s settlement money was dropped. [<a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://apnews.com/article/senate-ice-border-patrol-trump-settlement-ballroom-f616e78c67a60619393d77ecf6e16f1b\" target=\"_blank\" ><u>AP</u></a>]</li><li>Trump suggested Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio should run on the same ticket in the 2028 — but didn’t say which should be president. [<a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/03/us/politics/trump-vance-rubio-2028-election.html?unlocked_article_code=1.nlA.5GQQ.eJuFDROWwMzq&smid=url-share\" target=\"_blank\" ><u>New York Times</u></a>]</li><li>“Admin dates” are now a thing, where friends socialize while completing life tasks like paying bills, canceling subscriptions and answering overdue emails. [<a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://apnews.com/article/admin-dates-friends-social-tasks-list-1271a095d6bcd42aa144b280dd4930ed\" target=\"_blank\" ><u>AP</u></a>]</li><li>Review: How far will an artist go to become a legend? “Andy Warhol Presents: The Cocaine Play” at Chicago’s Jackalope Theatre wants to find out. [<a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.wbez.org/theater-stages/2026/06/03/review-andy-warhol-presents-the-cocaine-play-jackalope-terry-guest\" target=\"_blank\" ><u>WBEZ</u></a>]</li></ul><p><b>Oh, and one more thing …</b></p><p>Simeon Career Academy is known for its sports and trades programs. So when the Chicago high school decided to put on its first play in recent memory, students had no idea what they were in for, WBEZ’s Sarah Karp reports.</p><p>After the school received a grant from the Educational Theatre Foundation, drama teacher David Hossler decided the school would produce August Wilson’s “The Piano Lesson.” To Hossler, the lauded African American playwright is the “most important playwright ever born on American soil.” He also thought students would get into the story, which includes a ghost and is about whether to hold onto the past or let go of it.</p><p>The students-turned-actors practiced daily for most of the school year. At home, they went over their lines, recruiting their moms to help. And even on dress rehearsal day, there were stumbles and stops.</p><p>“It’s been a pretty serious, hard process, because I never did a play before,” senior Semaj Jackson said. “But we’re getting through it.” [<a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.wbez.org/education/2026/06/04/at-chicago-basketball-powerhouse-simeon-high-school-drama-students-shine-in-first-play-in-decades\" target=\"_blank\" ><u>WBEZ</u></a>]</p><p><b>Tell me something good …</b></p><p>It’s Pride Month, and I’m wondering: What is your favorite book, movie, TV show or other media with a prominent LGBTQ+ storyline?</p><p>Dori writes:</p><p>“I loved ‘The Great Believers’ by Rebecca Makkai, which follows a group of gay men in Chicago during the 1980s AIDS crisis. This book was a Pulitzer finalist, and it’s not hard to see why. The characters are beautifully realized, and the events are described with great authenticity.”</p><p>Feel free to email me, and your response may be included in the newsletter this week.</p>",
  "title": "The Obama Center’s democracy lesson: The Rundown",
  "updatedAt": "2026-06-04T20:45:01.875Z"
}