Obama Center opens invitation only event today and to public tomorrow on holiday
Stevie Wonder among stars to perform
Trump won't attend
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Instead of a traditional presidential library, the 19-acre Obama center, located on the city's South Side, features a soaring museum, a Chicago Public Library branch, an athletic center (complete with an NBA-regulation-size basketball court), a civic center, a playground, and a vegetable garden that's reminiscent of the one Michelle Obama's White House Kitchen Garden planted on the South Lawn.
The center, which took five years to build, aims to serve as a key neighborhood hub in Jackson Park along the south shore of Lake Michigan. It was funded through private donations from the Obama Foundation, with city and state money covering the surrounding infrastructure.
The invite-only opening of the $850 million Obama Presidential Center, honoring the nation's first Black president, comes the day before its doors open to the public on June 19, which is Juneteenth, a federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States, and is recognized by many as the nation’s second Independence Day.