Barack and Michelle Obama surprise first visitors to newly opened presidential center

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CHICAGO (AP) — Former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama surprised the first 100 visitors to walk through the doors of the new Obama Presidential Center, personally greeting them Friday.

The Obamas, joined by former “Reading Rainbow” host LeVar Burton, also read “Where the Wild Things Are" to 25 school children at the Chicago Public Library branch inside the center. When the former president read Maurice Sendak's line about being “king of all the wild things,” Michelle Obama interjected with, “Although there were no kings,” to applause.

Later, awed guests shook hands with the Obamas against the backdrop of a colorful, 38-foot-tall painting depicting a map of Chicago stretching to the ceiling, inspired by Carl Sandburg’s 1914 poem about the city: “stormy, husky, brawling, City of the Big Shoulders.”

“It was perfect. It was great,” said 18-year-old Houefa Agassounon from Chicago after the surprise visit from the Obamas. “I was literally crying. I asked for a hug and everything.”

She wrote a letter to the Obama Foundation last year, asking if she could be there when it opened. She said meeting the Obamas was a bonus.

“This is just the greatest thing of my 18 years of life,” she said.

The Juneteenth opening followed a star-studded dedication ceremony where the Obamas gave rousing speeches to an audience including three former presidents, their former first ladies, and a host of politicians, A-list celebrities, musicians, athletes and others. Thousands more joined the livestream from a nearby park.

A weekend of events is planned for the sprawling campus on Chicago's South Side near where the Obamas lived and began his political career. It is adjacent to the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry in the lakefront park, and not far from the University of Chicago.

Tickets for the general public are sold out through the end of November. But those lucky enough to score them for the first day got the unexpected thrill of meeting the Obamas themselves.

The campus includes a towering museum that covers the political and personal realms of the nation’s first Black president and first lady, while public spaces include a branch of the Chicago Public Library, a playground and athletic center, basketball courts and a picnic area with grills.

The tower’s design is meant to depict four hands coming together in solidarity. Wrapped around one side are 5-foot tall concrete capital letters, an excerpt of Obama’s 2015 speech commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Selma-to-Montgomery march. It begins, “You are America.”