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Obama Foundation releases hiring report on the Obama Center – Chicago Tribune

Mamon Powers, Jr. always envisioned being in business because thats how he grew up, being surrounded by businessmen in the home and the community. But then again by the time he was 15, he was running his own carpentry crew on construction sites.

He always had this can do anything attitude and its something that hes trying to do with his Powers & Sons Construction company. As one fifth of the Lakeside Alliance, the collective managing the construction of the Obama Presidential Center, he wants people of color to realize their potential. Wednesday, the Obama Foundation released its annual workforce report citing the organization is on track to meet its workforce and diversity goals for construction with 52% of contracts already awarded to diverse vendors, with 32% of the workforce coming from the South and West Sides of the city. The City of Chicago requires developers to award 32% of contracts to minority and women-owned businesses, while ensuring 50% of the workforce resides in the City of Chicago, but they do not distinguish between what neighborhoods the workforce will come from within city limits. The Obama Foundation is making major inroads on their diversity hiring ambitions.

Everythings going according to plan, said Michael Strautmanis, Executive Vice President of Civic Engagement at the Obama Foundation. Im not taking my foot off the gas. We have to push because the goal is not to meet our numbers, the goal is to build wealth, and to create a new model for taking people into these good construction careers in a community that has been under invested in for generations. That goal will be complete beyond my lifetime. The numbers are good for accountability purposes ... good for people to understand what were trying to get done. But, Im not here for the numbers. Im here for impact and transformation.

Mamon Powers, Jr., Powers & Sons CEO and Chairman of the Board, in his Gary, Indiana office on Aug. 9, 2022. (Andy Lavalley/for the Chicago Tribune)

Currently, Powers & Sons Construction is one of four Black-owned construction groups managing the construction of the Obama Presidential Center, which broke ground last September and is set to open its doors in 2025. The collective called the Lakeside Alliance is made up of Turner Construction Co., Powers & Sons Construction Co., UJAMAA Construction, Brown & Momen and Safeway Construction Co. Kelly Powers Baria, vice president at Powers & Sons Construction and Mamon Powers, Jr.s daughter recalled that Barack Obama was still president when her father came up with the plan to solidify the odds of Black contractors and Black people building Obamas Center.

Usually what happens is a major (construction) project comes along in the Chicago area, the white contractor goes out to get the job, and he tries bring some Black people along with him in some kind of, in my opinion, inferior role, so they can say they got Black participation, but the white man is in charge, Powers, Jr. said. I thought that its time we change that. I thought we Black people should be in charge. We can build anything. Well select the white partner, most compatible with us, that believes in our vision, our mission, and our goals, to work with us. That way we would have the right team rather than somebody picking us, we wanted to pick somebody. So we put the Presidents Alliance together.

Powers Baria said breaking up the larger construction bids into multiple smaller contracts to ensure smaller and diverse businesses can compete for bids is helping Lakeside Alliance meet its goals. She said the team is responsible for making sure each vendor has regular check-ins to ensure vendors deliver their contracts successfully.

Were doing everything we can to support them and make sure that the job is a success. Thats how were doing it, she said. The Lakeside Alliance, our mission and vision that we set was to use the construction of the Obama Presidential Center to bring about sustainable and transformative change in our industry. And the only way to get what youve never had is being intentional, intentional about offering opportunities in ways that havent been offered before. Thats whats most important. Weve been working together for five years now. We have to remind ourselves not to lose focus. Its how you go about building the building and who gets opportunities and benefits from it.

Sharika Harris, 32, is one person benefiting from working on the Obama Presidential Center. Shes a plumbing apprentice with four years in the trades already. Her company is helping set up the centers garage. Shes been working with the nonprofit Chicago Women in Trades to help her prepare for her journeymens test. The North Lawndale resident said she went looking for a career in the trades after custodial work became boring. Now, when the mom tells people shes working on the center, folks get excited.

Its been really cool, she said. I like working in that diverse setting because ... Ive never worked in a setting like that. Its not my first big project but Ive never seen as many people that look like me on the job site. So that makes it more comfortable to work.

Lakeside Alliance Assistant Superintendent Ashful Williams stands on-site as construction continues on the Obama Presidential Center on Aug. 22, 2022 in Chicago. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)

In 2021, the Obama Foundation committed $850,000 to a partnership with local workforce development organizations, including Hire 360, Chicago Women In Trades, IBEW-NECA Technical Institute, Revolution Workshop, and St. Pauls Community Development Ministries, to train 400 new apprentices from the south and west sides. The Foundation is using the model to recruit and train the workforce that will build the presidential center, and to create more opportunities in construction for those same residents to work on projects across the city. According to the workforce report 158 candidates have already been placed in jobs around the city.

Sharon Latson-Flemister, Chicago Women in Trades director of marketing and communications and program director of We Can Build It, the group of local workforce development organizations, said her group is sending out apprentices and journeywomen to share their stories in the trades to recruit more female workers, that includes going into high schools to talk to students before graduation. (Powers Baria mentioned hosting a summer event where site workers helped student put together picnic tables that will be used at the center, a hands-on opportunity and exposure to the trades.) Free trades classes run anywhere from 10 to 12 weeks. The classes prepare one to test and get into apprenticeship programs, which can run anywhere from two to five years, Latson-Flemister said.

During that apprenticeship training, remember youre earning while youre learning, and each year your pay is going up as you learn your craft until you complete your apprenticeship program, she said.

The Obama Foundations partners have a barrier reduction fund to pay expenses like apprenticeship fees, late union dues and tools for potential workers. Groups like Chicago Women in Trades also provide supportive services like mental health workshops to eliminate more barriers for community residents to get into these types of careers.

That was a commitment from the Obama Presidential Center, Latson-Flemister said. That we would assertively work with our community residents to make sure that were not just getting them on that site, which is absolutely wonderful, but were actually helping them to build a career in the trades because once this historic, incredible building is built, theyve got to go out there and still work.

C-Strategies Communications Associate Elena Wallace tours the Obama Presidential Center construction site with Lakeside Alliance Assistant Superintendent Ashful Williams on Aug. 22, 2022. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)

Powers Baria said Lakeside has a six-member team of folks working on diversity, equity and inclusion; she is co-leader. She said its someones responsibility to make sure when a contractor is getting ready to leave the site, they will have another job opportunity to walk into and those entering the presidential center will stay on track as the project goes on.

Its not, going to happen without intense focus, she said.

Folks in the community are, I think rightfully skeptical of large construction projects, Strautmanis said. But what I want people to do is not just continue a narrative, because that is the way the narrative has been in the past. One of the things that concerned me is that theres a narrative out there: You know that this aint for us. That narrative keeps people from showing up ... now its 2022, were rolling. Contracts are out. And if you were on the sidelines then for some reason, were doing our own community a disservice. I want people to check our work, check our progress, talk to people who are working there to see whats really going on. But approach this with a level of hope that will make people say, you know, maybe this time will be different.

Different is what the 74-year-old CEO and chairman of the board of Powers & Sons Construction has been about his entire career. By the time Powers was a preteen, he was working for his father, Mamon Powers, Sr. a man who was building homes and churches in Mississippi in 30s and 40s for his father. Juniors income went from 50 cents a week to 50 cents a day sweeping for him and all the carpenters. By 13, Powers learned how to drive nails with a hammer. It was around this time, that Powers, Sr. showed junior how to lay out the foundation of a garage. His fathers instructions on measuring and square corners revealed the Pythagorean theorem.

I learned that in the 8th grade, he said. That was when construction really got interesting to me because I could relate it to school and relate it to whats going on in the field. In the summers, I worked with other young men who worked with their fathers clearing land ... they did the painting, concrete work. I saw this young man doing electrical work. I always saw Black men doing things and knew that I could do anything if I applied myself properly.

Construction continues at the site of the Obama Presidential Center on Aug. 22, 2022. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)

When Powers decided that he wanted to go to school to become an engineer, his father took him around engineers. He would go to Purdue University to achieve that goal (his daughter Kelly followed in his footsteps) Real estate would become a mainstay in Mamon Powers, Jr.s life from being a real estate broker to running a firm that builds commercial and industrial, and other types of general contracting and construction management projects within Illinois and Indiana.

Now with his children Kelly and Mamon Powers, III running the family business Mamon Powers, Jr. is just having fun seeing the success.

It makes me feel good that were able to provide employment for you ... thats what were about. Send your kids to college. Thats what I want to do. Because everybody doesnt want to run a business, but were making those opportunities available for people who want to really do something, he said.

Powers Baria said her grandfather had a saying: Lift as you climb. Its a theme for her dad and the family business. Lifting people, lifting businesses up as Powers & Sons grew and as you went through your career, she said.

Folks in the community are, I think rightfully skeptical of large construction projects, Strautmanis said. I want people to check our work, check our progress, talk to people who are working there to see whats really going on. But approach this with a level of hope that will make people say, you know, maybe this time will be different.

drockett@chicagotribune.com

August 24th, 2022

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A chair in the middle of the hall: When Obama said Assalamu Alaikum, and everything started – Opinion – Ahram Online

When the preacher was asked: Why did you bring a non-Muslim foreign leader into the Friday sermon, the preacher said: Islam does not forbid that, and Muslims have called for the Negus, the king of Abyssinia, and he was not a Muslim, and President Obama is not a Muslim, but he works for the benefit of Islam, and intends good for Muslims.

The Negus was a Muslim, and the Messenger (may God bless him and grant him peace) prayed the absentee prayer upon him. Sheikh Abdullah bin Bayah inferred the existence of the independent Negus Muslim state during the time of the Prophet, without merging into the state of the Prophet, on the inevitable political unity of Muslims in a single caliphate and on the legitimacy of the nation state in Islam.

The imams information was not accurate enough, but he was confident that President Obama was intending well for Muslims, and worthy of supplication on the pulpits.

In 2019, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo under President Trump - delivered a speech to the Muslim world from the American University in Cairo. Despite the wide media coverage of the speech, no one outside the university walls had heard of it. On the other hand, President Obama's speech, which he gave 10 years ago at Cairo University, was one of the most important American texts on Islam. That "historic" speech still represents a prominent event today.

It was fortunate that I received an invitation from the Egyptian presidency, signed on behalf of Cairo University, to attend President Obama's speech that summer of 2009. The invitation was a valuable opportunity to attend that defining moment, and to see what the newspapers would not publish in the university hall.

I left my home in central Cairo much earlier, even though the distance from my house is not far from the university. The fear of procedures and crowds necessitated leaving well before the speech. The first surprise of that day was that the streets were completely empty of pedestrians, in a scene similar to the Egyptian movie The President's Cook, when the government vacated the streets while the president was inspecting the lives of citizens, so that he would not see anything.

I thought that the road I took might have had a special situation which called for an evacuation. But President Obama indicated in his memoirs The Promised Land that all the streets of Cairo were empty, from the airport to the university to the pyramids to the Sultan Hassan Mosque, and then said: The difference was amazing between creating the streets of Cairo and crowding the university hall with 3,000 people.

When I reached the entrance to the university, where I had studied political science years ago, the Egyptian police were more relaxed than I expected. Most of the policemen were in a state of confidence and calm, and they showed the audience that nothing was exceptional, despite the tight security and strict arrangements through four security gates.

As soon as we entered the hall, the telephone network was cut off, but the security officials allowed us to go out to speak, and then return to the hall, without any conditions. There was not a single American security guard at the entrance to the university or the entrance to the Grand Ballroom. Egyptian security succeeded in playing an exemplary role in providing security without being obtrusive.

I got to my seat in the middle of the hall, where I could see the whole scene. The first person I met was the great artist and iconic actor Adel Imam, who made many "serious" jokes about the speech and attendance together. Imam, known lovingly by his fans as The Leader, was attentive and present that morning, and the content of his sarcastic words was: "There is nothing new here today, but the celebration itself is new, the event is the party... not what will be said in the party." A number of attendees flocked to take pictures with Adel Imam, and in the meantime, he did not stop his sarcasm.

Next to the Leader sat Sherif Mounir, who was more enthusiastic about the event, and he told me: We are about to witness a historic event. The artist's enthusiasm was apparent in his interruptions of Obamas speech, saying in English, "We love you, Obama.

After a while, one of the attendees came forward and said to me: I saw you on your program The First Edition attacking Dr. Saad Eddin Ibrahim, and challenging his knowledge and patriotism, and I would like to tell you: Dr. Saad Eddin is a great sociologist, and his patriotism is unquestionable. I am Dr. Saads brother.

Next to my seat was the artist Laila Elwi, who asked: What do you think he will tell us? My friends asked me and I told them: I will go and see. I told her: That's a good answer. The first part has been completed and here we are, the second part remains, and we will see shortly.

A new star in the world of American politics was Mrs. Dalia Mogahed, a member of the Advisory Board on Religious Affairs in the White House. We talked for a while, then she surprised me by saying: "I am from the Sayeda Zeinab neighborhood, and my grandmother likes you, and she says that you are a famous person. I told her: I am not as famous as your grandmother imagines, but in any case, I play in the local league, and here is the World Cup." Dalia Mogahed shook hands with the Brotherhood delegation, and this was understandable, then she went and shook hands with Gamal Mubarak, and that was understandable as well.

We waited three hours in the ballroom for the speech to begin, long enough for many in the audience to get to know each other. The students of Cairo University and Al-Azhar University were Egyptian and foreign students, and they filled the upper floors of the hall.

Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif, the former director of the Egyptian Intelligence Service and later vice president to Mubarak, General Omar Suleiman, Grand Imam Muhammad Sayed Tantawi of Al-Azhar, and Ali Gomaa, the Mufti of Egypt, were the most prominent attendees from Egyptian institutions.

The Americans in charge of the halls stage were very courteous, putting on beautiful music during the waiting hours, including the music of Umm Kulthum, and the music from the Conscience of Abla Hekmat series, starring the great artist Faten Hamama, and thus Star of the Orient and The Lady of the Screen were the main attendees of the American president's speech.

Shortly before President Obama entered, we were approached by Mrs. Hillary Clinton, who was greeted by the audience in the best way. Then appeared President Obama, who garnered massive applause. The first words by President Obama to greet the audience were in Arabic: Assalamu Alaikum. This sentence opened the hearts of all attendees, even those who had reservations about the American president.

Then came the three Quranic verses that went beyond softening hearts to melting hearts. President Obama recited the words of God Almighty in Surat Al-Ahzab: Fear God and speak sound words, and God Almightys saying in Surat Al-Hujurat: O people, we created you from a male and a female. And We made you peoples and tribes so that you may know each other. And the Almightys saying in Surat Al-Maidah: Whoever kills a soul without a soul or corruption in the land, it is as if he killed all people, and whoever saves a life, it is as if he saved the life of all people.

President Obama completed this "historic" speech with a visit to the Sultan Hassan Mosque, taking off his shoes at the entrance of the mosque. Along came Hillary Clinton wearing a head cover. He repeated in his press conferences: "My mission in front of the Muslim world was to show that America is not an enemy to Islam.

A short time passed since the historic speech of the American president at Cairo University, then the collapse of the Arab world and the confusion of the Islamic world began. Externally backed extremists have succeeded in stealing a moment of modernity and change.

Some believe that President Obama and his administration were behind the collapse that afflicted the Arab world. But it cannot be reduced to this without scrutiny. Obama supported President Mubarak in the early days, as did Hillary Clinton, and the opinion of then-vice president Joe Biden was that Mubarak should stay, and that what happened cannot be called an Arab Spring. Had it not been for the failure of the Egyptian administration at the time, the favorable odds would not have shifted to another country.

Some outsiders cannot be excused for supporting extremist groups everywhere. However, because we do not own the outside, we own ourselves, and the safe exit from the darkness of the extremists will only be through our will and vision, it is only ours. In major battles, idiots and villains are alike.

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A chair in the middle of the hall: When Obama said Assalamu Alaikum, and everything started - Opinion - Ahram Online

August 24th, 2022

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Five Must-See Summer Art Exhibitions in and Around Boston – Boston magazine

Where to go and what to see for your fall design fix.

A 1906 image of Isabella Stewart Gardner reading a book. / Photo by Otto Rosenheim (Gardner, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston)

A Fascinating and Dangerous Pursuit: Isabellas Book Collection

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum will host an event that sheds light on its founders vast collection of rare books. Gardner found accumulating books to be a pleasure and a challenge; this pursuit would ultimately lead to her passion for collecting works of art. In this program led by Anne-Marie Eze, associate librarian for collections and programs at Harvard Universitys Houghton Library, new insights into the Museums rare book collection will be revealed.

9/8, 25 Evans Way, Boston, 617-566-1401, gardnermuseum.org.

Boston International Fine Art Show

At this long-running show held at the Cyclorama, 40 galleries will showcase their offerings, which span centuries and include an array of styles from old master to contemporary. With some works that truly are investment pieces, the show draws serious collectors along with casual art aficionados interested in the much more affordable works also available. A gala preview with live music kicks off the festivities, and the weekend-long event features special programs and speakers.

10/2010/23, 539 Tremont St., Boston, 617-363-0405, fineartboston.com.

Gropius Glows

Famed modernist, Bauhaus founder, and Harvard architecture professor Walter Gropius resided in Lincoln for many years. His clean-lined home unites art, technology, and the landscape and is run as a museum by Historic New England. Its especially insightful to visit the residence on Saturday evenings when it is open for demonstrations of Gropiuss innovative lighting scheme.

10/22, 11/5, 11/19, and 12/3, 68 Baker Bridge Rd., Lincoln, 617-994-6651, historicnewengland.org.

School of the Museum of Fine Arts Art Sale

This annual sale is the schools most anticipated event of the year. With curated pieces selected by a jury of artists, gallerists, and museum curators, dont miss your chance to acquire inspired new works by students, faculty, alumni, and affiliated artists. The breadth of work in the show represents a range of mediums that are not only visually engaging but thought-provoking as well.

11/411/6, 230 Fenway, Boston, 617-627-0013, smfa.tufts.edu.

Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts (Barack Obama by Kehinde Wiley, oil on canvas, 2018, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution)

The Obama Portraits Tour

The MFA is the final stop on the national tour of the renowned portraits of President Barack Obama, by Kehinde Wiley, and Mrs. Michelle Obama, by Amy Sherald. The artists are the first African Americans commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery to create official portraits of a president and first lady. The U.S. tour began in June 2021 and previously stopped at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Brooklyn Museum, and other institutions. The MFA will concurrently showcase a crowd-sourced exhibit, Portraits of Leadership, a collection of portraits from the community depicting a diverse range of leaders that will be on display alongside the Obama portraits.

9/310/30, 465 Huntington Ave., Boston, 617-267-9300, mfa.org.

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Five Must-See Summer Art Exhibitions in and Around Boston - Boston magazine

August 24th, 2022

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Trump Thinks FBI Is ‘Fascist?’ May Raid Clinton And Obama If He Returns To White House – LatinTimes

It seems like former President Donald Trump is intending to capitalize on the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) Mar-a-Lago raid.

He recently shared an op-ed that predicted Republicans might exact vengeance by using law enforcement to go after Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, reported Daily Mail. Trump didn't post his comments, but shared an op-ed by loyalist and conservative columnist Kimberly Strassel in the Wall Street Journal.

The columnist mentioned a "boomerang history of unleashed governmental powers." She observed that Republicans used a post-watergate independent counsel statute to go after former President Bill Clinton in a warning to the party that at present has unified control of the U.S. government. In an email from his Save America Political Action Committee (PAC), Trump shared the article's headline, "The Payback for Mar-a-Lago Will Be Brutal."

The writer posted that the Trump investigation could come back at Democrats if Republicans take charge. She even labeled the investigation as political and breaking norms on "sensitive" probes close to an election. She wrote that U.S. attorney general Merrick Garland's raid has made even the "highest political figures fair prosecutorial game, and the media's new standard is that the department can't be questioned as it goes about ensuring 'no one is above the law.'" She wrote that let's see how that holds when a future "Republican Justice Department starts raiding" the homes of political leaders like Joe Biden, Hillary and Obama.

She also wrote that if anything, a perceived political persecution of Trump "could help him to a second term, and he would be even more unrestrained as the 47th President than he was as the 45th."

Trump also took to his Truth Socialto share an article headlined, "The Fascist Bureau of Investigation," written by Jeffrey Lord, who is a former pro-Trump commentator.

Meanwhile, a federal judge on Thursday ordered the Justice Department to put forward proposed redactions as he committed to making public at least part of the affidavit that supported the FBI raid. It is the governments burden under the law to show why a redacted version should not be released, said US Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart. Prosecutors arguments Thursday failed to persuade him, according to the Associated Press.

He gave them a week's time to hand over a copy of the affidavit proposing the information it wants to keep secret after the FBI took classified information during the search at Trumps Florida property last week.

As the focus remains on the raid, Obama has become the subject of a new line of whataboutism that's emerged from conservatives, reported PEOPLE. The New York Post had published an opinion piece in which it was claimed that Obama sent 30 million pages of his administration's documents to Chicago when he left White House. Now Trump and his allies are running with the claim. But they are ignoring key differences between how White House records were handled by the two former US Presidents.

Obama White House records did make their way to Chicago at the end of his second term, but the process of transferring the documents was done in cooperation with the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). It legally owns those documents under the Presidential Records Act.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump Getty Images | James Devaney/GC Images

August 24th, 2022

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My Brother’s Keeper Alliance – Obama Foundation

The My Brothers Keeper Alliance has issued a national call to action, Freedom Summer 2022, for communities to create safe spaces for boys and young men of color during the summer months. Freedom Summer 2022 is an opportunity for individuals, community organizers and organizations to develop creative ways to keep our children engaged and off of the streets this summer.

No endeavor is too small! Were calling for all hands on deck in turning the tide on youth violence.

Learn More

President Obama launched My Brothers Keeper in February 2014 to address the persistent opportunity gaps boys and young men of color face and to ensure all young people can reach their full potential.

Today, the Alliance works to unleash the power of communities working together to solve problems for boys and young men of color, at a level to improve real life outcomes. We believe communities are the unit of change to realize improved life outcomes for our boys.

Learn more about our work over the past eight years.

We started My Brothers Keeper so that every boy and young man of color in America would know that their dreams mattered as much as any other childs.

Learn about the steps any community can take to become a registered, certified MBK Community.

Learn more about our impact and seed communities who are accelerating impact, reducing barriers and building cross-sector coalitions focused on long-term success.

The MBK Equity Framework is a new resource designed for any community looking to improve the lives of boys and young men of color and underserved youth. Learn more, take the self assessment and find tools to help you to create lasting systemic change.

See the latest updates from MBK Alliance & MBK Communities

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