President Barack Obama was glad to be back in Chicago last weekend. After not speaking publicly for three months, he chose to go back to Chicago where it all started for him. On Monday, April 24, the 44th President of the United States spoke as a private citizen for the first time since leaving the White House in January.
Speech to young civic leaders
Obama spoke to a group of young civic leaders at the University of Chicago at the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts. Those who attended the speech were there by invitation only. However, the university has made the speech available online.
In the audience were community leaders, area college students and organizers.
Even though Obama has been away from Chicago for over eight years, Chicago still has a special place in his heart – so much so that he has decided that's where his Presidential library will be. He represented the area when he was an Illinois state senator. He was a law professor at the same university where he was speaking.
The focus of the event was on a discussion to take place with young leaders about community organization and civic engagement. The former president talked about his own future. He indicated that he has been thinking a lot about his next job. He concluded that his next job will be to help young people become good leaders so they can do their part to help change the world.
He told the audience of young people how his work as a community organizer led to his career in politics. He encouraged them by explaining that they can do the same if they put their minds to it.
On the day before Obama met with the young leaders, he met with men of the Chicago Create Real Economic Destiny. During that meeting on Sunday, he discussed gang violence, jobs and training with at-risk youth from the South Side of Chicago.
Upcoming engagements
Now that the ice has been broken, Obama is gearing up for more public speaking and traveling. On May 7, he will be in Boston to receive the 2017 Profile in Courage award from the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation. He is scheduled to give a paid speech in Italy. On May 25, he will deliver a speech, along with Chancellor Angela Merkel, at a Protestant church in Berlin.
The two have a close working relationship. Obama's last foreign trip during his administration was to Berlin in November 2016.
From now on, expect to hear more about Barack Obama's speaking engagements because he is about to pick up the pace as he takes periodic breaks from writing his memoir.
