Luvena Leslie took a break from snipping hair, opened her email box, and found a note from her senator: “Congratulations!” Out of over 10,000 people who applied for tickets to the presidential inauguration, she was among the few to be chosen.
“I could not believe I won,” said Leslie, sitting down between shampooing assignments at the Jo Bruno Hair salon Thursday afternoon.
Winning was a fluke — all Leslie did was shoot an email to Connecticut U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd, who was giving away 200 tickets through a lottery. Little did the senator know what a perfect fit she would be to play a part in history alongside Barack Obama at his swearing-in ceremony.
Leslie is a 29-year-old, biracial, single mom who grew up in Fair Haven. Right now, she’s juggling two full-time jobs to support a 6‑year-old daughter. By day, she styles hair. By night, she takes care of mentally disabled adults in a group home in Branford. That doesn’t leave her much time to sit around cleaning her apartment in New Haven’s Cedar Hill neighborhood.
So when Sen. Dodd said he’d like to come interview her at her home about the upcoming trip to D.C., she got a little nervous.
“I have to dust!” she thought.
Luckily, Dodd rescheduled: He’s set to visit her on Saturday morning — not at home, but at the salon on Whitney Avenue.
“That’s good, because we clean here daily,” cracked Leslie, an energetic woman with green eyeshadow and fiercely coiled curls.
Though she didn’t have time to get involved in Obama’s campaign, his candidacy has moved her. Leslie is the daughter of an African-American man and a white, Jewish mom.
Her dad and his parents all passed away before they could see Obama complete the long journey from plantation to Oval Office. Leslie is overjoyed to be part of the final step.
As a half-black woman, she said, “I’m definitely proud.”
“To know that at one time, we couldn’t vote. We were slaves!” Then to see a black man become president? “It leaves me speechless.”
She’s already lined up a grand weekend in the nation’s capital, including a free concert by Aretha Franklin and a semi-formal ball hosted by hip-hop artist Jay‑Z.
On Jan. 20, she and a friend will witness the moment she’s been waiting for. They’ll stand by as Obama takes the oath of office on Abraham Lincoln’s Bible and becomes the nation’s 44th president.
“It’s so monumental to go,” said Leslie, aglow with anticipation. “This is historic. To imagine that I’m going to actually be there, is crazy.”