Barack Obama, Life in the White House

OBAMA FOR USA. President Obama and his wife, Michelle, have been popping up all over Washington, including making visits to casual restaurants and working-class neighborhoods. No other modern president has reached out so widely to so many corners of the city, according to Doris Kearns Goodwin, a presidential historian.

Mr. Obama could be seen sitting courtside alongside astonished fans at the Verizon Center as he cheered on the Chicago Bulls in a losing battle against the Washington Wizards. The Obamas have been to the Kennedy Center, to see the Alvin Ailey dance troupe -- with daughters Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7 -- and for a musical tribute to Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts.

They have enjoyed white-tablecloth dining at Equinox, Bobby Van's Steakhouse, B. Smith's and Georgia Brown's, and street-corner casual at Ben's Chili Bowl and Five Guys Burgers and Fries. The president suggested lunching at Ben's Chili Bowl, a well-known black-owned restaurant. Eleanor Holmes Norton, Washington's delegate to Congress, said Mrs. Obama suggested lunch at B. Smith's, also black owned, a Southern-style restaurant near the Capitol.

As the first African-American couple in the White House, they say they want to reach beyond the prosperous, predominantly white corridors of Washington. ''We were taught you have to get to know the community you're in, and you have to be a part of that community,'' Mrs. Obama said during a visit to Mary's Center, a health clinic that serves a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood. ''D.C. is our community now, and it's our home.''

Mrs. Obama and her staff also visited Miriam's Kitchen, a soup kitchen, where the first lady bumped into Bill Richardson, a 46-year-old homeless man. Mr. Richardson was so stunned that he could barely stammer thank you as Mrs. Obama scooped a helping of mushroom risotto onto his plate.

The president has said he hopes to serve as a bridge in a town long divided between the haves and have-nots. ''I want to see if we can bring those two Washingtons together,'' Mr. Obama said in an interview on the ABC program ''This Week With George Stephanopoulos.''

The Obamas have gone to parent-teacher conferences, school sporting events and visited working-class and gentrifying communities that have rarely served as stomping grounds for American presidents and first ladies, speaking to students at a charter school in a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood, and worshiping in a black church -- Nineteenth Street Baptist Church, where hundreds of black professionals worship -- among other activities.

When it comes to churches, Mr. Obama's search for a church home has touched off a frenzied competition. Those Washington churches that are predominantly black and those that are predominantly white are vying to attract the president and his family. The president, in turn, has sent emissaries to observe worship services, interview congregants and scrutinize pastors. (His aides even searched YouTube to vet one local minister.)

While still uncommitted about a church choice, the Obamas did make one long-anticipated decision: they chose a 6-month-old Portuguese water dog -- a gift from Senator Kennedy and his wife, Victoria, to Malia and Sasha Obama. The girls named the dog Bo because they have cousins with a cat of the same name and because Mrs. Obama's father was nicknamed Diddley, after the musician Bo Diddley.

Since Jan. 20, the Obamas have played host to bagpipe and mariachi bands, Irish fiddlers and poets, pop stars and jazz singers. Performers have included Stevie Wonder, Earth, Wind and Fire, Tony Bennett and Fergie, the singer from the Black Eyed Peas. Paul Muldoon, the Pulitzer-Prize winning poet from Northern Ireland, has recited his verses. The rocker Sheryl Crow and the rhythm and blues singer Alicia Keys have entertained in the East Room. In May, the first family celebrated the power of the spoken word at what was probably the first White House poetry jam.

James Earl Jones served up ''Othello,'' his sonorous voice rumbling through the East Room. The crowd, which included the director Spike Lee and the television broadcaster George Stephanopoulos, also heard the music of the pianist Eric Lewis and the bassist and singer Esperanza Spalding. Lin Manuel Miranda, the creator of the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical ''In the Heights,'' rapped his way across the stage. The writers Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman, who are husband and wife, described how words break down barriers.

On May 30, the Obamas went to New York to see a Broadway play, August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone," part of the playwright's 10-play cycle about the history of African-Americans in the United States in the 20th century. After the Obamas' visit, tickets sales for the drama increased.