Earlier this year, BPL invited the people of Brooklyn to town hall meetings to debate ideas and suggest language that they would like to see in a much-needed new amendment to the Constitution, 28 years after the last amendment was issued in 1992. We compiled your suggestions and asked four framers to draft the document, our 28th Amendment. On the heels of the project we are presenting two additional programs—I Wish to Say and Voters’ Broadcast—so they can amplify your voice and redefine our democracy.
A Public Reading of the 28th Amendment
This public undertaking united hundreds of voices, representing people across diverse backgrounds, to produce a 28th Amendment to the United States Constitution - 28 years after the last amendment was passed, in 1992.
Note-takers captured all of the ideas mentioned in each conversation, and from those notes, our invited Framers created a narrative interpretation of the main ideas and aspirations.
The 28th Amendment will be released by Brooklyn Public Library on behalf of the people of Brooklyn at 9:00am on Saturday, October 17th.
I Wish to Say
Join socially engaged artist, educator and former journalist Sheryl Oring as she presents her ongoing project, I Wish to Say in response to the 2020 election cycle. On October 17, live at Central Library’s Plaza and online from October 18 – 21, you are invited to dictate messages to the next US President. Typists will use old-fashioned typewriters to transcribe your words onto postcards which will be sent to the White House after the 2020 Presidential election. I Wish to Say gives our patrons a chance to vocalize their concerns, hopes and dreams for a continued democracy.
Voters’ Broadcast
Voters’ Broadcast is a transformative Election Year musical work for flexible ensembles of musicians which is directed, conceived, and composed by composer and 2020-21 Kaufman Music Center Artist In Residence Lisa Bielawa, with text excerpted from Sheryl Oring’s ongoing participatory art project I Wish to Say.
On Saturday, October 24 at 11 am, 12:30 pm and 2 pm, Kaufman Music Center and Brooklyn Public Library will present the live world premiere of Voters' Broadcast at Central Library in a day of socially distanced outdoor performances on the Plaza at the library’s main entrance featuring performers from Kaufman Music Center’s Special Music School.