Constitution with a Beat - join as reader or musician September 24, 2026

The Constitution Day Collective is excited to share a community project that a group of community members have started to organize, and more importantly, to invite you to be part of it. 

The idea is called “Constitution with a Beat” It will be a community reading and spoken-word performance of the United States Constitution, bringing together local community members, elected officials, students, artists, musicians, and performers on Thursday September 24, 2026 starting at 6:30pm. 

At its heart, the idea is pretty simple: we want to hear the Constitution spoken aloud by the people who make up our community.

Rather than having one person stand at a podium and read the document, we’re envisioning a collective performance where different people take on different sections. Local officials and community members will read portions of the Constitution, while musicians and performers help create an engaging atmosphere around the reading.

This is intended to be a civic education event—not a political rally or partisan event. The goal is simply to create an opportunity for people to come together, listen to the words of the Constitution, learn a little more about the document itself, and think about what those words mean within the context of our communities today.

We really want this to feel like a community-created event, rather than something organized by just a small group of people. That’s why we’re reaching out as we’d love to have members from every Shoreline neighborhood represented in this event.

There are two primary ways we’re hoping people might participate:

The first is as a reader.

We’re looking for community members who would be interested in reading a portion of the Constitution aloud. You don't need to be a professional actor or public speaker. You don't need to have any particular political background. We’re looking for people who simply want to lend their voice to the project. We’ll divide the Constitution into manageable sections, so no one person has to read the entire document. Depending on the number of participants, your section might only take a few minutes.

We’re also especially interested in involving young people and students. We think there’s something really powerful about having different generations of our community literally share the document with one another.

The second way to participate is through music.

We’re looking for local musicians who might be interested in providing live instrumental music or ambient accompaniment during portions of the reading. We’re imagining something that supports the performance without distracting from the words—music that helps create a sense of occasion and gives the reading an artistic dimension.

What we love about this idea is that the Constitution itself becomes the thing that connects all of these different voices. A student might read one section, a longtime community member might read another, a local elected official might read another, while a musician provides the soundtrack. The result is something that none of us could create individually.

Many voices. One Constitution. One community.

We also want to make sure that the event remains accessible and welcoming to people with very different perspectives and backgrounds. You don't have to agree on everything to participate. You don't have to come with a particular political viewpoint. The purpose is to create a shared civic and educational experience where we can encounter the document together.

If you’re interested in reading, let us know. If you’re a musician and would like to participate, we would love to hear from you. If you work with students, theater groups, music programs, or other community organizations, we’d love your help connecting us with people who might be interested.

If this sounds like something you'd like to be part of, please reach out to us via the link to add your name to our interest list.

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