To celebrate Constitution Day, the Pollak Library gathered students together at their Makerspace commons Thursday to create magnets, bag charms, buttons and jewelry featuring tiny copies of the Constitution at the Tiny Constitution, Big Ideas event.
“Constitution Day is for everyone, that’s one of the things I love about it,” Social Sciences and Government Documents Librarian Megan Graewingholt said.
Graewingholt — one of the people who put on Tiny Constitution, Big Ideas event — explained that the Sept. 17 holiday celebrates Americans who are over the age of 18 and therefore have gained the right to vote. She stressed the importance of events like these as they allow students to see themselves in the Constitution.
“The polarization that we have in our climate right now tends to create spaces where you have to choose a side,” Graewingholt said. “Not all students identify with the left or the right or with any particular political party.”
She mentioned the low voter turnout among young people, and remarked that the 26th Amendment, which changed the voting age from 21 to 18, was also ratified largely due to college activism around the Vietnam war. Graewingholt added that students should take pride in their ability to use their political voices as young people.
Distributed around the tables were about a dozen containers. Some held round beads with a wide variety of colors as well as cube-shaped beads with letters.
There were hardware options for the attendees such as jump rings, earring hooks, steel rings for keychains, small carabiners, tassels in patriotic colors and patriotic charms in the shape of circles, hearts, stars and peace signs.
Kellie Lanham-Friedman, another organizer of the event, as well as the art and Makerspace librarian, described it as an experience to facilitate a space to talk about the Constitution while a slideshow displayed passages from the Constitution, including prompts for onlookers to reflect on their identity within the legal document.
“I know many colleagues who work in different states where the way they educate has changed a lot,” Lanham-Friedman said. “This is a space and an opportunity for (students) to read it for themselves, interpret it for themselves and take power over that.”
She added that the amendments of the Constitution are often mentioned but it is possible that students aren’t paying attention. By allowing students to craft with the constitution, they are inadvertently learning about how it applies to them.
The crafting at this event not only detailed the Constitution, but also encouraged participants to include QR codes in their creation that detailed “know your rights.”
Adjunct business marketing professor Fatema Baldiwala came to the event to survey the Makerspace for a project her students will be assigned and fashioned together a bracelet with red, white and blue beads while she was there.
“It was a pleasure to find out that there is an event on Constitution Day, celebrating 250 years of American democracy,” Baldiwala said.
As an immigrant herself, she expressed gratitude to live in a country where she is able to pursue her intellectual interests and teach her students to be activists through their writing.
“It takes really dedicated librarians,” Graewingholt said. “You have to be brave to put on an event like this because you are potentially bringing people into the same space that have very different views about things. In our current climate, that can be challenging to navigate those conversations.”
Graewingholt detailed that it takes an administration that is supportive of events that create a marketplace of ideas and the library needs more funding to facilitate spaces where students can come and see themselves represented in things they are making.
Second-year game art major Ayanna Graham said that she considers this event a great refresher for her rights.
“I’ll definitely try to keep in mind my rights because I know it’s kind of a crazy world out there,” Graham said while inspecting her craft, a keychain with clear, blue, purple and brown beads. She also made a beaded keychain with braided strands.
The next politically relevant craft event will be creating banned book-related zines during the second week of October.