The year 2027 will mark the 250th anniversary of the New York State Constitution of 1777, a foundational document drafted during the Revolutionary War that helped shape the U.S. Constitution. This presentation proposes a critical and creative engagement with such texts through the lens of documentary poetry, a genre that blends archival materials with poetic intervention to interrogate historical narratives.

Using the New York State Constitution of 1777 as a case study, I will present an alternative poetic draft that juxtaposes colonial legal language with Indigenous Lenape cosmology, historical figures such as Chief White Eyes, and speculative imagery drawn from folklore. This reimagined document (available here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1B1s8QhrVDf6Znb8_0tKKwJB9h2rehc_V/view?usp=sharing) invites reflection on how foundational texts encode both the logic of settler colonialism and the silencing of Indigenous sovereignty.

Through this presentation, I aim to:

• Introduce documentary poetry as a method for engaging with archival and historical materials, referencing works by Muriel Rukeyser, Charles Reznikoff, and M. NourbeSe Philip.

• Demonstrate how poetic intervention can expose ideological tensions and propose alternative narratives.

• Use the alternative draft as a live example of how artists can creatively rework historical documents to reflect multiple epistemologies and voices.

The session will conclude with an invitation to collaborate on a broader interdisciplinary initiative to reimagine foundational texts. A potential follow-up includes the creation of a collective archive of alternative drafts, poetic interventions, and visual narratives that challenge dominant historical frameworks and propose new visions of justice, belonging, and resistance.