WEST COAST PREMIERE PERFORMANCE: A Reading of the Noitutitsnoc
Overview
Please join us for “a READING of the NOITUTITSNOC: A Performance by Christy Chan" followed by a panel discussion.
Calling The People….
You are cordially invited to a Performance and Panel Discussion
WEST COAST PREMIERE
PERFORMANCE: A Reading of the Noitutitsnoc
A Performance by Christy Chan
In a poetic questioning of who gets to have the agency, power and presence to interpret the U.S. constitution, artist Christy Chan deconstructs our nation’s founding document by reading it “backwards” at the Berkeley Public Library. Hearing the constitution read from back to front – in Chan’s voice – may prove to be no less loaded in emotional meaning than to hear it from left to right. In a time when the fundamental liberties of immigrant communities and BIPOC Americans are once again under siege, Chan invites us to ask: “To whom do these historic words, and by extension, our human and constitutional rights, get to belong?”
Chan’s performance is a response to the 250th anniversary of the founding of America.
PANEL DISCUSSION: Whose Constitution?
Moderated by author Jeff Chang, panelists will explore the question "What should our relationship to the constitution be in this moment of time, as both individual citizens and as members of our communities?" Featuring historian Michael Schulze-Oechtering and legal expert Nicole Ozer as panelists.
DETAILS:
Saturday, October 24, 2026
Performance: 1:00 - 1:30 PM (30 minutes)
Break: 1:30 - 1:45
Panel Discussion: 1:45 - 2:45 PM (one hour)
Location: Berkeley Public Library — Main Branch
2090 Kittredge St, Berkeley, CA
Historic Lobby, 2nd floor, Mystery Room
Standing room with a few chairs provided for accessibility.
Admission: Free and open to the public
Presented by Berkeley Art Center, in partnership with Berkeley Public Library and Meet the Moment. This performance was made possible through the generous support of the City of Berkeley, and donors and members of Berkeley Art Center.
ABOUT:
Christy Chan is an artist and film director working across video, performance, installation, narrative film, object design, and community-driven public art. The recent recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and Creative Capital Award, Chan’s work uses both minimalism and tragic-comic approaches to question the everyday power structures that normalize racialized violence in the United States. www.christychan.com
Jeff Chang is a writer, host, and cultural organizer known for his work in culture, politics, the arts, and music. Jeff has been a USA Ford Fellow in Literature and a Lucas Artist Fellow.
Michael Schulze-Oechtering is Assistant Professor of Comparative Ethnic Studies in Fairhaven College at Western Washington University. His research uses social movement history and Comparative Ethnic Studies to explore how communities of color in the United States have both questioned and crossed racial boundaries. His teaching interests include critical/comparative ethnic studies, anti-racist social movements, histories of capitalism, Asian American/Native Pacific Studies, and the Black Radical Tradition.
Nicole Ozer is a national leader in cutting-edge law and policy to advance rights, justice, and democracy and a legal expert on artificial intelligence, privacy and surveillance, and digital speech. Ozer’s innovative work in the courts, in communities, with companies, and policymakers passes landmark laws, wins civil rights cases, and builds power for national and international change.