Revolutionary Spaces launches their 2026–2027 program series, "Constitution, After the Declaration: The Origins, Evolution, and Impact of the U.S. Constitution", with a special Constitution Day program exploring the revolutionary nature of our nation’s founding document. The first program, "Constitution Day 2026: A Revolutionary View of Constitutional Supremacy", will take place on September 17 at the Old South Meeting House. Professors Nikolas Bowie and Daphna Renan will join Boston Globe reporter Brian MacQuarrie for a conversation examining the role of the U.S. Supreme Court in interpreting the Constitution and its authority to determine the constitutionality of laws enacted by Congress.

The principle of self-government was at the heart of the conflict between Colonial America and Great Britain in the 17th and 18th centuries. When the United States Constitution established the framework for our federal government in 1789, the power of the people to govern themselves was vested in Congress. Notably, however, the Constitution does not explicitly grant the judicial branch the authority to determine the constitutionality of laws enacted by the people’s elected representatives. Over time, the U.S. Supreme Court has asserted the power of “judicial supremacy,” allowing the Court to override congressional legislation. The tension between this authority and the power of Congress to carry out the will of the people is at the center of "Supremacy: How Rule by the Court Replaced Government by the People", the new book by Bowie and Renan.

The discussion will also explore a “lost” constitutional tradition shaped by abolitionists, labor leaders, suffragists, civil rights pioneers, and ordinary citizens throughout more than 200 years of American history. These individuals sought to shape national policy and civic life through Congress’s power to make laws that reflect the will of the people.

Tenesha Carter Johnson is a curator and cultural historian, with a particular investment in American quilt and textile histories. Her work explores the relationship between material culture and public history, wherein quilts serve as records of lived experience and historical intervention. She holds a BA in Art History from Spellman College and MA in Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture from Bard Graduate Center. Her research has contributed to leading institutions and digital resources such as the Museum of African American History, Boston & Nantucket; Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture; and, The Fashion & Race Database.

Focusing on native materials such as bulrush and wampum, the talk will show how plants and shells are not simply resources, but living connections to land, water, craft, and identity.

The Saturday Evening Girls’ club was established in 1899 to provide cultural activities for Italian and Jewish immigrant girls who lived in the tenements of Boston’s North End. In 1908, the reform-minded club leaders founded the Paul Revere Pottery to provide the girls with a clean and educational venue in which to earn money.

Mark Peterson, historian of early America, and the Edmund S. Morgan Professor of History at Yale University, will join Boston College to discuss his recent work, "The Making and Breaking of the American Constitution: A Thousand-Year History".

Photographic artist Marsha Wilcox, astrophysicist Sara Seager, and moderator Jennifer Roberts explore light and darkness from strikingly different perspectives.

We provide provocative conversations between artists, scientists, and the public. Open access to ideas at the cutting-edge of innovation and discovery. Sparking collaborations, synergy and the development of future projects with the creative, academic, and business communities.

This year, Congress is proposing the Building Unrivaled Infrastructure and Long-Term Development for America’s 250th Act, or BUILD Act, which would cut the already disproportionately dwarfed (compared to roads and highways) funding for transit across the country. Massachusetts stands to lose about 18% of its current funding level. Jeremy Siegel, host of In Common, moderates a discussion offering a breakdown of federal funding for transportation, its current constraints, what it takes for us to build world-class transit,

According to research, public trust in the Supreme Court is near a three-decade low. Most Americans, across party lines, still say justices shouldn't let politics shape their rulings, and most also believe, increasingly, that they do. Rachel A. Shelden, author of “The Political Supreme Court: A Forgotten History,” speaks at the Cambridge Forum.

Rachel A. Shelden is a historian of nineteenth-century America and Associate Professor of History at Penn State University, where she also directs the George and Ann Richards Civil War Era Center. Her research explores the intersections of politics, constitutionalism, law, and slavery, with a particular focus on the role of personal relationships and political networks.