This year marks the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. At first, its soaring rhetoric applied only to white, male landowners. Over time, though, it inspired both the abolitionist and women’s suffrage movements. The document remains a symbol of the American ideals of equality, liberty, and self-governance.

In the exhibition We Hold These Truths, writer and artist José Faus debuts 12 new blackout poems, a form of erasure poetry, using the Declaration of Independence as the starting point. Faus redacts text to create poems that could be read as subversive, and in doing so invites fresh interpretation.

His works encourage us to reconsider this crucial document, reflecting on both our history and our future.

A visual artist, poet, and educator, Faus was born in Bogotá, Colombia, and moved to Kansas City when he was 9. He’s created large-scale murals in Mexico, South America, and in the metro area, including, most recently, Armourdale Flood, 1951. A co-founder of the Latino Writers Collective, Faus is the author of the chapbook This Town Like That, and a collection of poetry, The Life and Times of José Calderon.