Lisa Del Sesto, senior operations manager for the League of Women Voters, with the author, youth journalist Elodie Lafortune. YAJI Class of 2026 Photo.
What does it look like to commemorate—rather than celebrate—a place that has over two and a half centuries of pain woven into its fabric? What was and is the essential spirit of America—and is it a singular thing? And will it be around for another 250 years, or longer?
Many New Haveners are asking those questions this month, as America celebrates its 250th birthday with a series of events that has been running since last year. In multiple interviews, several of them spoke about their feelings around the idea of Independence Day—and independence itself—the ambivalence around celebrating, and their hope for the future.
“This Fourth of July is an important thing to commemorate,” said City Historian Miichael Morand , who is the director of community engagement at the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, in an interview earlier this month. “Not everything about this country is fantastic. Many things about this country are fantastic, but not everything is. We can also reckon with those things, whether past or present, that need to be reckoned with. So I like to say that we commemorate, not celebrate, full stop.”
McAllister at the Arts Awards earlier this month. Joel Calloway Photo.
From City Hall, that sense of ambivalence and commemoration resonated for Cultural Affairs Director Shamain “Sha” McAllister, who has never shied away from talking about what it means to be a Black woman in New Haven and in municipal government.
Well before she was in her current city position, to which she was appointed in October of last year, McAllister helped catalyze vital discussions around race, racism, and white supremacy in grassroots film festivals, neighborhood-based symphony concerts, and community engagement work for the International Festival of Arts & Ideas, including the NEA Big Read.
Outside of that work, McAllister helped launch and organize Kulturally LIT (formerly Elm City LIT Fest) and a Black film festival in Hamden in the thick of the Covid-19 pandemic.
For her, the idea of celebrating American independence is not very straightforward. She understands why some people choose to celebrate the idea of American independence. But to her, the current political climate is in direct conflict with the idea of freedom—which itself initially came at a time when not all people were recognized as fully human, or fully free, in this country.
Curator Juanita Sunday and Sha McAllister at Fair Haven Day in 2025. Lucy Gellman File Photo.
“There are those who have come here and have had prosperity, right?” she said. “There are those who have come here seeking asylum. There are folks who have come here with their families looking for a better life, and been able to achieve all those things, right? But then there's also folks who were brought here against their will and have a starting point of trauma, of slavery, you know?”
She pointed to the long history of forced migration, forced labor, and othering, from the mass displacement of Native people to the enslavement of Africans to the much more recent history of Japanese internment in the last century, from which America is not even 100 years removed (for this and many other reasons, “Juneteenth is my day,” she said). And yet, she added, she sees the country continuing for another 250 years—and still has hope for its future.
“I don't think this shop is going to close,” she said. “If England is still going strong, we got a chance. And you know, prayerfully, this next 250 don't look like the first 250. I think there's always an opportunity to turn it around. There's always an opportunity to put our best foot forward … a lot of restructuring, dismantling, and not being afraid of something new. And something beautiful.”
City Historian Michael (Mike) Morand outside of the Beinecke in 2024. Lucy Gellman File Photo.
Morand, who was appointed city historian in 2024, echoed that hope—and some of McAllister’s wariness and cynicism, too. When Mayor Justin Elicker tapped him as city historian in 2024, he made it a priority to tell stories of Black and Indigenous New Haveners, both past and present. New Haven, where slavery was legal until 1848, sits on the unceded land of the Quinnipiac, Wappinger and Pagusset peoples.
For decades, he had already been doing that work: Morand was one of the driving forces behind the exhibition Shining A Light on Truth: New Haven, Yale, and Slavery and What Could Have Been, a documentary that tells the story of a proposal for the first HBCU in New Haven, and the men who voted it overwhelmingly down. Not only does he want to see a more kinder and equitable United States: he’s trying to help will it into existence.
“We definitely have more time as a country, and I think if our ancestors did what they did and our descendants do what we hope will be done, it can be,” he said when asked if he thought America could withstand another 250 years. “But it’s not guaranteed. It takes actual people doing actual things to make it happen … It's not about celebrating what happened, but saying: ‘What did they do? What did they do right? What did they do wrong? What can we learn from that? What can we do for tomorrow?’”
Erin Kelly (with the red hair) and fellow IRIS employees and volunteers. YAJI Class of 2026 Photo.
Other voices in the mix are perhaps more optimistic. Lisa Del Sesto, senior operations manager for the League of Women Voters, said that even with political moment that Americans are living through, she still has hope in America. In early July, her work found her at a community celebration from Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services (IRIS), helping hand out voter registration forms and talk people through the process. Her station included informational flyers on the U.S. government and basic voting information for newcomers.
With the breadth of her work, Del Sesto said that she still very much believes in celebrating the 250th birthday of the United States, and recognizing the immense work that it took—and takes—to maintain independence. In addition, Del Sesto is the co-founder of We Are Women Rising, an advocacy group that seeks to promote equality and push for women’s rights through its work.
“I believe that our nation has been changing since that day in 1776, when we declared our independence, and we will keep evolving,” she said. “And what's going on right now, I think, is a moment for us to see what does not work, what we do not want, so that we can then focus on what we do want. And I think that the majority of Americans know that we're not where we need to be. But we know where we need to go.”
Even while expressing her own belief in celebrating America’s 250th, Del Sesto noted that the League of Women Voters is nonpartisan, meaning that it does not promote one candidate over another or lean politically to a side. That focus on civic engagement over partisan politics has reminded her of how fundamental voting rights are—and how important they are to protect. She likes, for instance, to help first-time voters make their voices heard in future elections.
“We want people to register, to vote, and to vote in every election that they can. We want participation. We want to see citizens at town halls, talking to their elected officials. We want people writing letters to the governor, or their representatives in Hartford, or in Congress down in DC, because that's what it's really about,” she said.
At the same event earlier this month was Erin Kelly, volunteer engagement and communications coordinator for IRIS. Prior to helping organize IRIS’ event, Kelly said, her answer about the health and future of the United States (which she does not personally think will survive another 250 years) might have been more cynical. But helping put together a celebration of immigrants and refugees on Independence Day weekend reminded her of the very best of America.
“This event is celebrating all the common people like us who would come together and make this country what it is,” she said and “I also will happily, like, admit that I personally believe our country is nowhere near that its strongest point right now. I think our administration is corrupt, I think, so many things in this country need to change, but I think loving your country means, like, wanting to see it be better, and I think events like this really kind of put them into perspective.”
This article comes from the ninth and current cohort of the Arts Council's Youth Arts Journalism Initiative (YAJI). From June 29 through August 21, YAJI students pitch, report, write and edit stories with Arts Paper Editor Lucy Gellman, Program Assistants Abiba Biao and Grayce Howe and Mentor Ruby Szekeres. Elodie Lafortune is a 2026 graduate of Cooperative Arts & Humanities High School. She will begin her freshman year at Dean College in the fall. Lucy Gellman contributed reporting.