Abstract
As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, New York City is positioning itself as a key site of commemorative tourism. From reenactments at Fraunces Tavern to new initiatives by the Museum of the American Revolution aimed at “rediscovering” the city’s revolutionary past, official narratives are coalescing around a story of patriotic unity and civic pride. But beneath the celebratory tone lies a deeper political work: the selective telling of history in service of national coherence. This paper examines how NYC’s anniversary programming risks reinforcing exclusionary memory practices by centering elite actors and erasing radical, queer, immigrant, and Black contributions to the city’s revolutionary legacy. Drawing on José Esteban Muñoz’s theory of disidentification and recent work in public history and memory studies, I argue that these tourism efforts do not simply remember the past — they stage a future. In doing so, they shape not just what history means, but who belongs within it. This paper frames the 250th not as a celebration but as a planning challenge: How can tourism-based commemoration foster inclusive memory rather than consensus myth? I propose a “memory justice” approach to future-facing tourism, one that embraces contested narratives and resists the urge to settle history for easy consumption. As NYC crafts its anniversary identity, we must ask: what kinds of stories are being sold, for whom are they told, and at what cost to the people who call NYC home?
Presenters
Joseph DonicaProfessor, English Language and Literature, City University of New York, New York, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Critical Issues in Tourism and Leisure Studies
KEYWORDS
Commemorative Tourism, Memory Studies, Public History, Disidentification, Revolutionary New York
