Feeling our way toward reparative interpretation* at Historic Huguenot Street
HHS is a colonial-era historic site in New Paltz, New York with rich documentation of the Esopus (Lenape) people, European settlers, and enslaved and free Black people who lived on this site in the 1600s, 1700s, and 1800s. Through deep and thoughtful investigation of the site’s history with Indigenous and Black partners, advisors, and visitors, we are building a comprehensive interpretive plan that puts HHS in right relationship with the land, with ancestors and descendants, and with 21st-century Americans of any and every identity group, each of whom have a shared stake in a history of this country that accurately reflects its diversity and cultural nuances.
Our proposal to NEH for 2024 planning funding received across-the-board “excellent” scores from the review panel.
*I am grateful to my colleague Margaret Middleton for their conceptual framing of this term
“I really appreciated the cultural sensitivity and relation of history to current issues.”
—visitor feedback on a guided tour prototype