What is America?

In this moment, as the nation marks the waning months of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and moves forward from Election Day, we find ourselves asking a fundamental question: What is America?

From my vantage point, working alongside communities across Illinois, the answer becomes clearer every day: many of the questions, challenges, and hopes that define America can be found right here in our state.

I mean this literally. By just about any measure, we are amongst the most American of states. The many ways communities across Illinois are engaging with this anniversary reveal the racial, economic, and social complexities that have always shaped American democracy.

Across the state, people are using this moment not simply to reflect on the past, but to ask difficult questions about who we are, how we got here, and where we go next. At Illinois Humanities, we've had the privilege of witnessing and participating in many of those conversations.

One example was THE PURSUIT: A People's Salon, a one-night gathering at Chicago's Ramova Theatre where five artists and performers responded to a simple but profound question: What does it mean to pursue happiness in America today? Their answers varied in form, perspective, and tone, but together they underscored a larger truth: the American story has never been singular, and our understanding of it is always evolving.

I will never ever forget

• The resonant voice of Turtle Mountain Band Anishinaabe and Illinois Poet Laureate Mark Turcotte reflecting on Indigenous presence, memory and the meaning of land acknowledgements.
• The powerful singing of avery r. young, sharing an excerpt of his forthcoming opera, An Un-Heavy, inspired by the Pullman Porters who carried the body of Emmett Till home to Chicago
• The premier convolutions and magical convulsions of dancers performing Frío under the choreographic direction of INSÉKTA.
• An otherworldly scientific presentation of Periphery, or What Flies in the Air in the Night above the Chicago Skyline as we dance in the club by DJ Ariel Zetina.
• Or the personal, searching questions at the heart of Lisa Beasley's Mayday's Guide for Year 1, a reflection on uncertainty, ambition, and the weight of choosing a path forward: Did I pursue it? Did I get it?

Taken together, these performances offered no single answer to the question of what it means to pursue happiness in America today. Instead, they revealed something more valuable: a nation still questioning itself, still arguing with itself, still imagining new possibilities for what it can become.

Those same themes run through the six-part radio series we curated in partnership with Illinois Public Radio (NPR).

They're also present in the conversations we're recording with people in all 102 counties and preserving at the Library of Congress. What do people ask one another? What is a story from your childhood you want remembered? When have you been most proud of, or conflicted by, this country? What do you hope this country will be like in 50 years?

The questions remain the same whether the conversation is between fifth-generation Illinoisans in a small town, recent arrivals speaking in their first language, members of Native Nations whose roots predate the founding of the country, veterans, people who are incarcerated, or visitors to the State Fair.

And those conversations are unfolding far beyond any single program or organization.

In my role as Chair of the Illinois America 250 Commission, I have the privilege of seeing the many ways communities across the state have embraced this anniversary on their own terms.

Nearly 60 organizations hosted community readings of the Declaration of Independence on July 8 alone. People requested 10,000 copies of the Declaration in English and Spanish, featuring artwork by William Estrada. One hundred thousand copies of the first-ever Passport to Illinois are helping residents explore places where Illinoisans have worked to advance the ideals expressed in the Declaration.

When I stood at the National Museum of Mexican Art last February and shared a vision for an Illinois-centered commemoration of the nation's 250th anniversary, I could not have anticipated the response.

In the months since, I've been asked by policymakers, artists, educators, tourism leaders, and community builders from across Illinois and around the country the same question: How did Illinois respond to the anniversary?

The answer is simple. People responded by coming together in the places they call home. Not because they were directed to. Not because there was a mandate or an abundance of funding. But because they wanted to reflect on their histories, share their stories, and imagine their futures together.

Illinois is embodying the reflective patriotism Lincoln called upon us to embrace with vigor. Residents are forming the “intellectual and moral associations” Alexis de Tocqueville pointed to as the fuel powering the American democratic experiment.

Public humanities organizations, libraries, municipalities, local tourism and visitor bureaus, museums, and history, heritage, and cultural organizations are providing the infrastructure people use to weave the civic fabric.

This is America. Where we resist being reduced to just one thing or the smallest version of ourselves. Where we uplift under told stories. Where we do history about where we live, love, and learn. Where we come together as We the People to re-found, imagine, and describe what we want our country to be – not just on election day, but every day.

Over the next month, we’re doing a survey to get a better sense of how communities responded to the 250th. I look forward to sharing what we learn. I imagine it will be as rich, diverse, and complex as the anniversary itself.