It has been twenty years since September 11, 2001, a day the world will never forget. On this day, families and friends lost 2,983 souls in the attacks on our Country. By hosting commemorative events, we hope to pay tribute to the victims and their memory, through collection, preservation and exhibition of materials and digital artifacts. Here are just a few thoughtful ways to spend the day.
“Twenty years after 9/11, I remember the 2,977 – some of them my friends – who were tragically murdered that day by terrorists, in addition to the countless first responders, local residents, and others who have died from 9/11-related cancers since,” said U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. “But I also pause to remember the profound sense of common purpose and unity and selflessness that this tragedy spurred in New York and across our whole nation. In honor of those lost that day, we never stopped searching and we never stopped finding ways to learn from our mistakes and we never stopped moving forward to rebuild this place and our city and our nation so that it is stronger and wiser and more compassionate and better. We owe a great debt to those who died, and whose stories are honored and shared with the world every single day at the 9/11 Memorial & Museum.”
Schumer continued: “It is a bitter irony that COVID-19 continues to exact a deadly toll on 9/11 survivors who are suffering from respiratory and cardiopulmonary diseases. Over the last year, I have fought with all my might in Washington to deliver urgently needed relief so that we can get more vaccines in the arms of our highest-risk individuals and save lives. We are finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and just as we did in the aftermath of 9/11, New York will come back stronger than ever before. Two decades ago, we showed the world the way forward from unfathomable tragedy, and so we will again.”
On Friday evening, September 10th at 7:45pm, His Eminence, Archbishop Elpidophoros will conduct a memorial service and illuminate Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and National Shrine for the first time, officially commencing the 20th Anniversary remembrance of 9/11. Watch the lighting at stnicholaswtc.org.
Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church predates by decades the financial centers of Wall Street. Located at 155 Cedar Street, Saint Nicholas was completely destroyed when Tower 2 came down on 9/11. After several years of challenges, negotiations between the Church and Port Authority led to rebuilding, positioning the Church at 130 Liberty.
The Saint Nicholas Church complex, designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava and modeled after Byzantine churches of Hagia Sophia and the Church of the Holy Savior in Istanbul, was designed to glow in the evening hours, an ever-present beacon of hope on the World Trade Center campus.
View the Consecration of St Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and National Shrine on July 4, 2022 Here.
Documentaries will also be airing in the days leading up to the 9/11 20th Anniversary. Look for 9/11 Stories to be Told: 20 Years Later on channel 13; Also, The 9/11 Tribute Museum announced the ‘Stories in Tribute’ Campaign.
Apple TV will air a 9/11 documentary focusing on the hours after the attacks entitled 9/11: The President’s War Room; The History Channel will air Road to 9/11, providing a 360 degree overview of events that led to the attack; on Hulu 9/11 Remembered: The Day We Came Together ~ and many more to be announced.
The 9/11 Memorial and Museum in New York City will continue its tradition of reading the names aloud of those killed on that day. The names will be read by family members in-person, with programming beginning at 8:30am. Entrance to the Memorial site will be for immediate family only. Television Networks NBC, CBS and ABC will provide live coverage of the Memorial Ceremonies at the 9/11 Memorial Site downtown.
The annual Tribute in Light, a commemorative public art installation, will take place beginning at 7:00pm. The twin beams, which are assembled on the roof of the Battery Parking Garage, reach up to four miles into the sky and are comprised of eighty-eight 7,000-watt xenon lightbulbs. This installation can be viewed from a 60-mile radius around lower Manhattan.
Soho Photo Gallery: 9/11 Memorial Exhibition on view from September 10-12, 2021
Soho Photo Gallery presents two exhibitions commemorating the Twentieth Anniversary of 911 ~ Witness: Lee Day/Hans Weiss/Wolfgang Staehle and 911: Our First Responder Heroes, 49 photographs by FDNY and NYPD curated and printed by Linda Sandow.
Wallach Art Gallery presents “The Way We Remember”
Coinciding with the 20th anniversary of 9/11 and responding to a vibrant popular and academic debate about the role and function of public monuments The Way We Remember: Koenig’s Sphere, 9/11 and the Politics of Memory explores three distinct but interrelated themes surrounding the issues of public monuments; memory, trauma, postmemory; and the power of art to represent the past. The exhibition will be on view from September 10 to November 14, 2021.
In addition Wallach Art Gallery (Columbia University) will hold a lecture in conjunction with the exhibition ~ the online lecture will take place on September 23rd. Register for ‘Reflections on 9/11 Memory, 20 Years on‘ Here.
“Remembrance, Reflection, Resilience: A 9/11 Tribute Concert” will feature Samuel Barber’s “Adagio for Strings”; the world premiere of Gary S. Fagin’s “9/11 in Memoriam”; Edward Kennedy (Duke) Ellington’s “Come Sunday,” featuring the KCO’s Orlando Wells on violin; and other musical pieces interspersed with several short readings.
The Heartbeat of a City on Little Island for 9/11
The Heartbeat of a City, presented by Urban Word/NYC shares four brilliant National Youth Poet Laureates, bringing their beautiful verses to Little Island on September 11th for an evening that reflects on our country’s recent challenges from 9/11 to COVID. Another Free Event on Little Island. Tickets Here.
Pete Alonso Donates 9/11 Tribute Cleats to 9/11 Memorial & Museum
Mets rookie sensation Pete Alonso donated his 9/11 tribute cleats and an autographed commemorative bat to the 9/11 Memorial & Museum. The first basemen wore the cleats during a game on the anniversary of the 18th Anniversary of the 2001 attacks.
Remembering 9/11 on the 20th Anniversary in the Schools ~ a pre-recorded webinar made available on the anniversary will include first-hand storytelling from 9/11 family members, survivors, rescue and recovery workers.
“NYC Still Rising After 20 Years: A Comedy Celebration, an event organized by Jon Stewart and Pete Davidson will benefit 9/11 charities. The event will be held at Madison Square Garden on September 12th. Tickets go on sale August 11th at Ticketmaster.
The Never Forget Project was established to support the families of the FDNY who were effected by the devastating attack on 9/11.
Revisiting the 9/11 Tiles for America in Greenwich Village, On September 12th, 2001, pictures of lost loved-ones were hung on a chain linked fence in Greenwich Village, with the hope that they would be found. Along-side these pictures were ceramics shaped angels, handprinted with patriotic symbols. Over the next weeks and months, the ceramic tiles on the fence grew ~ and eventually they were saved and placed permanently in a small triangular park in Greenwich Village.
Traveling 9/11 Exhibit commemorating the attack’s 20 Anniversary will return from a National Tour for its final stop in New York City.
National Geographic will air the six-part documentary series ‘9/11: One Day in America beginning Sunday, August 29th. 9/11: One Day in America” will chronicle the events of September 11, 2001 through gripping first-person narratives of the first responders and survivors who were there. The first trailer should prepare audiences for the first-hand accounts of what they’ll be seeing.
St. Paul’s Chapel will hold its annual morning bell services followed by Prayers for Peace. Bell of Hope: Prayers for Peace and Reconciliation will take place on September 11, 2021 from 8:46am to 9:00am. The bell was a gift from London to New York City a year after the attacks. You can join in on Facebook Live if you can’t attend.
“Requiem 2021” is a multimedia project dedicated to the memory of the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The program will be projected on the walls of the Grand Ballroom in the Bohemian National Hall to the sound of the Requiem “Oratio Spei” by the renowned contemporary composer Juraj Filas and will take place on September 9 and September 10 at 7:30pm at Bohemian National Hall, 321 East 73rd Street, NYC.
Requiem 2021 ~ The show runs for 40 minutes with no intermission. Suggested age: 13+. Audience members should arrive 15 minutes before showtime. Shows begin promptly at the start time. There is no late admittance.
An accompanying VR exhibition will feature virtual reality works by visual artist Markéta Gebrian, America’s Got Talent semi-finalist Alex Dowis, and VR Director Anna Eva Kotyza.
Green-Wood Cemetery presents ‘After the End’ ~ Opening September 15
This September, The Green-Wood Cemetery will present After the End, a participatory art installation that provides visitors with an opportunity to publicly share about their personal losses. Created by artists Candy Chang and James A. Reeves, the installation will be located inside Green-Wood’s Historic Chapel beginning on Wednesday, September 15th.
The FDNY Memorial Wall at 10 House on Liberty Street, the firehouse across from the site of the World Trade Center.
The FDNY Memorial Wall stands 56=foot-long and six-foot-high bronze bas relief bolted to the side of the firehouse. This gift from the law firm Holland & Knight memorializes the 343 firefighters who lost their lives in the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center.
The Sphere, a 25-foot, bronze sculpture by German artist Fritz Koening called the World Trade Center Plaza its home since 1971, before Tower 2 was even complete. The Sphere miraculously survived the 9/11 devastation, recovered from the rubble, and was moved several times before returning to its current location, back home to the 9/11 Memorial site.
National Day of Service: Patriot Day ~ September 11th. We not only commemorate those we lost, but we give thanks to the brave first responders.
The National September 11 Memorial & Museum is the nonprofit organization that oversees operations for the 9/11 Memorial and 9/11 Memorial Museum. Located on eight of the 16 acres of the World Trade Center site, the Memorial and Museum remember and honor the 2,983 people who were killed in the horrific attacks of September 11, 2001 and February 26, 1993. The Memorial plaza design consists of two reflecting pools formed in the footprints of the original Twin Towers surrounded by swamp white oak trees. The Museum displays more than 900 personal and monumental objects while its collection includes more than 72,500 items that present intimate stories of loss, compassion, reckoning and recovery linked to the events of 9/11 and the aftermath. The Museum also explores the global impact of 9/11 and its continuing significance through education programs, public programs, live talks and film features that cover contemporary topics designed for diverse audiences.
Three Beautiful Suggestions from our Friends at West Side Rag
Three beautiful ways to commemorate 9/11 come from our friends at the West Side Rag. They include ‘Table of Silence Project 9/11’ at Lincoln Center; Ocufluent I & II, part of RE: GROWTH in Riverside Park; and Verdi’s Requiem: The Met Remembers 9/11.
Out East:
Joel Meyerowitz: Images From Ground Zero After September 11
Joel Meyerowitz: Images from Ground Zero After September 11 will be on view at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill, NY from September 10 to November 7, 2021.
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