NEW YORK—A table was set up in Peter Minuit Plaza near Staten Island Ferry on Wednesday to allow New Yorkers and tourists to write or draw on a small panel to express their thoughts and feelings about the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
The collaborative art project was launched by volunteers from the Tribute WTC Visitor Center, the Feel the Music! nonprofit that uses music to help those impacted by trauma, and The Battery Conservancy. They will continue to collect people’s thoughts and memories about the 2001 tragedy once a week throughout July.
“We’re reaching out to those who live and work in Lower Manhattan and giving them the opportunity to express themselves and their feelings about 9/11—10 years later,” said Meriam Lobel, curator for the Tribute WTC Visitor Center.
The individual reflections will be combined in the “9/11 Tenth Anniversary Reflections” installation that will be revealed on Aug. 4 in the Gardens of Remembrance in Battery Park.
The panels are about 4-by-5 inches and made of Mylar, so art supplies like color pencils and markers adhere easily, but the installation will also be weatherproof.
The collaborative art project was launched by volunteers from the Tribute WTC Visitor Center, the Feel the Music! nonprofit that uses music to help those impacted by trauma, and The Battery Conservancy. They will continue to collect people’s thoughts and memories about the 2001 tragedy once a week throughout July.
“We’re reaching out to those who live and work in Lower Manhattan and giving them the opportunity to express themselves and their feelings about 9/11—10 years later,” said Meriam Lobel, curator for the Tribute WTC Visitor Center.
The individual reflections will be combined in the “9/11 Tenth Anniversary Reflections” installation that will be revealed on Aug. 4 in the Gardens of Remembrance in Battery Park.
The panels are about 4-by-5 inches and made of Mylar, so art supplies like color pencils and markers adhere easily, but the installation will also be weatherproof.
“The gardens were planted after 9/11 as a tribute to the people who died and the people who survived. This is the first time we’re having an art project that’s being created directly related to the gardens,” Lobel said. “It’s a chance to give people a chance to pause and think about 9/11 again.”
Mohammad Shoes came early, before the table was fully set up, to write about his experience.
“He’s from Bangladesh and worked in the neighborhood for 18 years,” Lobel said about Shoes. “He went back to Bangladesh to get married on Sept. 7 [2001]. He said his brother worked on the top floor of the World [Trade Center] and was scheduled to work that morning [Sept. 11, 2001], but last minute somebody asked him to change shifts. He stayed home, and the other man went in—and the other man was killed.”
“I was very sorry to hear how it happened on that day, 9/11/2001,” Shoes wrote.
Lobel said she thinks everyone in New York has a 9/11 story, but the stories often go untold because “it’s so difficult and it’s so painful.”
Kevin Monroy from New Jersey said he was only 7 when the tragedy happened but still remembers it distinctly and wanted to write about it on his panel.
“I felt like something went through me, like “Boom!” I looked up, but nothing was wrong—until like one second later [when] I saw the explosions. And when I saw the explosions, I heard a lady screaming behind me. I turned around and she [was] on the floor, on her knees, screaming, ‘My husband was on that floor!’” Monroy recalled. “That’s why every time I think about 9/11, I always think about tears and families breaking apart.”
Monroy added that he was glad the project would help people reflect. “It really makes people think and express themselves. It’s a smart idea,” he said.
Tova Snyder has been working with Feel the Music! to help families affected by 9/11 create a mural project and will also be compiling the panels to create this installation.
“I try to encourage them and bring out the best way to express what they want, so I have a lot of different kinds of materials. Even a color can be emotional, or a texture,” Snyder said.
The panels are semitransparent, and the finished installation will be framed with bamboo.
“I wanted something that allowed you to still see the water and the grass and the flowers and everything they planted, so it’s very organic. But I also wanted it to be intimate, and there they have stone steps where you can go up [to the installations] and read them up close,” Snyder explained.
Lobel said the idea behind the project is to help people think about which memories they want to preserve.
“Which memories and ideas would we want to share with our children and our next generations? We want people to know about the horror and the loss of life, but we also want young people know how the city came together and how people from all over the country and all over the world came to help New York rebuild after that,” she concluded.
Korean tourists Bae Hyo Won and Bae Dong Seong stopped by and wrote a message to New Yorkers together.
Bae Dong Seong translated their message: “Never again a terrorist attack. This campaign is a very good proposal, very good meaning for us all.”
Mohammad Shoes came early, before the table was fully set up, to write about his experience.
“He’s from Bangladesh and worked in the neighborhood for 18 years,” Lobel said about Shoes. “He went back to Bangladesh to get married on Sept. 7 [2001]. He said his brother worked on the top floor of the World [Trade Center] and was scheduled to work that morning [Sept. 11, 2001], but last minute somebody asked him to change shifts. He stayed home, and the other man went in—and the other man was killed.”
“I was very sorry to hear how it happened on that day, 9/11/2001,” Shoes wrote.
Lobel said she thinks everyone in New York has a 9/11 story, but the stories often go untold because “it’s so difficult and it’s so painful.”
Kevin Monroy from New Jersey said he was only 7 when the tragedy happened but still remembers it distinctly and wanted to write about it on his panel.
“I felt like something went through me, like “Boom!” I looked up, but nothing was wrong—until like one second later [when] I saw the explosions. And when I saw the explosions, I heard a lady screaming behind me. I turned around and she [was] on the floor, on her knees, screaming, ‘My husband was on that floor!’” Monroy recalled. “That’s why every time I think about 9/11, I always think about tears and families breaking apart.”
Monroy added that he was glad the project would help people reflect. “It really makes people think and express themselves. It’s a smart idea,” he said.
Tova Snyder has been working with Feel the Music! to help families affected by 9/11 create a mural project and will also be compiling the panels to create this installation.
“I try to encourage them and bring out the best way to express what they want, so I have a lot of different kinds of materials. Even a color can be emotional, or a texture,” Snyder said.
The panels are semitransparent, and the finished installation will be framed with bamboo.
“I wanted something that allowed you to still see the water and the grass and the flowers and everything they planted, so it’s very organic. But I also wanted it to be intimate, and there they have stone steps where you can go up [to the installations] and read them up close,” Snyder explained.
Lobel said the idea behind the project is to help people think about which memories they want to preserve.
“Which memories and ideas would we want to share with our children and our next generations? We want people to know about the horror and the loss of life, but we also want young people know how the city came together and how people from all over the country and all over the world came to help New York rebuild after that,” she concluded.
Korean tourists Bae Hyo Won and Bae Dong Seong stopped by and wrote a message to New Yorkers together.
Bae Dong Seong translated their message: “Never again a terrorist attack. This campaign is a very good proposal, very good meaning for us all.”
