Series 12: September 11th Memorial Projects

Art of Memory/Art of Memorial was held on September 10, 2005 at the Brooklyn Historical Society. Panelists discussed the "art of memory" and the tradition of memorial monuments in Brooklyn including the Beacon Memorial (dedicated May 2005). Public Memory, a film about American memorials was shown after the discussion.

Panelists:

Dr. Kay Turner, BAC Folklorist

Robert Ressler, Artist and Creator of the "Beacon" memorial

Francis Morrone, Historian and Brooklyn architecture scholar

Steve Seitlin, Director of City of Lore, and curator of Missing, an exhibit on 9/11

Amy Gerber, FlatCoatFilms, LLC, Director of Public Memory

Franchot Lee, Photographer

Here Was New York: Twin Towers in Memorial Images was a photo exhibition held in eleven Brooklyn galleries with work submitted by people from the New York area. Over 300 photographs documented the World Trade Center towers as seen in wall murals, painted trucks, graffiti, home displays, and tattoos in an effort to demonstrate forms of remembrance in a post 9/11 world. The exhibit was modeled on Here is New York, a 2001 photography exhibit that invited New Yorkers to hang images documenting September 11th.

Galleries Included:

BAC Gallery

5+5 Gallery

Safe-T Gallery

Gloria Kennedy Gallery

Goloborotko's Studio

Brooklyn Historical Society

3rd Ward

Cinders Gallery

City Reliquary

Proteus Gowanus

ElevenTen Gallery SONYA

McCaig-Welles

September 11th Remembered in Film was a screening of documentary and interpretive films inspired by the September 11th attacks and it's aftermath, which ran from September 7-10, 2007. Discussions with the filmmakers took place after the screenings.

Screening Schedule:

Communities, September 7th

American Dreams #3, Moira Tierney

9/11 Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, Randi Cecchine

9/12: From Chaos to Community, Susanna Styron

Through My Eyes, Shawn Batey

All Our Sons: Fallen Heros of 9/11, Lillian Benson

Parallels, September 8th

Watching Smoke from the Otherside, Sara Ching-Yu Sun

Market Day, Anita Glesta

Legally Blind, Ingrid Rojas

Demons, Tyler Cartner

Stardust, Conlin Gee

We Are Family, Danny Schechter

I Heart Hip-Hop in Morocco, Josh Asen

Windows, September 9th

Say Can You See, Tony Caio

Zahira's Peace, Nina Rosenblum

Welcome to New York, Norman Cowie

The History Makers, Louise Tiranoff/Lynn McVeigh

America Rebuilds II- Return to Ground Zero, Kenneth Mandel/Daniel Polin

Vigils, September 10th

The Disappearing View, Simon Lund

Searching for Sense, Katja Esson

In the Spirit of Peace, Al Santana

Parallel Lines, Nina Davenport

FDNY Thank You Ride, Make Gaughan

In Memoriam 9/11, Alicia Ng

Closure, D.R. Hernandez

September 11th Memorials: Tracing the Traces of Their History is an essay written by Kay Turner for the seventh anniversary of the September 11th attacks. Turner traces the legacy of the ephemeral memorials created in New York City and their relation to other expressions of mourning.

Memorial Sing was a concert that took place on the evening of September 11, 2009 at the Powerhouse Arena. Performers submitted original songs about September 11th through an open call, and Folk Arts selected twenty-one to be performed. Originally planned as an outdoor event, Memorial Sing was moved to the Powerhouse Arena due to rain.

September 11th Memorial Poetry Project was a project to collect and share poems inspired by the September 11th attacks. Poets submitted their work and selections were read live at the P.S. Bookshop on September 9, 2010. The poems were also made available on the Brooklyn Arts Council website.

Return, Remember: Ephemeral Memorials in the Legacy of September 11th marked the ten year anniversary of the attacks and was the final September 11th Memorial Project. The 2011 program focused on ephemeral memories that were created spontaneously in New York in the weeks after the attack. Folk Arts invited people to create a simple memorial, photograph it, and submit the photos to be included on the Brooklyn Arts Council website. A panel discussion was held on September 2, 2011 at the Powerhouse Arena to assess the legacy of the memorials created after the attack. The event also included a book launch and sighing for Remembering 9/11, by photographer Martha Cooper, who was one of the panelists. The final part of the program was Rethinking Memorial: Ten Interactive Sites for Remembering 9/11, an outdoor exhibition of ten interactive memorial stations created by artists, held on September 10, 2011.