September 11 Digital Archive

The Sonic Memorial Project

Title

The Sonic Memorial Project

Description

SonicMemorial.org is an open archive and an online audio installation of the history of The World Trade Center. It collected stories, ambient sounds, voicemails, and archival recordings to tell the rich history of the twin towers, the neighborhood and the events of 9/11. Led by NPR's Lost & Found Sound, The Sonic Memorial Project is a cross-media collaboration of more than 50 independent radio and new media producers, artists, historians, and people from around the world who have contributed personal and archival recordings. To date, we have gathered more than 1,000 contributions, many of which have been woven into feature stories by Lost & Found Sound and broadcast on NPR. SonicMemorial.org is produced by Picture Projects and dotsperinch in collaboration with Lost & Found Sound.

Items in the The Sonic Memorial Project Collection

New Yorker Seth Richardson plays the message he received from his wife when she was trying to reach him on September 11.

Anita Glesta lived across from the WTC. On 9/11, as she tried to get her kids from their school, her husband was looking for them. The family dog, Angel, was later rescued by a U.S. Army general.

Brooklyn cartoonist Josh Neufeld tried to track down his wife and describes what he did on 9/11. He later did a comic book with 80 other artists called 9-11: Emergency Relief.

Kevin Scott, a San Antonio fire captain, wrote a song called 911 for firefighters killed on that day.

The musical group that Terry Platz belongs to performs a song to the tune of Scarborough Fair using words from a sonnet by Shakespeare. She says those lyrics can be quite chilling in light of 9/11.

Bernard Mendelow tells of two 9/11-related coincidences that he experienced. After the attack, he left his office five blocks from Ground Zero and ran into his daughter, who had also been evacuated from her downtown office. Later, someone in Brooklyn…

Alun Williams, director of the Triangle Artists' Workshop, describes videos made of workshops that took place at the WTC in 1998 and 2000.

Rosemary Jane calls from England to recommend The Voice of Freedom, a song by the British-Pakistani teen singer Sarah Francis that incorporates a speech by Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan.

Maria Solario and her sister, who both live in downtown Manhattan, tried to reach each other on 9/11. They saved their phone messages.

Songwriter Eric Douglas, who lost a friend in the WTC, wrote a song the day after 9/11. It's called If You Were Gone Today.

Birder Rebekah Creshkoff was working on a study about migratory birds flying into skyscrapers at night. She recorded her findings at the WTC.

In October 2001 filmmaker Kelli Feigley recorded a two-minute video poem on the Brooklyn Bridge called My Brother the City.

Ted Olcott, a retired director of planning for the Port Authority, was involved in the initial planning for the WTC and PATH trains. He volunteers to read an account of his experiences. It was published after 9/11.

Romi Porrazzo's husband, a bank president who worked on the 60th floor of the north tower, escaped the building after the plane hit. He left a message at 8:48 telling of a massive explosion and saying that everyone was getting out.

Artist Mary Crescenzo describes how the performance piece she created for the Day of the Dead turned into a memorial. She has video of the performance, which took place November 1 at the Pelham Art Center in Pelham, New York.

Jill Tatara describes a poem she wrote using lines she heard while walking from the WTC area on 9/11.

Charter boat captain Patrick Harris had docked his boat at the World Financial Center on September 11 and was there when he saw the first jet hit the tower. He immediately radioed the Coast Guard.

Singer James Hamilton describes We Will Overcome, a song he recorded as a memorial to 9/11.

Heather, a New York City resident, describes two concerts she heard at the World Financial Center. At one, she Bang on a Can performed a cover of Brian Eno's Music for Airports. At the second, she saw Meredith Monk. She also describes a drug…

Utah resident Natalie Hickan describes The Cruise, a 1998 documentary about the eccentric tour guide, Timothy Speed Levitch. In the film, he spins around beneath the towers and imagines them falling on him.

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