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Hundreds of you have shared testimonies, voicemails from the towers, concert recordings from the WTC Plaza, works by WTC artists-in-residence, home movies, tourist videos, rare on-site field recordings, newsreels, oral histories.

—The Kitchen Sisters (Davia Nelson & Nikki Silva) executive producers of Lost and Found Sound's Sonic Memorial Project on NPR.
Fresh Kills
World Trade Center Recovery Operation on Staten Island
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On September 12th 2001, the Fresh Kills Landfill was reopened for the investigation and recovery operation of the World Trade Center disaster. Over 1000 people from federal, state and city agencies sifted through 1.8 million tons of debris to find evidence, personal effects and human remains. Everyone was hoping to find something that would bring closure to another grieving family. In ten months over 4200 human remains were collected and 167 people were identified. DNA testing continues today at the New York Medical Examiner’s Office.

Produced by Picture Projects and Elinoar Astrinsky
Being an artist at the World Trade Center
World Views artists-in-residence remember their time in the towers
  
For New York artists, winning a studio residency at the World Trade Center was a sometimes surreal experience. In 1996, the LMCC started the World Views program and artists began making pieces influenced by their surroundings – perched high on the 91st floor in unfinished office spaces, overlooking the financial district and the surrounding city, alternately crowded by masses of commuters and isolated in lonely late night corridors. The artists created bodies of work that remain as unique visual and aural representations of the WTC. In their own words, some of the artists recall their time in the towers.

Produced by Picture Projects

The Building Stewardesses
Construction Guides at the WTC 1968 - 1971
broadcast on NPR's All Things Considered July 29, 2002
21:23min
As construction commenced on the largest building project since the pyramids, questions and controversies swirled around Lower Manhattan. How tall? Why two? What's a slurry wall? A kangaroo crane? Where are the small businessmen going to go? What's a world trade center, and who needs it anyway?
Guy Tozzoli, the Port Authority visionary behind the building of the Twin Towers, had an inspiration—"Construction Guides." Friendly co-eds in mini-skirted uniforms were posted at corner kiosks on the site to inform an inquiring public and put a pretty face on a controversial issue.

Produced by The Kitchen Sisters, with Laura Folger.
Mixed by Jim McKee/Earwax Productions

Walking High Steel
Mohawk Ironworkers at the Twin Towers
broadcast on NPR's All Things Considered July 1, 2002
15:14min
The Empire State Building, the George Washington Bridge, the World Trade Center—for over a hundred years Mohawk ironworkers have traveled to New York City to help shape the city's skyline. As part of the Sonic Memorial Project, producer Jamie York visited the two Mohawk reserves to gather sound and stories about the legacy of Mohawk ironworkers.

Produced by Jamie York with The Kitchen Sisters.
Mixed by Jim McKee/Earwax Productions


Radio Row
The Neighborhood Before the World Trade Center
broadcast on NPR's All Things Considered June 3, 2002
12:58min
When City Radio opened on Cortlandt Street in 1921, radio was a novelty. Over the next few decades, hundreds of stores popped up. Metro Radio, Leotone Radio, Blan the Radio Man, Cantor the Cabinet King. The six-square-block area in Lower Manhattan became a bazaar of radio tubes, knobs, hi-fi equipment, and antenna kits. It was the largest collection of radio and electronics stores in the world. Then in 1966 the stores were condemned and bulldozed, to make way for the new World Trade Center. A look back at the people and stories of Radio Row.

Produced by Joe Richman/Radio Diaries and Ben Shapiro.

Valentine's Day
Stories of Love & Marriage Atop the World Trade Center
broadcast on NPR's All Things Considered February 14, 2002
12:48min
A Valentine's Day broadcast: stories of romance and marriage that took place 1,377 feet above sea level. One of the first calls The Sonic Memorial Project received was from Bob and Barbara Krutzel who called to tell about their 1976 wedding at Windows on the World, on the 107th floor. They brought with them a little hand-held tape recorder and still have a cassette of their wedding vows. That led Sonic Memorial producers to think about the thousands of others who fell in love, proposed, or were married at Windows on the World and on the observation deck of the World Trade Center over the years.

Produced by The Kitchen Sisters, with Laura Folger.

The Sonic Memorial Special
58:45min
 
Artists, bankers, office staff, elevator and maintenance workers — each tower had a thousand sounds; every floor had a thousand stories. The Sonic Memorial Special gathers some of these sounds and stories in a richly textured document that reflects on this moment in our history. Narrated by Paul Auster. The Sonic Memorial Special is part of public radio's week of special coverage, Understanding America After 9/11.

Produced by The Kitchen Sisters, with Ben Shapiro.
Mixed by Jim McKee/Earwax Productions

September Stories
September 10, 2002 4:30 EST
On NPR's All Things Considered
22:00min
Portraits, remembrances, messages, shards of sound, poetry, music, sound memories—an impressionistic gathering of sounds and stories, many of them contributed by listeners who called the Sonic Memorial Phone Line—make up these intimate and historic pieces marking the anniversary of 9/11.

Produced by The Kitchen Sisters, with Laura Folger.
Mixed by Jim McKee/Earwax Productions
 



A National Collaboration contact: info@sonicmemorial.org

Photo courtesy: Port Authority Publicity Photo