149 - The Sonic Memorial—Remembering 9/11 with host Paul Auster

The Kitchen Sisters Present

The Kitchen Sisters & Radiotopia

Society & Culture

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 8 September 2020

⏱️ 64 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Peabody Award winning Sonic Memorial Project, an intimate and historic documentary commemorating the life and history of the World Trade Center and its surrounding neighborhood, through audio artifacts, rare recordings, voicemail messages and interviews.

The Sonic Memorial Project began in October 2001 as part of the Lost & Found Sound series. We came together—radio producers, artists, construction workers, bond traders, secretaries, ironworkers, elevator operators, policemen, widows, firefighters, archivists, public radio stations and listeners to chronicle and commemorate the life and history of the World Trade Center and its neighborhood. We opened a phone line on NPR for listeners to call in with their stories and audio artifacts relating to the September 11 attacks and the history of the World Trade Center. Hundreds of people called with testimonies and remembrances, music and small shards of sounds.

In addition to these personal messages and remembrances you’ll hear interviews with: Guy Tozzoli, Director of the World Trade Center of New York; Minoru Yamasaki, the architect who designed the World Trade Center; Philippe Petit, the aerialist who walked a tightrope between the twin towers; Leslie Robertson, World Trade Tower structural engineer; Herb Ouida, Executive Vice President of the World Trade Centers Association; Professor Kenneth T. Jackson, Director of New York Historical Society; historian Robert Snyder; and sound artists and musicians who recorded and performed at the Trade Center including Stephen Scott, Ben Cheah, Nadine Robinson, Stephen Vitiello and more.

The Sonic Memorial Project was produced by The Kitchen Sisters in collaboration with NPR, Ben Shapiro, Jay Allison, Joe Richman and independent radio producers, artists, writers, archivists, historians and public radio listeners throughout the country. Hosted by writer Paul Auster.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Radio Tophia, welcome to the Kitchen Sisters Present.
0:04.0	From PRX.
0:05.0	We're the Kitchen Sisters, Davia Nelson and Nicki Silva.
0:09.0	The Kitchen Sisters Present as part of Radiotopia from PRX and right now it's our annual fundraiser.
0:17.0	Radiotopia is a non-profit media company that supports independent creators like us. It takes time and money to
0:24.8	create this kind of audio. Your support means that our team can make the
0:29.2	exact show we want to make. Our goal is 1,000 donors and we know we can do that.
0:35.0	Join today, make your contribution, go to radiotopia.
0:39.4	F.M slash donate. We'll send you a curated playlist from all of the Radio Topio producers as a
0:46.7	token of our thanks. That's going to be a pretty good one I'll tell you because
0:50.4	there's some great music people in this collaboration.
0:53.4	Go to radiotopia.fm slash donate.
0:57.4	Thank you so much for listening and for sharing with your friends. Today on the Kitchen Sisters present, we're revisiting the Sonic Memorial Project,
1:10.9	the National Public Radio Collaboration we worked on one year after the events of 9-11.
1:16.8	We thought about airing this earlier in the COVID pandemic as a way of reminding us of a country
1:22.4	that came together in the confusion and tumult and fear and sorrow surrounding the 9-11 attacks, but it seemed too soon and too hard to go there. But now we're thinking a lot of how important
1:37.0	it is that public radio was there and is there today, chronicling the human stories, examining the truth, what's happening, and why.
1:47.4	So today, the Kitchen Sisters present the Sonic Memorial Project. From Lost and Found Sound, the Sonic Memorial Project, I'm Paul Auster.
2:04.0	Thanks for calling the Lost and Found Sound Line here at NPR.
2:08.0	This is Jay Allison.
2:09.0	At this moment, we are gathering audio that relates in some way to the events of September 11th before during and after
2:18.0	We're looking for audio artifacts both personal and historic we came together over the last year, radio producers, artists, construction workers,
	...

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