Remembrance & Renewal: American Express After 9/11

American Express created this tribute book reflecting on the impact on their company and paying tribute, including to their employees who died.  It features a tribute dvd too.

Remembrance & Renewal: American Express After 9/11

For a company whose headquarters was across the street from the World Trade Center on September 11th, create a one year anniversary book and interactive documentary -- to help employees heal, pay homage, and capture the story of their company's experience. The spring and summer of 2002 was a very intense time in New York City. American Express had lost eleven people in the September 11th attacks. The 4,000 employees based at their Manhattan headquarters had been transferred to a dozen office spaces across the tri-state area as their damaged building -- located directly across the street from the fallen World Trade Center -- went under reconstruction. American Express leadership wanted to get their people back "home" by the end of the summer. They also wanted to help them deal with the complex emotions that would come with that return. VSA worked with American Express to tell the unique stories of their employees on that fateful day: those who helped clients that were stranded abroad when the U.S. grounded flights, the engineer who would lead headquarters' reconstruction, the woman from Human Resources who was working to recover from her near-fatal injuries, those eleven Corporate Travel employees who lost their lives in the North Tower. Safeguarding that the book content aligned with the new media piece, I attended employee interviews and helped architect the audio and visual media within the interactive documentary. I also supported client/team communications and managed the technical integration with the programming vendor.

September 11 Photo Project book

Special book created from photo project started in a gallery in SoHo shortly after 9/11.  The book is a striking tribute. 

9/11: the world speaks book

Publication Date: August 16, 2011
Almost two million people from across the United States and around the world have come through the museum galleries of the Tribute WTC Visitor Center since it opened in September 2006 right across the street from the World Trade Center site. Many of these visitors have written their poignant reflections about the impact of September 11th on visitor cards that are collected in the Center’s final gallery. To date, the Center has collected 200,000 cards written in 48 languages by people from 120 countries.

For the first time ever, this book brings together a choice selection of these cards, many of which talk about the inspiration people find in the outpouring of humanity in response to September 11th. In seeing the selflessness of first responders and ordinary citizens who rushed to help strangers and friends on that day, and in the many months of recovery that followed, adults and young people write that they have been inspired to help others in their communities and around the world.

Moving us toward the future with empathy and hope, 9/11: The World Speaks is a remarkable collection of cards that include elaborate drawings, stories of personal experiences on September 11th, notes written by family members of victims, and statements by people of all cultural backgrounds decrying the use of violence. The book also features a preface from Tom Brokaw.

About the Tribute WTC Visitor Center
The Tribute WTC Visitor Center is located at 120 Liberty Street in New York City along the south side of the World Trade Center site. The Tribute Center was created by the September 11th Families' Association, a section 501(c)3 non-profit corporation, to share the personal stories of victims, survivors, rescue and recovery workers, residents of Lower Manhattan, and volunteers who responded to help in the recovery. Today, volunteers representing all of these constituencies share their stories daily with visitors to the Tribute Center and on our walking tours of the World Trade Center site. Volunteers share the authentic experiences of those most affected by the events of February 26, 1993, and September 11, 2001. In the Tribute Center, visitors experience person-to-person accounts through videos, audios, and printed quotations. The stories recount the dynamism of the World Trade Center community prior to September 11, 2001, the day of the attacks, the nine months of recovery, and a poignant memorial to the victims where photographs contributed by their families are displayed. The Tribute Center concludes by offering visitors a place to engage in dialogue about 9/11 and share their own feelings and thoughts about the future.
The Tribute Center conveys the courage, grief, and heroism of those who responded to the tragedy and the steps taken towards working for a more peaceful world by many of those impacted by the events. The Tribute Center welcomes visitors seven days a week. Please visit our website for details: www.tributewtc.org. The Tribute Center's educational materials for young people emphasize the humanity and compassion that arose in response to the attacks, www.tributewtc.org/programs/toolkit.html.

About Lee Ielpi
Lee Ielpi is a native of Great Neck, New York. Lee is a father of two girls, Anne Marie and Melissa, and two boys, Jonathan and Brendan, and grandfather of seven grandchildren. Lee volunteered with his local Great Neck Vigilant Fire Department and spent his career as a firefighter with the New York City Fire Department serving as a member of Rescue 2. Since losing his son Jonathan Lee Ielpi, Squad 288, FDNY, at the World Trade Center, Lee has dedicated himself to responding to the attacks on the World Trade Center with an eye towards making tomorrow a better day. He joined with the September 11th Families' Association in November 2001 to represent the interests of the 9/11 community. Lee has served on the Board of Directors since 2002 and has served as the Board President since 2007. In 2004, Lee along with Jennifer Adams co-founded the Tribute WTC Visitor Center.

Forewordy by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. Preface by Tom Brokaw.

DOGNY America's Tribute to Seach and Rescue Dogs

DOGNY was born out of the tragedy of September 11, 2001. DOGNY is the art project initiated by The American Kennel Club to benefit search and rescue dogs; it was immediately embraced by corporations, communities and individuals eager
to show their support for the dangerous and difficult work dogs and their handlers undertake on a regular and often voluntary basis. This book features the statues that were a part of the project- how they were painted, why they were painted, who painted them, who sponsored them, and where they were displayed. It is a book to treasure not only for the striking variety of the sculptures, but also for the impact of the message in paying homage to search and rescue dogs across our nation.

September 12th... We Knew Everything Would Be All Right: Children's Book

Heartfelt and touching book by 1st graders at Masterson Elementary School in Kennet, Missouri, about the day after the tragic events of September 11th. These students were given a commemorative Sept

On September 11th horrific events occurred, yet through the simple text and vibrant art of first graders, we are reminded that the world continued the next day. On each page, children experience the comforts of ordinary routines, such as their teacher reading books to them, having homework and recess, and knowing that 2 + 2 still equals 4. This is a poignant message of hope that reassures us all that even after bad things happen, tomorrow always brings a new day.


More info:
September 12th... We Knew Everything Would Be All Right
First-graders Assure a Nation After Tragedy
Article by Karen Fanning

The cover to September 12th... We Knew Everything Would Be All Right.

Teachers: To learn more about this book and others, click here.

They may look like your average first-graders, but Darlene Robertson's students will soon be sharing a spot on the bookshelf with such famous authors as J.K. Rowling and Brian Jacques. Why? The Kennett, Missouri, kids were named special America Remembers commemorative winners of Scholastic Book Fairs' 16th-annual Kids Are Authors program.

Chosen among thousands of entries, their book, September 12th...We Knew Everything Would Be All Right, delivers a message of hope in the wake of the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history.

The young authors remind readers that the world did not end on September 11. They recall the familiar and comforting routines of going to school the following day, being greeted by their teacher, playing at recess, and doing homework.

Once Mrs. Robertson's class came up with a story, students worked in pairs and in groups, sketching pictures for each of the book's 29 pages. They then added color to their pencil drawings with bright crayons to create their vibrant works of art.

"They love to write," Mrs. Robertson says of her 18 students. "They were so eager to draw. I handed them each a blank piece of paper, and they just drew and drew."

In the end, the book's message is simple, says Mrs. Robertson. "When things happen that are bad, small children want to know that the world is still safe," she says. "It's a comforting book."

Scholastic Book Fairs' Kids Are Authors program is a national book-writing contest open to teams of student writers in grades K through 8. Entrants include students from across the country and abroad.

In the Shadow of No Towers: Art Spiegelman

This special book, In the Shadow of No Towers, created by Art Spiegelman (author of Maus), is very unique and striking. This example is also signed by the author (silver marker on inside book cover). Here is a summary the author and this book:

For Art Spiegelman, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Maus, the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 were both highly personal and intensely political. In the Shadow of No Towers, his first new book of comics since the groundbreaking Maus, is a masterful and moving account of the events and aftermath of that tragic day.

Spiegelman and his family bore witness to the attacks in their lower Manhattan neighborhood: his teenage daughter had started school directly below the towers days earlier, and they had lived in the area for years. But the horrors they survived that morning were only the beginning for Spiegelman, as his anguish was quickly displaced by fury at the U.S. government, which shamelessly co-opted the events for its own preconceived agenda.

He responded in the way he knows best. In an oversized, two-page-spread format that echoes the scale of the earliest newspaper comics (which Spiegelman says brought him solace after the attacks), he relates his experience of the national tragedy in drawings and text that convey—with his singular artistry and his characteristic provocation, outrage, and wit—the unfathomable enormity of the event itself, the obvious and insidious effects it had on his life, and the extraordinary, often hidden changes that have been enacted in the name of post-9/11 national security and that have begun to undermine the very foundation of American democracy.

Further info:

Overview
The comic evolved from Spiegelman's experiences during the September 11 terrorist attacks. Spiegelman has said that the comic is a way to reclaim himself from the post-traumatic stress disorder he suffered after the attacks.

It also has many references to Spiegelman's Maus comics, for example one in which Art said that the smoke in Manhattan smelled just like Vladek said the smoke in the concentration camps smelled. Also he often turns himself into a mouse on the fly.

It was published by the German newspaper Die Zeit after Spiegelman was unable to secure publication in any major American outlet. In Britain, excerpts have been published in The Independent. A segment also appeared in 2004 as part of the Actus Tragicus comics album Dead Herring Comics.

In 2004, the entire series of ten strips and a supplement of reprints of turn-of-the-20th-century comics such as The Katzenjammer Kids and The Yellow Kid were collected and published together as a book by Viking Books. In the Shadow of No Towers was selected by the New York Times as one of the 100 Notable Books of 2004.[1]

September 11 in Popular Culture: A Guide

If anyone has a copy of this book they would like to part with (not for the $85.00 cover price), let me know. Looks like an interesting read:

Publication Date: September 14, 2010
On Thanksgiving day after September 11, 2001, comic strip creators directed readers to donate money in their artwork, generating $50,000 in relief funds. The world's largest radio network, Clear Channel, sent a memo to all of its affiliated stations recommending 150 songs that should be eliminated from airplay because of assumptions that their lyrics would be perceived as offensive in light of the events of 9/11. On the first anniversary of September 11th, choirs around the world performed Mozart's Requiem at 8:46 am in each time zone, the time of the first attack on the World Trade Center.

These examples are just three of the ways the world—but especially the United States—responded to the events of September 11, 2001. Each chapter in this book contains a chronological overview of the sea of changes in everyday life, literature, entertainment, news and media, and visual culture after September 11. Shorter essays focus on specific books, TV shows, songs, and films.


Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
Since the literature on the September 11 attacks is already vast (WorldCat lists more than 14,000 items), the need for useful reference works on this historic event is particularly compelling. This resource examines the impact of the attack on American culture in chapters on “Everyday Life,” “News and Information,” “Books,” “Television,” “Film,” “Music,” and “Visual Culture.” Each chapter consists of an introduction and several “Spotlight Essays” focusing on specific topics. The essays range in length from a few paragraphs to several pages and include both print and web references. The work concludes with selected lists of media (websites, art exhibits, fiction, etc.) and further reading. The text is enhanced with sidebars and some photographs. The editors are to be commended for including unusual topics that might pique the interest of students and general readers: greeting cards, comic books, humor, and comfort food for the recovery workers, among others. This book is a good ready-reference source for students, researchers, and general readers. Also available as an e-book. --Donald Altschiller
Review
"The editors are to be commended for including unusual topics that might pique the interest of students and general readers: greeting cards, comic books, humor, and comfort food for the recovery workers, among others. This book is a good ready-reference source for students, researchers, and general readers."

"Let's Roll" Book Cover

Let's Roll book cover, which features a portion of proceeds go to the Todd Beamer Foundation on the tag.

From Wikipedia:
Flight 93Todd Beamer, a passenger on the hijacked United Airlines Flight 93, tried to place a credit card call through a phone located on the back of a plane seat but was routed to a customer-service representative instead, who passed him on to supervisor Lisa Jefferson. Beamer reported that one passenger was killed and, later, that a flight attendant had told him the pilot and co-pilot had been forced from the cockpit and may have been wounded. He was also on the phone when the plane made its turn in a southeasterly direction, a move that had him briefly panicking. Later, he told the operator that some of the plane's passengers were planning to attack the hijackers and take control of the aircraft. According to Jefferson, Beamer's last audible words were "Are you guys ready? Let's roll."[1]

[edit] Cultural impact This article is in a list format that may be better presented using prose. You can help by converting this article to prose, if appropriate. Editing help is available. (September 2009)

In November 2001, Neil Young released a song about Beamer and Flight 93 called "Let's Roll." The song was later released on his album Are You Passionate?.

The catchphrase became especially known and popular after being used by President George W. Bush in a speech to AmeriCorps volunteers and during his 2002 State of the Union Address. Even though the phrase was in common use long before September 11, profiteers soon tried to lay claim to it as a trademark. The Todd M. Beamer Foundation was eventually granted a trademark for uses of the phrase relating to "pre-recorded compact discs, audio tapes, digital audio tapes, and phonograph records featuring music."

In the 2002 college football season, the Florida State Seminoles used "Let's Roll" as their official team slogan. After an initial uproar against the team by people who considered its usage in bad taste, the Todd M. Beamer Foundation officially licensed the trademark to the team.

Bobby Labonte drove a 9/11 tribute car with the words "Let's Roll" on the hood of his stock car.

In August 2002, hard rock band LA Guns released "Ok, Let's Roll" in their album Waking the Dead. It, too, was a song about Beamer and Flight 93.

Country music duo The Bellamy Brothers recorded a song called "Let's Roll, America" on their 2002 album Redneck Girls Forever.

In September 2002, dc Talk reunited to record and release "Let's Roll," a single about the September 11, 2001, attacks.

In early 2002, United States Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. John P. Jumper ordered that one airplane in each USAF squadron and all USAF demonstration planes would bear an image of an eagle on an American flag with the words "Let's Roll" and "Spirit of 9-11," to remain until the first anniversary of the attack. It was also used by Lisa Beamer, widow of Todd, in a 2003 book titled Let's Roll: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Courage (ISBN 0-8423-7418-3).

In November 2003, Montreal rock band The Stills released a 9/11-inspired song called "Let's Roll" on their debut album Logic Will Break Your Heart.

George W. Bush's speech is sampled by Jonny L in the tune, "Let's Roll."

The phrase was also used in an episode of HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm ("The Survivor", season 4, episode 9). The show's main character, Larry David, says the phrase inadvertently to his rabbi once he and his wife are ready to go out and renew their vows, who then becomes offended because of a relative of his died on September 11, 2001 ("You knew my brother-in-law died on September 11th, how dare you say something like that?!"). Larry takes issue with this, as his rabbi's relative was hit by a bike messenger ("Well, with all due respect, wasn't that just a coincidence?"), in an incident completely unrelated to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

In 2004, Melissa Etheridge used the phrase "let's roll" as the conclusion to her song "Tuesday Morning" written in honor of Mark Bingham, one of the Flight 93 passengers who fought back alongside Beamer.

"Let's Roll!" was the 2004 campaign slogan of the Marijuana Party of Canada.

Also in 2004 the New Zealand band Fly My Pretties released a song about marijuana titled "Let's Roll"

In 2006 Ray Stevens released the patriotic song "Let's Roll" on his Box Set.

The phrase appears in the 2009 British black comedy satire film, In The Loop. One British character says to another, "Let's roll." To which the other replies; "You can't say that here, they don't like that."

In the first episode of British TV comedy series Saxondale, a bumper sticker with "Flight 93. Let's Roll" appears on the back of the titular character's Mach I Ford Mustang.

New York Writes After September 11

Collection of NY writers' reaction pieces to 9/11.

From Publishers Weekly
Edited by Ulrich Baer, and drawing on the enormous resources of New York's literary community, 110 Stories: New York Writes After September 11 is a surprisingly supple commemoration of disaster. Short-short stories and poems by New York writers are the collection's raison d'Etre, but personal testimony creeps in as well. The best entries approach the subject most obliquely or humorously-Jonathan Ames's Nabokovian "Womb Shelter," David Hollander's moving "The Price of Light and Air," Nathalie Handal's lovely "The Lives of Rain," Lev Grossman's hilarious "Pitching September 11," among many others. More predictable are the "where-I-was-and-what-I-thought" pieces (often by the better-known writers). Overall, this collection proves the transformative power of art.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
9/11 The barbaric attack on the World Trade Center last September 11 not only altered the New York City skyline but also left a gaping hole in the city's collective consciousness. Edited by NYU literature professor Baer (Remnants of Song; Spectral Evidence), this unique collection of 110 short stories, poems, and brief prose pieces is intended to explore the healing possibilities of language and to document the attempts of some of the most celebrated writers and poets, both American and from abroad, to fill the void. Paul Auster, Amitav Ghosh, Vivian Gornick, Carey Harrison, Richard Kostelanetz, Lynne Sharon Schwartz, and David Trinidad are among the authors featured. Some stories, like Phillip Lopate's "Altering the World We Thought Would Outlast Us" and Peter Carey's "Union Square," deal directly with September 11 and its aftermath; others record more personal encounters with grief and loss, like Lydia Davis's "Grammar Questions," a moving meditation on her dying father. The wide range of writing styles and viewpoints, as well as Art Spiegelman's striking cover art, should make this anthology a popular read this fall. Recommended for all libraries.
William Gargan, Brooklyn Coll. Lib., CUNY
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

9/11 Story

Story about the recovery of a victim from 9/11.

Publisher of 9/11 Commission Report Donates Portion of Profits

Anyone who has followed the events of 9/11 owns this published report. I also own a copy, and interestingly, they drew criticism for not donating a portion of their proceeds for charities related to September 11th. They did up making such an announcement soon after this issue surfaced:

W. W. Norton & Company, which published the first authorized edition of the 9/11 Commission's report a year ago, has announced it will donate $600,000 in profits from the book to three programs focused on emergency preparedness and international relations, the New York Times reports.

Norton will give $200,000 each to the Center for Catastrophe Preparedness & Response and the International Center for Enterprise Preparedness, both housed at New York University, as well as Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C. According to Norton president W. Drake McFeely, the donation equals about 10 percent of the company's gross proceeds from sales of the book to wholesalers and bookstores.

Published last July, The 9/11 Commission Report quickly became one of the best-selling government reports ever, with the Norton edition selling more than a million copies, about 98 percent of those in paperback. Norton drew criticism, however, because it paid nothing for the rights to publish the manuscript and was given special early access to the confidential report by the commission, which wanted printed copies available in bookstores on the day the report was released to the news media. The commission said it chose Norton because the publisher submitted the best proposal, agreeing to sell the paperback version of the report for only $10.

Wyatt, Edward. “Publisher Names 9/11 Charities.” New York Times 7/21/05.

America Remembers September 11th

This hard cover tribute book is a Life publication. It was advertised as a commemorative or collector's edition. It was about $75 to purchase. A perfect example of the many objects that were strictly created as tributes to September 11th with no other purpose. Obviously, not a household object like other examples posted previously. This book is an example of a company "cashing in" on this event.

9/11 Portraits

A number of publications were created after September 11th, 2001. This book is a collection of the obituaries that were published in the NY Times about each victim of 9/11. The book was give to me by a friend whose brother died in the Twin Towers. His obituary is marked by her.