My name is Joan Fischer,
and I'm pleased to introduce this event on behalf of the Wisconsin Humanities Council.
Whether this is your first
festival or you're a long-time fan, we're very glad you're here.
First, I'd like to thank some of
the people who helped make this festival happen. Our volunteers, who make your
festival experience a good one, and our more than three dozen festival sponsors, including the
the Madison Community Foundation, and Isthmus weekly Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation,
newspaper. Their support helps keep the
festival free to the public.
While you're here, we hope you'll visit, at some point, the
second floor of the Overture book sellers' lounge on the
Center. There will be books for sale and free coffee on hand.
And if you come on Saturday and Sunday after 1 PM, you might be one of the 200 people to enjoy a
So free food, free food. 10th birthday cupcake.
You can help keep events like Yothis one in our community byr way in: a survey and a birthday card.
the festival's birthday fund. Your gift in whatever size can filling out the survey and by considering a small donation to
make a big difference. And last, some logistics.
After our speakers are finished,
we'll have a few moments for Q&A.
promptly at 6:30, though. At the end of the event, the We do need to be out of here
hosting a signing with Rainbow Bookstore Cooperative will be selling books and
our authors right out here in the lobby. So just the way you came in.
And one final note, as
Shakespeare once said, please turn off your cell phones. [LAUGHTER]
I did not make up that joke, this is the festival people. And now I'm excited to introduce
today's speakers who offer their
very different perspectives, their distinct perspectives in
and After 9/11: Voice of a City. Portraits of Manhattan Before
several books that combine Richard Quinney, editor and publisher of "And Then Came the Liberators," is the author of
autobiography and photography, including, to name a few, "Journey to a Far Place,"
"Borderland," "Where Yet the
Sweet Birds Sing," and a "Lifetime Burning." He received the August Derleth
Award from the Council for
Wisconsin Writers for his book "Things Once Seen." His other books are primarily in
the field of sociology. He established Borderland Books as an independent publishing
Now, regarding tonight's events, house of crafted books.
as the 1960s drew to a close, Richard Quinney walked the streets of Manhattan, camera in
hand, documenting the life of the city. After the events of September 11, 2001, the images acquired a
meaning and significance beyond anything he could have imagined.
His book, "Once Upon an Island," includes photographs of the
construction of the World Trade Center and images that capture
After Richard Quinney, we will the experience of living on the island at the end of the 1960s.
hear from Susan Fox, who lived near Ground Zero from 2002 to 2006 and focused her
compassionate pen on an overlooked part of the much-told
story of September 11, the lives of the people and the affected
downtown New York neighborhood. From horror to recovery, she
allows us to know her community, office workers, bartenders,
shopkeepers, priests, residents and more who came together to heal a scar.
welcome Richard Quinney for his part of the presentation. Please join me in applauding. So we wo[APPLAUSE]like to
Richard Quinney: Before then, this is 1969, the World Trade Center is under construction. You'll see it as the couple are
seeing it, as they're on the
Staten Island ferry. And on the left is the first
Walt Whitman walked the streets in the mid-1800s of Manhattan, tower going up.
and I want to quote a couple lines, four lines from him.
The question, oh me, so sad,
recurring. What good amid these, oh me,
Answer. That you are here, that life oh life?
exists and identity. That the powerful play goes on,
and you may contribute a verse. This is the verse that we are contributing. I have 67 black and white that I
wanted to show you. I was doing it at the same time I was doing color.
white and then go to the color I want to show you the black and
world like "The Wizard of Oz" story. All of the sudden there's color.
I'm going to read some from my
introduction voice over. Andy at the Historical Society
He's helped me with this project is at the controls.
Once upon a time on the island, frI walked the streets and theg them at the Historical Society. So I'll begin.
byways, camera in hand, seeing things I had never seen before.
I had grown up on a farm in Wisconsin.
Early in my 30s in 1965, I moved to New York to teach at New York
University. I'd spent my early years farming
the land and yearning to leave the farm.
Now it seemed I was where I was supposed to be. I was fascinated with the fact
the island of Manhattan. that I was living on an island,
I walked 35 miles of the shoreline of the island,
Walking the edges of the island became a metaphor for the way I was experiencing my own life. I thought then that I was living
at the center of the world. I was witnessing the events and the movements of the '60s.
in ways I had never photographed In 1968, I began to photograph
photographers known as the before. I was interested and instructed and inspired by the
concerned photographers. I took courses with Sandra
And I met other photographers who were exploring the new Weiner and Cornell Capa.
I photographed almost daily what cultural landscape. During those years in New York,
I was seeing and experiencing. Usually I used black and white
For several months with color film in my camera, I walked to film and a 35-millimeter camera.
lower Manhattan and photographed the construction of the World
Trade Center. The opposing and conflicting
dynamics of the times could be seen as one world was coming
down and another was going up.
I left the island at the beginning of the '70s.
consumption of things both I sought relief from the
material and cultural, and I needed to pursue other
Eventually, I would move back to possibilities with my life.
the Midwest to be near the farm. But what I have found on the
These photographs are reminders of the life, my life, and the lives of others once lived on island wthe island.leave me.
Music was a very important part of the photographing and the
times. One of the songs that was
playing in 1969 was David Bowie's "Space Oddity." This is Major Tom to ground control; I'm stepping through
the door; and I'm floating in a most peculiar way; and the stars
I walked the 35 miles beginning at lower, going to upper and look very different today.
presented that way, and we end coming down on the east side, and these photographs are
at Coney Island. And the last photograph of the
man sand at Coney Island. the
Moving to color.
For 40 years I kept the photographs I had taken on the island, as the decade of the
'60s was ending.
As I moved from one place to another, the sleeves of negatives and the trays of
slides moved with me from one closet to another.
unforeseen purpose. I did not know until September Someday, I thought, the documentation might serve some
11, 2001, that the photographs would take on the meaning and
significance beyond anything I
could have imagined. Construction of the World Trade Center on the 16-acre site was
in full progress in the fall of '69 and the spring of '70,
and would culminate in the completion of the 110-story
Twin Towers.
advancement of international The Trade Center's mission, backed by the world's largest corporations, was the
trade. It was to become the central
With color film loaded in my market of world trade.
camera, I walked from my apartment in Greenwich Village
On days that I did not teach, I spent the day at the site. to the construction site.
I also carried a tape recorder to capture the sounds of the
construction. Eventually, I synchronized the
photographs with sounds, Bach, organ fugues, the songs of The
Beatles, Harry Nelson singing,
"I Guess the Lord Must be in New York City," and David Clayton-Thomas of Blood, Sweat
and Tears singing his song
"Space Oddity." Construction of the World Trade BCenter was taking place in the were walking on the moon,
the times. dynamic and social context of
And the war in Vietnam was going Lyndon Johnson had been elected president in '64 to deliver the great society.
on, causing cut-backs in the program.
and there were protest marches Opposition to the war increased
down 5th Avenue and we were in Washington in anti-war
In Washington Square Village and demonstrations.
Hippies and flower children, as in tthe media called them,1st Avenue and 2nd, another form of resistance was taking place.
the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., wereand Robert Kennedy. --. WeExhausted by the protestsby
against his policies, Johnson announced he would not run for
president. reelection, and in January of '69, Nixon was inaugurated as
As I walked with my camera along the streets of lower Manhattan, I observed the times in a
microcosm.
My proclaimed project was to document the changes that were
The public had not endorsed the building of the World Trade Center. Many regarded the project as a
triumph of corporate business over the public interest. Local merchants were losing their shops, and the
neighborhood was vanishing, bulldozed to make way for corporate headquarters. The police heavily patrolled the
area. Construction workers boldly displayed the American flag and protesters of the war and the
construction were present daily.
There was excitement and fascination with the
nearby residents, by visitors to the city, and much of the construction,
population of Manhattan. The sounds were of jackhammers
and pile drivers, the constant
And there were the moments of grind anrepose.of heavy eqWorkers lunching and takinghe breaks, talking to each other.
Men and women stood quietly and viewed the site.
photographer inspired, releasing Vendors sold their wares on the street, and there was a
the shutter of the camera with great joy.
2001, years after I had moved back to the Midwest, the radio On the morning of September 11,
brought the breaking news as the first plane flew into the North
Tower.
Several minutes later, the second plane flew into the South
As the buildings collapsed, we Tower.
never be the same. could only begin to grasp the fact that lives were perishing. We sensed that the world would
I looked anew at the photographs I made 40 years ago.
of the towers captured on film Today, the red exterior columns
construction and destruction are seemed like ghosts haunting the site. The Twin Towers in both their
cultural icons that will have meaning for each generation to follow.
You may still see a postcard of New York City on a news stand or
standing tall. a photograph taken before September 11 with the towers
looking at the photographs that You I made with such abandonyou may stare in sober silence. I tend to do the same when
we know that their use and many years ago. Always, as with all photographs,
meaning will eventually go beyond anything we can now
Photographs are a reminder of the impermanence of all things.
Thank you.
Many years passed, and Susan moved to New York shortly after the downing of the towers,
and now we go to that portion.
Susan Fox: During the weeks prior and following the 10th [APPLAUSE]
anniversary of 9/11, there was a bombardment of news coverage,
stories, retellings and events, and I was struck how absent my community was in almost all the programs.
The coverage that immediately followed the events, the months of recovery afterward seemed to blend with the anniversary
coverage. There was, as there were after
the events, a focus on the rescue workers, on the dead, on
the families of the dead, on the
wars that seemingly arose from the attacks, and on al-Qaeda
My community, in essence, was absent. This absence disturbs me deeply for that community was the bread
and butter of the financial district after 9/11 until this
day. In an article published in the
New York Times on September 5,
2011, 9/11 books released into a sea of others-- I'm just going to wait.
Okay. >> Sorry. In an article published in the
2011, entitled 9/11 Books Released into a Sea of Others, I New York Times on September 5,
publishers and bookstore owners who commented that there wasn't wasanything new, nor anythinghe responses of literary agents,
compelling material available. compelling, or any new
Peter Osnos, the founder and editor of Public Affairs, an
quoted as saying, "I don't think independent publisher, was
anybody wants to underestimate what the impact on our society
Having said that, a cascade of was on 9/11.
books and articles and programs and so on is so extensive that it's kind of hard to single out
something that would truly break
presumptuous as to say that this through and change the way we view the event. Although I would not be so
book would indeed change how the events were perceived, I will say that it is part of the story
that simply was never addressed in any substantial way, and that
absence does indeed affect how this event is perceived and will
be perceived in the future. Without the tenacity and courage
that area of New York would have of the residents, the corporate workers and the shopkeepers,
simply become a ghost town, even more so than it already was.
from Washington, DC, to New York My husband Chris and I moved
in August of 2002. Not quite a year before the first anniversary.
Chris was beginning a new job and I would be teaching at
Temple University in Philadelphia, commuting by train
three days a week.
difficult one, but nevertheless were energized in the adventures about the move. We realized it would be a
that awaited us. What I didn't know and couldn't
know is how this move would affect my life for the next 10
years. What I found when I moved there
was a community in distress, a
the community was going through cand perhaps, unconsciously,n sgeneralized their experience this, as I did not intuit what
distance from the everydayness that kept me at a comfortable
experiencing of what was simply the stress of beginning a new life in a new city and taking on begin to separate out what I was
of living at Ground Zero, the home of our country's largest attack. a nBut after several weeks ofes
living there, I would begin to
elsewhere. see the subtle yet ever-present distinctions that took place in my neighborhood and were absent
Part of this realization I can contribute to my commutes in the
subway in front of St. Paul's Chapel, the home of the respite ministry which morning, and I would take the
thousands of rescue workers during the clean-up at Ground Zero to Penn Station on 34th comforted, fed and took care of
Philadelphia's Penn Station, and Street, then catch the Amtrak to
then finally catch the subway to Temple University.
The trip would take three hours one way, and I would teach
roughly six hours and take the three-hour train and subway
rides back home.
Although the commute was grueling at times, it allowed me
before. As the people living north of Ground Zero and the country went to see what I could not see
the people at Ground Zero suffered what seemed to be on with their everyday lives,
provocation from the machines at endless noise, contamination, threats and continuous
Ground Zero and the constant reconstruction of roads and infrastructure that was damaged
due to the attacks. This in addition to what trauma they may have experienced the days of the attacks and the
psychological and health effects
that were ongoing to the everyday events that they would witness in their neighborhood.
This portion that I'm reading is
my first day commuting to Philadelphia and after I returned back to New York.
Once we arrived in New York, I
morning. realized the woman on the train re-invoked the emotions I experienced and suppressed that
Even though the subway trip home was uneventful, I was filled
incongruously accompanied by the with a nervous energy
of St. Paul's, and as I gwalked up the subway stairs, the subway car. I exited the station in front
there was chaos in the street. A naked man was running
from the sidewalk-- Excuse me, from the sidewalk, into the street and back again. He was being chased.
He appeared to be trying to tear
in front of the displays down the tables that sold tragedy and cheap artifacts right in front of St. Paul's,
of mourning. The tourists stands sold
paintings, crystals with the mementos of 9/11, photos,
films of the planes crashing images of the Towers etched in their centers. A CD on the computer played
into the towers over and over and over again as the music of Enya accompanied the images of
destruction.
Shirts with the imprints I Love New York, NYPD and FDNY were sold as well.
Most of the sellers were
African. They were chasing the naked man,
Was it the selling of these cheap tourist items that had trying to restrain him.
responding to something we did provoked his outrage? Was he mentally ill or on drugs,
not see? Whatever the case, he showed us how we still were unsettled,
perhaps externalizing our own anguish.
This man lost something, whether it was a loved one or his mind,
at that moment we were certain
it was his self-control. I think of him frequently,
of his distress. wonder what has become of him,
inside my head like so many I wothers for which I have nove been comforted. He remains a question roaming
answers. The tables, tourists, the
mourning artifacts, the whole marking absence, these were the things I would see every day as I made my way to work and back,
these were the events.
My initial trembling would remain for the next several months.
I needed all my resources and reserves to continue with the transition I would have to make in the next year.
What I had that my community did
DC, and our city was attacked as not was the power of distance from that tragic day. Although I lived in Washington,
well, I was distanced from it, I was removed from the event
I did not see the attack, I did not know anyone who had seen the itself.
attack and I did not know anyone who had died in the attack.
For the residents in my neighborhood, that day proved to
be the most horrific beginning of a new world, not only in the
large sense that we as Americans
experienced it, but in the fullness of the every day sense.
businesses, their neighborhood They lost their homes,
and all sense of stability. I began to feel the difference day after day as I left the
financial district and walked to
the village or Midtown, and even more so when I left New York. People carried themselves
differently, had different
conversations, had smiles on their faces that seemed to come with ease.
Their entire comportment showed a different sense of being than those who lived and worked in my
And it was these subtle and sometimes not-so-subtle distinctions that would affect community.
needed to take some form of action, not only for myself but also my community. me daily until I realized I
spoke with were displaced from All of the residents that I
their homes from a period of time. The shortest was for those who
lived northeast and west of Ground Zero, and that consisted usually of two weeks to three months.
The residents, however, south of
Ground Zero were displaced for 16 months to a year and a half. All of the residents and
businesses had to contend with
the infamous dust and debris inside their homes, inside their
As Kenny, one of my interviewees, told me, "You do not have to tell dust where closets, inside closed boxes.
itself." it goes, it finds its way by
The residents and business south of Ground Zero were essentially destroyed.
Only the infrastructure was intact, which is amazing in and of itself given the proximity of
especially the South Tower. The majority of their possessions, however, were their homes to the towers,
Foreign objects were found in their homes by the force of the collapse such as car engines, computers, a Raggedy Ann doll,
a bag of shoes and, of course,
thousands and thousands of corporate papers. The residents from 125 Cedar
Street, 114 Liberty Street, as
well as the building where my future apartment was housed, 120 Greenwich Street all contained
human remains.
My street alone, which is Greenwich and Albany and Washington, there were over 250
body parts that were collected
from the hundreds of jumpers or from the simple force of the collapse of the towers.
The residents and businesses
south of Ground Zero were in charge of cleaning up their apartments and buildings by
themselves. The residents at 125 Cedar
over one year before the Street dug themselves out and removed their belongings for
government came in and pronounced their homes dangerous
fragments were found in a nearby and a health hazard because bone
building. After throwing the residents out, the Department of
Environmental Protection decided
to finish the job. At this point, the majority of
residents had removed most of the debris, but as a the work had been done and the
consequence, many of their belongings were thrown out
without their permission. Throughout the whole experience of cleaning out the debris, all of the residents and many of the
businesses had items stolen from
their homes or work places. Many of the residents at 125 Cedar Street were artists and
everything from their artwork,
ladders, radios, alcohol and tools were taken by those who were allowed in the area, mainly
the National Guard, the police
also looted. officers and the firemen. The majority of the businesses' corporate workers' offices were
This was left out of the media coverage as well as the thievery
during the rescue efforts. that took place at Ground Zero
Anon, one of my interviewees and volunteer workers at Ground Zero, chose to remain anonymous
for fear of reprisal from the firemen she witnessed taking
possessions of the dead. The last straw was when a
woman's ring, which was quite expensive and clearly a family
Mother's Day 2002. heirloom, was taken as booty by a fireman and shown to her on
That was her last day of working on the pile.
Langewiesche published American Ground: Unbuilding the World Anon felt relief when William
Ground Zero. Trade Center which exposed much of the theft that took place at
Many of the buildings in lower Manhattan were still
months after the attack, the contaminated, and nearly eight
clean-up to ensure toxins did not contaminate apartments near deciGround Zero.h a comprehensive inspection and
Protection, the DEP, carried out The Department of Environmental
the inspection and clean-up. This comprehensive inspection included only one contaminate:
asbestos. The Deutsche Bank, which
taken down in January of this year. The Deutsche Bank was taken over, eventually, by the Lower
Manhattan Development Corporation in 2006, and LMDC was created by Governor Pataki
begin the process of and Mayor Giuliani in order to
redevelopment in lower Manhattan.
insurers were battling in court over the integrity of the building, whether it could be repaired or whether it could not
be. Because it would have continued to be in the courts for an
Manhattan Development Corporation purchased the building from the Deutsche Bank and all of the legal documents
and terms of that transaction are sealed. If you remember the image of the
portion of the tower collapsed South Tower collapsing, the top
and it fell south. It went over the Deutsche Bank
where I live, damaging much of and hit 120 Greenwich Street,
Bank was, I think 16 floors, the north facade of the building. And, of course, the Deutsche
there were gashes 16 floors wide in that building. So the South Tower, things south
actually were damaged more with the exception of the community
college north of Ground Zero when the North Tower fell was
also heavily damaged as well as World Trade Center 7.
The Louis Berger Group was hired
by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the
environmental study of the LMDC, in order to conduct an
building that was independent of the Deutsche Bank's and its insurers' inspections.
What was found was lead,
mercury, asbestos and dioxins, some of the most toxic chemicals
threatening. to human beings and the most
Yet over 120 toxins were found. Measurements of the first four toxins, lead, mercury, asbestos
and dioxins, were found on every
And in some cases, on some floor of the Deutsche Bank.
floors was found 1000 times the amount that was acceptable for human contact.
This extensive testing was not
done in any of the residential properties nor any of the businesses, with the exception
of those who could afford it on 114 Liberty Street. This book is dedicated to three of my interviewees who so
unfortunately passed away before
this book was published. Andy Jurinko, who lived at 125
died of pancreatic cancer on Cedar Street who was an artist,
east of the World Trade Center, also a painter who witnessed the Leonard Rosenfeld, also a painter who lived on Broadway,
to have a better look he painted jumpers from his apartment, and also when he went to the street
paintings of angels in dedication to those jumpers.
And Giovanni Natalucci, who owned Giovanni's Italian He died December 2009.
Restaurant, and lived and worked in the area for over 20 years,
died in 2004. The book is also dedicated to Jennifer Wong, a former student of mine from Binghamton
University who died in the
attacks on the 95th floor of the South Tower.
For many Americans, the disappearance of the World Trade
United States into a war we'll Center Twin Towers is symbolic, an act of aggression hurling the
be fighting for the duration of our lives. For those living in Greenwich
Village, SoHo and as far north
as Midtown, the towers loomed at the bottom of the island as a navigational tool, a man made
compass.
For the residents of the financial district in Battery Park City, a more intimate
transformation of their lives would begin.
without their homes, their They would have to summon the strength to rebuild their lives
neighborhood and their security. For those residents, it would not only be about the absence of
the Twin Towers but the other five World Trade Center buildings as well.
landscape is not simply a feeling of loss but a complex emotion tied to their every day lives, to their conscious and
unconscious thoughts, the memories that sometimes flood their minds as they walk past a once familiar, now unfamiliar,
landscape.
On September 11, 2001, their homes, neighborhood and their way of life were transformed,
and for the duration of the next
largest terrorist attack in dehistory to a 10-month rescued move from a war zone, and international crime scene of the
thousands of tourists flock daily. effort and finally to a construction site where
The residents have and are continuing to endure this
transformation, always with the realization that their
neighborhood may once again be a target.
Thank you.
[APPLAUSE]