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The River, the Floating Lanterns and the White Balloons

by 10/16/2014
Neighborhood: All Over, Financial District, Tribeca, West Village

Friday, September 9, 2011. My friend and neighbor Judy the Therapist and I ponder the upcoming 10th anniversary of the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks. On that terrible day, Judy and a young couple from my building had just picked up the morning paper at a news stand around the corner; they saw the […]

Primary Day

by 09/13/2011
Neighborhood: Brooklyn Heights, Lower East Side, World Trade Center

I stumbled bleary-eyed out of my building still hours before the sun would rise over the East River. Allen Street was black and still. The bars were closed and the morning rush hadn’t yet begun. The homeless slept soundly in the street-median park. Waiting in her car in front of my building was Maggie, 40ish […]

Staying

by 09/13/2011
Neighborhood: West Village, World Trade Center

I’d just spent a month back in Kentucky, trying it on like an old outfit to see if it still fit. I was unemployed, unattached, poor, frustrated, and I wanted to make sure living in the most complicated, and challenging, city in the world was still worth it. I contemplated this as the plane bisected […]

Ten Years Later

by 09/11/2011
Neighborhood: All Over, World Trade Center

In 2002 we published Before & After: Stories from New York; a collection of stories in two halves – the first taking place in the city before the 9/11 attacks, the second being comprised of testimonials from the day itself and its immediate aftermath. Recently, we asked for submissions for the site, to explore the […]

I Have to Be Here

by 09/11/2011
Neighborhood: Across the River

My mother doesn’t get why I have to be here for the anniversary of September 11th. In late August of this year, I was leaving our family beach house at the Jersey Shore and Mom asked if I was planning a return visit in September. “Yeah, I’ll be back,” I said. “Probably the third weekend, […]

Manhattan Eyeline

by 09/11/2011
Neighborhood: Uncategorized, West Village

September 10th, 2001. 6:30 PM. The corner of 11th Street and Fifth Avenue. The weather is glorious. The air is crisp. The sky, tranquil. I am walking downtown en route to a trendy West Village bistro. As I approach the corner of East 10th Street I come to an abrupt stop … “I never realized […]

Dear Jon

by 09/11/2011
Neighborhood: World Trade Center

September 2010 Dear Jon, They want to build a mosque where you were murdered. I want to do the right thing. So I’m having a debate in my head taking on the two sides. What would you want I wonder. See, that’s the hard thing. I’d think after knowing you for such a long time, […]

My Friend, The Fire Chaplain

by 09/11/2011
Neighborhood: Chelsea, Uncategorized, Washington Heights

I met Mychal Judge in the spring of 1985 when my boyfriend, Javier, and I decided to get married. As a lapsed Catholic, estranged from the Church for over a decade, I was tormented with guilt and worry, yet I wanted to have a church wedding without having to account for prior errant ways—our daughter, […]

October 7, 2001

by 09/11/2011
Neighborhood: Uncategorized, Union Square

When I got the email from Sir Beller about revisiting 9/11, my thought was to delete it. After double-checking, I can say I’m proud of the piece I wrote, “October 2001,” only because I just reported what I saw and didn’t try to make sense of it. Had I gone the “this is how I […]

Phone Numbers of Strangers

by 09/11/2011
Neighborhood: Uncategorized

The phone rang behind a closed door and a door slammed open, frantic shuffling and the t.v. went on. “You guys get in here!” one of the girls yelled. We left our beds so fast we were still half asleep, wiping our eyes as we watched a black dot on the t.v. screen crash into […]

Guided Tour

by 09/11/2011
Neighborhood: Uncategorized, Upper West Side, World Trade Center

I was born in Manhattan, have lived there most of my life, but my last look at the twin towers of the World Trade Center was from the front deck of a Staten Island ferry moving through the dark waters after a Staten Island Yankees night game, July, 2001. I’d boarded the boat alone, was […]

Dear NYK People

by 09/11/2011
Neighborhood: Letter From Abroad

Dear American people Dear NYK people Ten years ago I wrote my emotion published on this web place. Ten years after, my emotion and compassion is still strong! Ten years after, one thing is very clear: we must be united to struggle against enemies of freedom. We must be all together finding solutions for economic […]