Tower project Update

The stories are starting to come in from people sharing their memories of 9/11. The common thread is shock, and every story brings back those memories. I do think this is going to result in an important (hubris? Maybe) piece of theatre. If you have a story to share, email me. And spread the word, I’d like to hear the stories of folks on the left coast, east coast, even Europe. That morning was a defining moment for a lot of people, but the stories that haven’t been told are ours, how everyday people had their lives and perspectives shifted over the course of a morning. That’s what I want to explore with this piece, how one event can elicit such strong emotional response from people even almost 5 years later. More than one writer has told me they cried while writing their story, and I’ve wept reading almost all of them. Not because they are stories of loss, or of heroism, or patriotism. We read all of them in 2001. Because these are stories from every perspective, and no story is unimportant.

I think this will end up being called the Tower Project, taking a page from The Names Project, which created the AIDS quilt. What we (I’ve enlisted my buddy Chris as a collaborator) are trying to do is create a tapestry of experiences, highlighting the similar and disparate responses to this event. So if you’re interested, tell us your story via email. Johnhartness at gmail dot com.