The Sonic Memorial Project and SonicMemorial.org

The Sonic Memorial Project, executive produced by the Kitchen Sisters, Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva, is an intimate and historic documentary radio series commemorating the life and history of the World Trade Center and its neighborhood through rare recordings, voicemail messages, personal stories, and oral histories. The project, produced by Silva, Nelson, Jay Allison, Jamie York, Joe Richman, Ben Shapiro, Laura Folger, and Jim McKee, is a unique national collaboration involving Lost & Found Sound, NPR News, WNYC, independent radio producers, artists, musicians, archivists, historians, public broadcasters and listeners who came together in the wake of the September 11th attacks to chronicle and preserve the sounds and stories of the World Trade Center and this significant and historic moment in our country. Through NPR, The Sonic Memorial Project set up a phone line asking listeners to call in with their stories and audio artifacts. Hundreds of people responded contributing a remarkable archive of personal recordings and remembrances. From this material and hundreds of hours of interviews and archival recordings gathered by producers around the country, five Sonic Memorial programs, written by Davia Nelson, Nikki Silva, Jay Allison, and Jacki Lyden, were produced and aired on NPR throughout 2002, as well as in an hour-long Sonic Memorial special, the most widely carried 9/11 anniversary program broadcast on public radio nationwide. SonicMemorial.org was launched Sept. 4, 2002, by Picture Projects, co-founded by Alison Cornyn and Sue Johnson. To date there are more than 1,000 contributions, all available on the website, that enable the visitor to explore the audio traces of the World Trade Center using sound as his or her compass. For their extraordinary efforts in capturing and preserving the voices of those whose memories commemorate the World Trade Center and the events of September 11, a Peabody Award goes to The Sonic Memorial Project and SonicMemorial.org.