Sunday, as you might have heard, is the tenth anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The official NYC 9/11 memorial service at the site of the attack is not open to the public, but it will be broadcast on TV and radio, and you can bet the boob tube will be wall-to-wall 9/11 (on VH1, the ten-year-old Concert for New York City will be rebroadcast at 4 p.m.). A little of this goes a long way, so you'll want to get out of the house at some point and at least take a walk. If you haven't yet figured out what to do with yourself all day, here are some good options:
- The free "Music After" concert at the Joyce Soho will last 15 hours, beginning at 8:46 a.m. and finishing after midnight at the Joyce SoHo [155 Mercer Street]. The marathon concert features composers who lived or were housed downtown on 9/11, including Philip Glass, Steve Reich, and Laurie Anderson.
- At various outdoor locations in DUMBO, ten artists will present interactive works as part of a project called "Rethinking Memorial: Ten Interactive Sites for Remembering 9/11." Presented by the Brooklyn Arts Council, the project includes a site for members of the public to create an ephemeral memorial, plus the ten interactive memorial stations. These include Illegal Art’s Michael McDevitt and Otis Kriegel, whose project will ask participants to "dip two fingers into a pot of grey indelible ink to represent the twin towers, and to reflect on the location and impact of the event over the number of days it takes for the ink to fade from their fingers." (11 a.m. to 5 p.m., various locations in DUMBO.)
- This year the traditional Floating Lanterns Ceremony at Pier 40 (West Houston Street and West Street) will be dedicated to the victims of 9/11 and the Japanese earthquake. Participants are encouraged to arrive early to decorate lanterns with the names and messages for loved ones; during an interfaith ceremony at 6 p.m., they'll each be set afloat in the Hudson River.
- On Saturday night, the New York Philharmonic will perform Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, the “Resurrection,” at Avery Fisher Hall. The concert will be broadcast live on the radio, the Internet, and projected on a screen in Lincoln Center’s plaza. Tickets are first-come, first-serve, and will be distributed (one pair per person) beginning at 4:00 p.m. on the Josie Robertson Plaza at Lincoln Center on Saturday. Details here.
- Back to Sunday, at Saint Patrick's Cathedral [14 East 51st Street and Fifth Avenue] at 7 p.m., the New York Choral Society will perform music by Dvořák and Harry Belafonte, as part of the international September Concert Foundation initiative. Admission is free and open to the public.
- At the Museum of the Moving Image [36-01 35th Ave at 37th St, Astoria, Queens] there will have two screenings of the surprisingly visceral and eloquent documentary Man on Wire, about French tightrope artist Philippe Petit’s 45-minute walk between the Twin Towers in 1974. And BAMcinématek will be hosting several free screenings of Woody Allen's affirming love letter to the city, Manhattan.
- Staten Island Borough President Joe Molinaro, Mayor Bloomberg, Councilwoman Quinn, and other officials will be on hand for the official Staten Island service, taking place at the island's 9/11 Memorial, called Postcards. It's located on the St. George Esplanade, near the SI Ferry Terminal, and was designed by Masayuki Sono. (It's called Postcards because the two wing-like sculptures represent large postcards to loved ones; the sculptures look out onto the harbor at the World Trade Center site.) Doves will be released, "singing cop" Danny Rodriguez will perform, and the names of the victims from Staten Island will be read, among other things. More here.
- Also on Staten Island, The Alice Austen House [2 Hylan Blvd at Edgewater Street] and the Fire Department Retirees of Staten Island will host their annual ceremony in honor of the 343 SI brothers who lost their lives. The ceremony will be held on the front lawn, overlooking the Manhattan skyline from 5 - 9 p.m. The night will include a colorful water display by New York City fire boat, and complimentary refreshments and food.
- On Saturday and Sunday, the Joyce Theater is presenting two free outdoor dance performances as part of InSite: Art+Commemoration. Featuring performances by Limon Dance Company with Voices of Ascension, Paul Taylor Dance Company with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and a new work created by Jessica Lang, "this stunning program of dance and music pays tribute to loss, remembrance, and the cycle of life." The performances takes place at the Nelson A. Rockefeller Park, Battery Park City at 5 p.m. General admission lawn-seating is available on a first-come, first served basis.
- Burlesque star Julie Atlas Muz and Thirsty Girl Productions are giving you permission to laugh on 9/11, with a "NYC Style Political Cabaret" show called (deep breath): KNOCK KNOCK! WHO’S THERE? 9/11. 9/11 WHO? YOU SAID YOU’D NEVER FORGET! Proceeds from the show will benefit the Uniformed Firefighters Association of New York’s Widow’s and Children’s Fund. (Regular tickets are $20, VIP tickets are $40.) The event, which starts at 8 p.m. at the Highline Ballroom [431 West 16th Street], will feature performances by Murray Hill, Dirty Martini, Amanda Lepore, Justin Vivian Bond and many more.
- Symphony Space [2537 Broadway at 95th Street] is presenting a Commemorative Concert featuring prominent New Yorkers reading selections from poets such as Emily Dickinson and William Wordsworth. Readers include Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, tennis great John McEnroe, Rev. Al Sharpton, and U.S. Supreme Court justice Sonia Sotomayor. Musicians from the New York Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera will perform pieces by Barber, Brahms, Liszt and others. It starts at 7p.m. and is free.
There are plenty of other activities beyond this as well; Time Out, the NY Times, the New York Post, New York Magazine, and WNYC all have roundups as well.
