The well-received "9/11, Today and Tomorrow" speakers series returns this fall with New York Times best-selling author Peter Balakian.

RSVP now for this event and others in this dynamic series. Listen to a NPR interview with Balakian here and read one of Balakian's poem "Watching the Towers Go Down" on PBS' website.

 Balakian, a professor in humanities and English at Colgate University, has authored five books of poems and three prose works, including the Times best seller "The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America’s Response." His new book, titled "Ziggurat," wrestles with the aftermath and reverberations of 9/11. Balakian will share some of these September 11-themed works and explain the inspiration behind his words.

 He will also be available to sign copies of his new book.

Balakian will be the first speaker in the series fall and winter lineup. Others events include a talk with the 9/11 Memorial's architect Michael Arad. All the speakers series events are at the 9/11 Memorial Preview Site, 20 Vesey St. (Between Church Street and Broadway)

By Michael Frazier, Sr. Communications Manager for the 9/11 Memorial

Nestled on the corner of Hudson and North Moore streets, Bubby’s Pie Company is nearing a major milestone.  On Thanksgiving, the restaurant will celebrate 20 years of serving American family heirloom recipes to Tribeca residents and businesses. For restaurant owner Ron Silver, this feat is particularly remarkable because the business has endured despite the impact 9/11 had on downtown businesses.

 After 9/11, low profits marked business ledgers as many downtown restaurant-goers were displaced from their homes.  Silver reopened Bubby’s days after the attacks on September 14, 2001.  He recalled the modest menu his restaurant offered  in the first few days after reopening - coffee and pancakes, free of charge.  He also remembers the outpouring of support from the community, manifested in boxes piled on sidewalks surrounding the restaurant.  The boxes contained shoes, clothes and other items to aid recovery workers at ground zero.  

This city and the nation recognized the wealth of support that swarmed the World Trade Center in the days and weeks following 9/11. Today we are just 347 days away from opening the 9/11 Memorial at the World Trade Center site.  We are grateful to Bubby’s for helping us rebuild at ground zero and to dedicate a national tribute to the nearly 3,000 victims of the terrorist attacks on the tenth anniversary.

Bubby’s recognition for their support is fitting. The restaurant is in a neighborhood that is home to the Tribeca Film Festival, which was created to help revitalize  the lower Manhattan community. The well-known festival was founded by 9/11 Memorial board directors Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal, who are also co-chairs of the Signs of Support program.  Join the 9/11 Memorial in thanking Bubby’s for their support.

 Please patronize our business supporters and learn how your business can participate in Signs of Support: www.national911memorial.org/sos

By Jenna Moonan, Marketing and Communications Manager for the 9/11 Memorial

The 9/11 Memorial Museum's Memorial Exhibition will commemorate the lives of the people killed on September 11, 2001, and February 26, 1993, allowing visitors to know more about the women, men and children, who perished in those attacks. Plans for the museum allows visitors to enter the exhibition along a corridor in which portrait photographs of the nearly 3,000 victims form a "Wall of Faces" that is intended to try and communicate the scale of human loss.

As part of the exhibition, interactive tables are planned that will allow visitors to discover more information about each person, including additional photographs, remembrances by family and friends and artifacts. An adjoining space will present profiles of individual victims in a dignified sequence through photographs, biographical information, and audio recordings. Every victim's name will be read aloud within the memorial exhibition. These spoken names will be professionally recorded by a group of volunteer family members. If you are interested in contributing your time and voice to this group, please contact us.

The memorial exhibition relies on materials contributed by you. Learn more here.

By 9/11 Memorial Staff

If you squint, you can make out 9/11 Memorial President Joe Daniels (left) in the jumbotron above New York Yankee Stadium in the Bronx.  Joe, who's a big Yankee fan, is standing next to Chuck Imhof, the vice president of New York sales for Delta. The airline is one of more than 170,000 individual contributors from across the United States and 35 countries that have donated to the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.  

 By 9/11 Memorial Staff

9/11 Memorial President Joe Daniels was prompted to reach out to 9/11 Memorial supporters and attack victims' families after Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gave a politically-driven speech about the 2001 terrorist attacks at the U.N. General Assembly yesterday in Manhattan. Ahmadinejad's calculated and incediary remarks  caused U.S. officials to abrutly walk out.

In the letter Daniels penned in response to the remarks, he said Ahmadinejad's words "was a grievous insult to the families and friends of those who lost their lives that tragic Tuesday, as well as to a nation and world that remain outraged by the indefensible terrorist attacks perpetrated by al Qaeda."

Daniels also spotlighted in his letter one of the chief purposes of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, which is to dispute lies such as Ahmadinejad's and for to lead in the "preservation and presentation of the authentic history of what occured on 9/11."

Read Daniels' entire letter online in the Huffington Post.   

By 9/11 Memorial Staff

Hear the first-person accounts of a group of teachers and administrators who evacuated school children from their classrooms at PS 234, a public elementary school located a few blocks from the World Trade Center site in the downtown Manhattan neighborhood of Tribeca. 

By 9/11 Memorial Staff

Staff photographer Amy Dreher snaps a lot of pictures at the World Trade Center site, documenting the construction progress of the 9/11 Memorial. Amy also trains her lens on the smaller pieces that may be overlooked with a project of this magnitude. Through “The Lens: Viewing the 9/11 Memorial,” readers of The MEMO blog can share some of the unique vantage points captured by Amy.

Sun shines through steel: A rising sun is framed in the erected steel of the 9/11 Memorial Museum's pavilion. Visitors will enter the pavilion and descend 70 feet below to the main exhibition space of the museum once it's open in 2012.

By Michael Frazier, Sr. Communications Manager for the 9/11 Memorial

Staff photographer Amy Dreher snaps a lot of pictures at the World Trade Center site, documenting the construction progress of the 9/11 Memorial. Amy also trains her lens on the smaller pieces that may be overlooked with a project of this magnitude. Through “The Lens: Viewing the 9/11 Memorial,” readers of The MEMO blog can share some of the unique vantage points captured by Amy.

Up all night:  The 9/11 Memorial's Ron Vega and Kim Cases recently reviewed plans for the planting of the first of 16 trees planned for the memorial's plaza. Vega, the director of design and construction, and Cases, the assistant project manager, have played this scenario out for months, even years.  The first trees have been successfully planted and are growing strong.

By Michael Frazier, Sr. Communications Manager for the 9/11 Memorial

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who serves as the board chair of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, delivered the following remarks on the steps of the U.S. Capitol yesterday as part of a September 11th Remembrance Ceremony:

"Remember, reflect, rebuild. That’s what we’ve been doing for nine years, and I’m here to say thank you to America, to people from all 50 states who have helped us do that, and to commit to this country that we will not forget our obligation to work with the rest of the country to take care of those who came to our aid – first as a rescue mission, and much too rapidly turning into a recovery mission. And we will not forget our obligation to educate our children and our grandchildren that our freedoms are fragile, and the young men and women overseas who are fighting and dying to let us continue to speak and to pray and to live the way we want to live – we will not forget ever."By 9/11 Memorial Staff

We’ve been getting the word out that the 9/11 Memorial has been selected as a candidate to win $200,000 through Members Project from American Express and TakePart. You’ve probably seen our e-mails about this effort, and if you’ve been taking the time to vote for us each week, thank you so very much.

If you haven’t heard about this initiative, or if you have but haven’t found the time to vote, we need your votes now more than ever. This potential funding could go a long way for us at the 9/11 Memorial, helping to support the development of our museum exhibitions. These exhibitions will be the global focal point for telling the story of 9/11, preserving its history and the spirit of unity that has become its legacy for generations to come.

The only way we can get there is with your help, your family and friends and other supporters of the 9/11 Memorial. Please help us spread the word by inviting them to participate through Facebook and Twitter. Every single vote counts and we truly appreciate each one. Follow these simple steps to support us through Members Project. Be sure to vote once a week from now until November 21st.

• Step 1: Vote! Visit the Members Project site here, click “register to vote” (or sign in using your username and password if you’ve already participated in Members Project voting) and then vote for the 9/11 Memorial under the “Arts & Culture” category.
• Step 2: Spread the wordto your family and friends through e-mail, Facebook, and Twitter. Ask everyone you know to support the building of our nation’s Memorial and Museum at the World Trade Center site by voting for the 9/11 Memorial. Here's an example tweet: "Just 1 year until the 9/11 Memorial opens. Show your support by voting for the 9/11 Memorial to win funding from Members Project. Visit http://bit.ly/bN1yOF." And an example Facebook post: "I haven’t forgotten 9/11. Please help me win $200,000 for the 9/11 Memorial in support of their mission to commemorate and educate. Visit http://www.takepart.com/membersproject."
• Step 3: IMPORTANT! Repeat Steps 1 and 2 every week to ensure the 9/11 Memorial receives the much-needed $200,000. Please help us to win this crucial funding. We can’t do it without you. Vote now and visit national911memorial.org to learn more.

Thank you all very much. 

By Joe Daniels, President and CEO of the 9/11 Memorial