Log on NOW and view online in HD opening night of the “9/11, Today and Tomorrow” speakers series at the 9/11 Memorial Preview Site. The series had a touching debut with  StoryCorps founder Dave Isay, who played personal audio recordings that triggered emotion, drew smiles and inspired hope.  One of the recordings was a heartfelt remembrance of a youngster who lost his beloved grandfather on 9/11.

If you missed it, Isay's presentation and other events in the ongoing series can be viewed at THIRTEEN Forum and downloaded for free at Apple’s iTunes a week after each presentation. Update: Isay's event is now available at iTunes.

Don’t miss the next  event in the series on April 28 that will examine a complex issue – trying terror suspects in civilian courts versus military tribunals. A three-person panel will include noted author Karen Greenberg, who is the executive director of NYU’s Center on Law and Security. Greenberg has studied data on trials of  terror suspects since 9/11.  You can RSVP now for this event, which is entitled  9/11 and Trials of Terror,  as well as other events planned for the Preview Site, 20 Vesey St., by clicking here.

StoryCorps began operating a recording booth in lower Manhattan in 2005.  In a collaboration with the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, the nonprofit is working to collect family histories, memories and 9/11 related stories. Visit WNET.ORG to find out more information on event programming.

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

Residents of the Breezy Point neighborhood in Queens donated to the U.S. military a steel I-beam that was once part of the World Trade Center.  The beam, which is nine-feet long and two-feet wide, weighs more than 950 pounds. It was donated to the Army through an organization called Sons and Daughters of America, Breezy Point, according to a military report.

When the beam arrived at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, troops on March 31 flew a CH-47 Chinook helicopter with the beam hanging in a cargo net, according to the report written by U.S. Army Sgt. Spencer Case of the 304th Public Affairs Detachment.  An American flag was flown with the beam. Another flag was also displayed from the back hatch of the helicopter. That flag is to be given to the residents of Breezy Point as a token of appreciation.  The report says New York officials have given a number of beams to the Breezy Point community after many residents of the small Queens neighborhood died in the attacks of  Sept. 11, 2001.

Separately, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey - the agency that owns the 16-acre site known as Ground Zero - is seeking proposals from public and city agencies and not-for-profit groups interested in acquiring a piece of 9/11 World Trade Center steel for public display. Tons and tons of steel from the WTC disaster is being stored at a JFK airport hangar. Some of the steel and other artifacts are being preserved for future use in the 9/11 Memorial Museum.

Update: Jan Ramirez, the 9/11 Memorial Museum's chief curator and director of collections, had her team reach out to the military's media operations, which sent digital copies of photos taken of the arrival and flight preparation of the I-beam in Afghanistan. The pictures may be used in an exhibition at the future 9/11 Memorial Museum.

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

Join others who are contributing to the collection of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum by sharing stories, videos or pictures for the Make History project.  Whether you were in lower Manhattan on 9/11 or watching the events unfold on a television in Serbia, we are encouraging you to contribute to documenting this historic moment.

Make History is a collective telling of the events of 9/11 through the eyes of those who experienced it, both at the attack sites and around the world.

Help Make History today. To submit a photo, story or video from your computer click here.

If you want to share artwork inspired by 9/11, visit the  Artists Registry.  As the curatorial assistant, Adina Langer is in charge of the registry. She works with various artists - professionals and hobbyists - who have filled the database with paintings, photographs and sculptures.

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

In case you missed it, there were a series of successful tests of a mock-up section of the 9/11 Memorial waterfalls in Brooklyn earlier this year. The Associated Press reported on the mock-up waterfall demonstration. The 30-foot mock-up is no longer at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. It was dismantled after the favorable tests. Several things were measured and reviewed, including the appearance of the water as it spilled over the top and into a small reflective pool.   Learn more about the Memorial pools set within the fallen Twin Towers footprints. The 9/11 Memorial will open next year in 2011.

Architect Michael Arad designed the "Reflecting Absence" memorial at the World Trade Center site, formerly known as ground zero.

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

In case you missed it. The beacon known as the Tribute in Light will burn bright through the 10th anniversary of the 2001 attacks thanks to funding secured by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, or LMDC.

LMDC also approved additional funding for two other instrumental 9/11 memorial programs, including StoryCorps and Project Rebirth.  The Tribute in Light received $695,000, StoryCorps received $400,000 and Project Rebirth got $300,000, according to the LMDC.

The Tribute in Light replaced the fallen twin towers with two beams of light shooting into the night sky to commemorate the victims of the 9/11 attacks. StoryCorps is a national oral history project with a  mission to honor and celebrate lives through listening.  Project Rebirth is a film project chronicling the experiences of 9/11 victims and first responders, while using time-lapse motion picture cameras to capture reconstruction efforts at the World Trade Center site.

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

Meet James T. Connors, a commercial real estate veteran with more than two decades of experience. He has been appointed as Executive Vice President of Operations for the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. 9/11 Memorial President Joe Daniels said Jame's "breadth of experience will help the Memorial & Museum to transition seamlessly from construction to operation."

Here's a story on James that previously ran in Crain's New York Business.com.

James will oversee the design and construction department, as well as assemble the team to operate the facility and provide all visitor services. High on the list of his priorities is to successfully manage the completion of the 9/11 Memorial and plan for its operations when it opens in 2011. Connors will work to ensure a world-class visitor experience through effective operational support, and be responsible for overseeing maintenance, custodial, transportation, security and other support services for the Memorial and Museum.

Connors had served since March 2006 as general manager of the Empire State Building Company L.L.C., where he led all operations, planning and construction and managed finances as well as oversaw commercial leasing and marketing.

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

The events of 9/11 inspired many things, from charitable donations to a need to volunteer. But they also inspired a wealth of artwork documenting what transpired before, on and after 9/11.  So many people were moved to create artwork in response to the 2001 attacks, from  seasoned professionals seeking normalcy through creating art related to 9/11 to novice who created artwork for the first time as a way to sort through complex emotions.

To collect and archive this type of artwork, the 9/11 Memorial Museum launched the  Artists Registry.  As the curatorial assistant in charge of the registry, I enjoyed working with various artists filling the database with paintings and photographs, as well as poetry, songs and sculptures. The registry's artists are as diverse as the artwork. There's Todd Stone,  a watercolor artist and lower Manhattan resident who witnessed the attacks,  second-graders from St. John’s School in Houston and Kathleen Granados,  a mixed-media artist and daughter of a man killed at the World Trade Center.

Granados is one of the most recent artists to join the registry.  Her submission revolves around a pair of dusty shoes, each connected to a colorful streak resembling smoke.  When I asked her how she discovered us, she said she learned about it from another registry artist,  Sue Willis,  who is also Granados' instructor at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan.    The artwork stored in the registry represents the multifarious ways people worldwide were touched by 9/11. Since the registry's launch two summers ago, I’ve been excited to watch word about it  spread around the artistic community.  Each week, there’s a new surprise waiting for me on the registry.

Wouldn't you like to see the growing collection? Take a look at the registry today and add your own artwork.

By Adina Langer, Memorial Exhibition Manager/Curatorial Assistant for the 9/11 Memorial Museum

The 9/11 Memorial pools - each about an acre in size - are now completely framed in steel.  9/11 Memorial President Joe Daniels said the construction achievement is "a true marker of progress at the World Trade Center site with these two pools helping to fulfill a promise to pay tribute and to rebuild  the void left in the wake of the 9/11 attacks."

The Memorial is on track to open in 2011.

Currently, nearly 100 percent of the steel for the project has been installed and nearly 60 percent of concrete has been poured. When construction's completed, the total amount of steel will equal 8,151 tons - that's more than what was used to build the Eiffel Tower. The total amount of concrete will be 49,000 cubic yards.  And in the coming weeks, the installation of granite lining the Memorial pools will begin. Now that's progress.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is building the Memorial and Museum on behalf of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.  Port Authority Executive Director Chris Ward said today that the opening of the 9/11 Memorial on the 10th anniversary of the attacks is the agency's "highest priority."

The Memorial pools are expected to be the largest man-made waterfalls in the country, pumping 52,000 gallons of recycled water per minute. The mammoth pools will sit within the original footprint of the fallen Twin Towers.

UPDATE: Here's the report on the memorial steel in the Epoch Times.  The story was also reported in the New York Daily News.

By Lynn Rasic, Sr. Vice President of Public Affairs and Communications for the 9/11 Memorial

9/11 Memorial Museum Director Alice M. Greenwald recently wrote in Curator: The Museum Journal about the challenges of building a museum in a location where thousands of people were killed in an unprecedented event that altered the course of humanity. The following is an excerpt from Alice's article aptly titled "Passion on All Sides: Lessons for Planning the National September 11 Memorial Museum" that was published in the journal.

There has been no shortage of passion surrounding the creation of the National September 11 Memorial Museum at the World Trade Center site in New York City. Invariably, worlds like "challenging" and "controversial" are used to characterized the effort to rebuilding ground zero. The challenges are apparent in the very essence of the project.

This memorial museum is being erected in close proximity to the events it is charged to commemorate - events characterized by unimaginable collective loss.  Key constituencies may still be traumatized by grief, both personal and communal. The museum is being built in the heart of a densely populated urban business and residential district, at the location where the atrocity took place. The information to be presented will be both graphic in its violence and provocative in its implication. At its core, the memorial  museum must carefully balance the act of commemoration - which has its own requirements of sensibility and reverence - with the imperatives of education, historical documentation, and fidelity to the emotionally resonant artifacts on display. Understandably, the planning process has proceeded under extraordinarily intense and, at times, politicized public scrutiny.

These challenges have afforded an opportunity to transform a historical site of atrocity into a site of conscience.

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

Get out the VOTE for the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. Your votes could help the nonprofit receive $200,000 from American Express through the Members Project, but we need your support.

American Express and TakePart partnered to create the Members Project, the pioneering corporate social responsibility effort.  As a big part of this new initiative, participants can vote to help decide the recipient of a $200,000 donation every three months.  Organizations up for the prize are charities focused on arts & culture like the 9/11 Memorial and Museum;  community development, environment & wildlife, education or health & wellness.

The obvious favorite? The 9/11 Memorial! You can personally have a hand in helping us build and sustain a  national tribute to the nearly 3,000 victims of the 9/11 attacks by voting today.

So log on  now and help the 9/11 Memorial win a $200,000 grant through American Express & TakePart's Members Project. VOTE NOW BY CLICKING HERE ONCE A WEEK FOR THE NEXT 3 MONTHS. Scroll to the bottom of the page and on the left hand side click to vote for the 9/11 Memorial.

By Jessica Brenner, Development Associate for the 9/11 Memorial