Poet and screenwriter Cristin Aptowicz returned to her home city of Philadelphia yesterday to commemorate the emotions and events of Sept. 11th on its five-year anniversary.
After the attacks, Aptowicz said, Manhattan's Lower East Side poetry community came together to serve as a haven for those affected by the terrorist attacks.
She recounted the "genuine" and "desperate" pieces that followed the tragedy and said that most of the poets barely remember the writing process "because the poems were written out of shock."
Aptowicz, who lives in lower Manhattan, said many came to post-9/11 poetry slams simply "to hear their pain echoed in someone else's verse." Others attended in order to find relief from the otherwise dismal New York City, which had become "a symbol for war," she said.
Many New Yorkers shared the sentiment that their once-invincible city had "shed its heroic facade and become harrowed," she added.
She recited selections from a collection of New York City poets, including one poet's recollection that the "city seemed broken, like a heart."
Aptowicz also noted a newfound sense of community and patriotism that she said emerged from the ashes of the city.
One poem she read said that "we don't live in America - America lives in us."
A number of the poems she recited were humorous, one entitled "America Kicks Ass" and another, "Attack of the Clowns," that demonstrated the various ways poets dealt with the tragedy.
Reciting the poem of a prominent Palestinian-American poet, she shed light on the opposition that people of other cultures faced in the aftermath of the attack.
"Evil," she read, "is not as simple as a flag."
To end her presentation, Aptowicz urged the audience to "affirm life.
"America, the phoenix, has risen," she said.
A Central High School graduate, Aptowicz was selected to attend the Governor's School in Pennsylvania, which her mother Maureen O'Keefe Aptowicz said "launched her into her career."
Beyond writing four poetry books, she has founded the three-time National Poetry Slam Championship Venue, NYC Urbana, and was awarded the $10,000 grand prize at the 2003 Philadelphia Film Festival.
