‘A vessel for all of that feeling’: ASU poet composes libretto for 9/11 concert in Manhattan
The beams of the "Tribute in Light" commemorative public art installation shine from the Manhattan skyline. The tribute happens every year, from dusk to dawn, on the night of Sept. 11. Photo by francois-roux/iStock
Story highlights
ASU professor writes the libretto for the 25th anniversary concert of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Safiya Sinclair was inspired by a visit to the 9/11 Memorial Museum and by New Yorkers’ memories of the day.
Being chosen to write the libretto is “one of the biggest honors” in Sinclair’s career.
Update: With the concert over, event photos and the text of the libretto are added to this article.
Safiya Sinclair has always had a way with words.
Her debut poetry collection, “Cannibal,” won a Whiting Award for poetry in 2016. Her 2023 memoir, “How to Say Babylon,” was described by more than one reviewer as a “tour de force.”
But when Sinclair, a professor in Arizona State University’s Department of English, was approached in April to write the libretto for the Sounds of Remembrance concert commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, her heart, as she put it, “jumped.”
“It’s one of the biggest honors of my life,” Sinclair said, “but I was immediately feeling so much pressure. Because this date, this day, this tragedy, is such a big part of U.S. history.
“There’s so much collective grief around that time. Everybody remembers where they were when it happened and how they felt. So, 25 years later, what do I want to say? How can I say it?
“How can I make it a vessel for all of that feeling and also the meaning of the day?”
Two months later, Sinclair answered those questions with a 14-line, 97-word libretto titled “We the Living” that speaks to grief, remembrance and survival (the text can be found at the end of this article). Her words will be part of an orchestral piece written by composer and close friend Julia Adolphe, performed by the New York Philharmonic and sung by the Soldiers’ Chorus of the U.S. Army Field Band at the concert, to be held inside the Perelman Performing Arts Center, part of the World Trade Center campus in New York City.
“It was deeply, deeply meaningful to be trusted with something like this,” Sinclair said.
She was chosen in part because of her relationship with Adolphe, who introduced her to Gustavo Dudamel, conductor and Tang Music and Artistic Director of the New York Philharmonic. Sinclair said Dudamel had read and enjoyed “How to Say Babylon” and wanted an immigrant’s perspective for the libretto because New York is a city of immigrants and “our voices are part of the American story,” Sinclair said.
For Sinclair, writing the libretto was different — and thus difficult — in that it wasn’t born from personal experience. “Cannibal” charted Sinclair’s exile from her strict upbringing in Jamaica through her immigration to the United States. “How to Say Babylon” chronicled her struggle to break free of her rigid Rastafarian upbringing.
But Sinclair had no personal ties to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. For help, she first turned to Adolphe, who was attending middle school in lower Manhattan at the time.
Sinclair asked Adolphe if she could share her memories of that day, and “We The Living” begins with Adolphe’s childhood memory of walking through the silent streets of Manhattan.
“I was moved to tears when I first read the poem and feel that it truly contains my lived experience,” Adolphe said.
In May, Sinclair visited the 9/11 Memorial Museum in New York.
“I spent the day there because I really wanted to sit with the words and the images of the families of the victims,” Sinclair said. “I was incredibly overwhelmed. I probably wept the whole day as I walked through the exhibit.
“And when I got to the room where they have the physical objects of some of the victims, like somebody’s watch or Metro card … seeing those tactile objects in that room kind of broke me apart.”
Following the visit, Sinclair said it was important to her that the libretto pulled in some of the voices and experiences at the museum.
“The theme of the night is remembrance, right?” Sinclair said. “What do we hold when we hold the memory of those we’ve lost? What do we do with the grief that we have? I really wanted to think about the victims and remember them through words on the page.
“And then I also wanted to think about what we, the living, do. What do we do with the memories and the tragedy and the grief? So I wanted to think about holding onto the pieces of us that survive and remembering those we’ve lost in all the complex ways with beauty, with anger and with love.”
Sinclair said she has been heartened by the response of people she has shown the libretto.
“Everyone that has read the piece has, I think, felt moved by something in it, which is all I could ever hope for,” Sinclair said. “I was like, 'OK, my work is done.’”
'We the Living'
Music by Julia Adolphe; text by Safiya Sinclair
The day's veil broke blue, streets raked quiet
as a moonscape. No one spoke. Sleepless, the city
sutured itself home, hands and souls united.
We live in the footprint of memory.
We walk in the psalms of their lives. Each of us
is what the ash made. Remember me.
We the living, keepers of what survives.
Let all your grief grow wild, as flowers burst
from pavement, and starlings seek another sky.
Come home now.
Our hearts will make a house of the living.
Our voices a cathedral of light.
Come home now. Remember me.
Come home.
Reprinted with permission by Safiya Sinclair, copyright 2026.
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