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the towers collapsed. Furthermore, large organizations like theRed Cross had no models for urban disasters. Local grassrootsorganizations, in contrast, were effective. For example, SafeHorizons, a network of city services for battered women, wasone of the most productive due to its connection to resourcesthroughout the city and experience in quickly responding tobasic needs like housing and money.After the Response and Recovery Project had begun, Clarkstarted to think about the possible role oral history could playbeyond documentation alone. Inspired by Elders Share theArts, an organization that brings collected stories from elderlycommunities to artists for scripting and staging, Clark beganthe Telling Lives Project. “There is a value to the act of tellinglives back to the people who told them as a means to strengthentheir capacity to share their stories...” Two of Clark’s interviewers,Gerry Albarelli and Amy Starecheski, took the projectinto city schools in Chinatown to teach students the life storiesof people who survived other difficult times in history.The Telling Lives project was, in many ways, a response tothe lessons interviewers learned when working with a subject’ssuffering. The initial goal of the first project, Narrativeand Memory, was to record full life stories, but it was clearduring interviews that that could not happen in the immediateaftermath of 9/11. “We didn’t know at first that it was literallyimpossible for people to form a story about their lives in relationto 9/11 because their exposure to raw trauma preventedthem from doing anything more than narrating what actuallyhappened [that day].” The interviews became on outlet for peopleto share their more harrowing stories. Such a response wasnew for Clark. Oral histories are often collected in retrospect,long after events occurred and interviewees have processedtheir experiences. The 9/11 projects, in contrast, were recordedonly weeks and months after the attack.The Narrative and Memory Project was a longitudinalstudy, so it consisted of two rounds of interviews. In the first,people discussed their 9/11 experiences. Eighteen months (ormore) later, subjects were encouraged to discuss their experiencessince September 11th and their life stories in general.Each second interview began with “How have you been sincewe last met?” Thus, people could avoid the subject of 9/11 ifthey wished and had the opportunity to talk instead about whatwas on their mind at the time. It was now 2003 and 2004.Time had passed, the war in Iraq had begun, and people hadcontinued their lives. “Often something more important hadhappened to people other than 9/11,” Clark explains. “As oneman said to us, ‘I’m so glad you didn’t ask about 9/11, becausemy wife is battling brain cancer and 9/11 was nothing comparedto this. If you asked me about 9/11, I would have left theroom.’”For the second interviews, Clark also asked for assistanceSuperscript 23Link back to contents page