Angie Pontani on September 11

I had the pleasure and honor of working closely with neo-burlesque queen Angie Pontani on her revue Burlesque-a-padesabout a decade ago. I learned tons in the doing of it; it was the principal experience that emboldened me to undertake producing and directing I’ll Say She Is about a decade later. She shared this testimony on Instagram today and very generously allowed me to reprint it here. Last year at this time I had done a post that talked about Jill Janus’s experiences performing at Windows on the World. I hadn’t known that Angie had performed there regularly as well. I loved what she wrote about the space itself, but also what she found in NYC and America in the days and weeks afterwards. I turn you now over to her:

Friday nights in 2001 included Spy-Fi Friday nights at Windows on The World, top floor of the north tower of the World Trade Center. Every week bands from all over would join, decked out crowds filled the dance floor, Tourists, downtowners & workers from the buildings. “ Backstage” for Tara, Helen and & I [the World Famous Pontani Sisters] was a banquet room ,the gift shop, whatever corner was unoccupied. We frolicked the halls, rolled on dining carts & hopped elevators enjoying unfettered access in an iconic space.

This morning, it is almost as fresh in my mind as it was that day. Disbelief & devastation, watching the unimaginable on our screens while seeing and smelling the smoke in the air. The phone lines were jammed, it took us hours to get through to our mom. I cried at the first sound of her voice. So much was being lost every second, you felt it. It was literally in the air. Today, it comes right back, when I’m by the site it comes right back. It’s a feeling you can’t forget or turn off, I’ll mourn this day with raw emotion forever. 

The aftermath in the city was surreal, it was quiet and haunted with the sounds of rolling trucks. Sheriffs in cowboy hats stood on corners next to NYPD and armed forces. Riders on the trains were quiet but we looked at each others’ glassy eyes and we were saying, “it’s ok, we’re here together.” My sisters and I were slated to open a run in Vegas on Sept 14th. We didn’t know what to do, there were no flights, no cars to rent. The booking agent said, “If you can get here, the gig’s still yours”. Getting to Vegas was no longer about getting a career break, it was about getting up, keeping moving because by the grace of God, we could. If ever you realized that tomorrow is not promised, it was that day. I don’t remember how long it took us to get a car, it was a few weeks at least. And there we went on a cross country drive through the broken heart of America. We saw the rolling hills and the desert sky. And from truck stops to pie bars when we said we were from NY, faces softened, there were hugs and shoulders squeezed. There was kindness and compassion. There is no match for the bravery of the first responders, there is no city that has a heart as big as NYC.