Opening Reception: Saturday, September 11th, 2021 12-8 P.M.
Food provided by Spice Shanty, Chef Nellie Dimont
DJ Monday Blue spinnin’, BYO dance shoes

In the winter of 2021, my father Edward Coffey returned home from a trip with boxes of

photographs, slides, and negatives of our ancestral history spanning well over his own seventy years. Each

slide we viewed came accompanied with timeless stories my dad has shared before throughout the years.

As we sifted through thousands of images, my dad the storyteller described what growing up was like for

him and my mom, their adventures in childhood, where they worked as young adults, what this city we call

home looked like from the South Tower’s 107th Floor Observatory Deck in March 1976, what ultimately

inspired our ancestors to settle in New York City, and what it has become today for us as a family. This

show is very much a celebration of mi familia Coffey.

While on my last visit to the World Trade Center, I experienced an overwhelming sensory response,

unable to stand composed on that sacred ground and not mourn openly. I simply couldn’t escape being

dragged to the site’s haunting history, still to this very day memories and the shock from my 23 year old

self emerge a question so often wondered, how the hell could that actually happen?

Sadly, there are no answers there. As we embark on the 20th year of one of the worst attacks on

NYC, we do not gather to celebrate or mourn, we gather to exhibit strength and unity. This show is an

intimate family portrait of a day in the life of my family hanging out on a winter weekend (before I was

born) exploring the Twin Towers, Battery Park, and the Statue of Liberty, and creating memories that we

carry with us forever. Here is a glimpse of what the World Trade Center once was and what it became, the

most unexpected beauty that emerged from awful tragedy.

Emergence Arts and vedhead Photography formally invite you to a familial photographic exhibit 45

years in the making, father-daughter photographers, celebrating the resilience and spirit of NYC. Take a

glimpse of what the World Trade Center looked like in March 1976, what the city looked like from the

South Tower’s 107th Floor Observatory Deck, and showcase the excitement that can only be lived to ever

be understood.