Remembering September 11th

...and a few of the ways we resisted the so-called "war on terror"

September 11th, 2001: I was 20 years old, had just released the first CD with my name on it (Sun To A Recycled Soul), and that morning I remember going to my friend Jonas’s house to borrow a CD burner, and then to the Seattle Young People’s Project office where I was going to burn a bunch of copies of my new CD. I stopped to get coffee on the way at Borracchini's, and someone working at the bakery was like: "Did you hear? They blew up New York city!" I shook my head and wondered what kind of drugs that kid was smoking and continued on my way to Jonas's. When I got there he had the TV on, and I saw smoke rising from one of the tallest buildings I had ever seen in real life. (I had seen the World Trade Center in person years before). I remember being in shock with Jonas and then having to head over to the SYPP office, which was completely empty that day, but for some reason the TV was already on when I walked in. I'm pretty sure I saw the plane hit the second tower live as it happened, and the rest of that day is a blur.

On September 12th, we started hearing about hate crimes towards Muslims and Sikhs, and I saw other people of color waving the United States flag for the first time in my life. You know that scary kind of patriotism that smells like blood lust? I went to meet up with Khazm that day and we agreed, we needed to do something to balance all of the hateful warmongering and propaganda that was about to be on the news 24/7. The biggest community organizing project we had undertaken at that point in our lives started right there on September 12th. We reached out to as many hip-hop artists in the Seattle community as we could, to make new music for a compilation we were calling 911 Amerika. We didn't censor anyone or tell them what to write. The result was an album that featured over 30 artists, some with conflicting viewpoints, complete with liner notes that listed all the reasons you should never join the military.

I think one thing we could all agree on was that violence isn't the answer, and that there is no possible way to win a so-called "war on terror", because war is terrorism.

We ended up getting some funding from AFSC (shoutouts to Mijo!) to press up thousands of CD's and even a few hundred 12" singles, and we were able to give it all away for free.

Our album was one of many projects that was made in response to the aftermath of 9/11. I first met Walidah Imarisha doing this work, as she was a co-editor for AWOL Magazine launched in Philadelphia the same year, which brought together hip-hop and anti-militarism (and came with a CD in every issue), as well as the anthology Another World Is Possible / New World Disorder.

Two years after the WTO Protests we still held the idea of independent media close to our hearts, and I remember distributing those CD's, magazines and books everywhere we went. We were doing the best we could with what we had, and social media wasn't even a thing yet.

Our lives changed that day, the world changed, and as a result millions of people have lost their lives from this so-called "war on terror" that just never seems to end.

As we remember 9/11, I also want to remember all the beautiful resistance and the ways we came together to fight the racism, Islamophobia, and warmongering that just hasn't stopped. There's so many ways we still need to come together to break apart this war machine, but let all the ways we fought not be forgotten. History will try to erase the resistors until we win.