Generation Disaster

A particular slice of the population, which includes roughly the younger half of Millennials and the older half of Gen Z, are distinguished by the fact that while they live in the shadow of 9/11, it is an event for which they may not have a memory or complete understanding. Disaster mental health expert Karla Vermeulen refers to this group – those who were born between 1989 and 2001 - as Generation Disaster in her latest book of the same name. She is joined by Florence Buchanan, director of the documentary films Right There and Right There Part 2, which follow a group of 12 students from PS 234, an elementary school located three blocks north of the World Trade Center, as they reflect on their experiences at the milestone junctures of 10 and 20 years after the 9/11 attacks. One of the students, now a special education teacher, Jenice Lyla Walford, shares her personal reflections as a member of this generation. Together, in conversation with Noah Rauch, the Museum’s Senior Vice President, they discuss the trauma caused by numerous events that have followed since the attacks and how these events have continued to shape all of us – as kids, as adults, as parents, and as a community.