Performing Artist Who Heard the Call on 9/11

Amid the grief, the urgency, and the exhaustion of working as a first responder at Ground Zero in the days following Sept. 11, 2001, Shaun Parry experienced something else: heartfelt concern and sincere love for his fellow human beings.

That’s the legacy of 9/11 he wants to share with the world.

“Lest we forget the humanity, the love, and the deep human connection, because I not only believe, I know that we don’t need an atrocity to reach that level of consciousness,” Parry told The Epoch Times on Sept. 10.

Parry recalled experiencing such heartfelt human connection—not only at Ground Zero but also across the city and the nation.

In his new book released on Sept. 8, 2026, “Lest We Forget 9/11, Memoirs of a Civilian First Responder,” Parry writes, “Something remarkable happened in America.

“We were hurting, but we were united,” he writes. “Patriotism burned brightly in our hearts. We looked at one another differently. We carried strollers up subway stairs.”

A professional dancer on and off Broadway who came to New York City in 1999 to pursue his dreams as an artist, Parry describes in his book how he felt the urgent call to serve on the day of the attacks.

He was at his apartment in Harlem that morning when one of his roommates received a call from a relative who said to turn on the TV. The shock of what they saw on TV left only questions: “Is America at war?” “Are other cities under attack?”

The shock turned to action, and the three stockpiled food to prepare for what might be next. After the Red Cross put out a call for blood donors, the roommates headed out to give blood. Parry describes in the book how at a makeshift volunteer screening center he found that he was needed for other tasks.

An unlikely first responder with limited medical training, Parry nonetheless felt driven by the urgency to help in any way he could. At a volunteer screening center at his church, he encountered a team of doctors and nurses who had come from Massachusetts to help.

A local resident in a time before GPS-capable smartphones, Parry served as their navigator to help them make it down toward Ground Zero.

In his book, he goes on to describe the next four days of his experience at Ground Zero and how it changed his life.

The drive and drama of looking for survivors in the rush against time is told through his personal experience, working first with doctors and nurses, and then with search crews, sorting through the massive pile of rubble from the 100-plus stories of each twin tower.

Working as long as his body could withstand it—often 10-hour shifts followed by two hour intervals of sleep—Parry persisted for four days surviving on little more than vending machine brownies, granola bars, and a few burgers discovered at an abandoned Burger King.

Eager to get into the underground cavities and caverns created by the collapsed floors of the towers to look for survivors, Parry searched and dug to expose possible openings into the rubble. Thinner than many of the bulkier firefighters, Parry was able to venture into spaces that others could not squeeze through.

Working in concert with other first responders toward their shared goal of rescuing lives was an unforgettable experience, he told The Epoch Times.

“I will never forget the power of that camaraderie, the power of so many people, and especially men, 2,000-plus men that were just right there for each other,” Parry said. “You slipped, and somebody’s there to catch you.”

Early on, Parry assisted a doctor who established a makeshift morgue to handle remains of the dead.

At one point, Parry was asking firefighters and other uniformed first responders to identify remains of their team members.

As he unzipped the body bags, the men would become overwhelmed with emotion, tears streaming down their dust-covered faces as they recognized their teammates.

“To watch these grown men become so emotional and show that vulnerability was so beautiful and heart-wrenching at the same time,” Parry recalled. He said he realized at that point, “Oh, that’s why you’re here. That’s why you do what you do. … You do it because you have the biggest heart in the world. “

After his time at Ground Zero, Parry had to move on with life. He continued working, performing, and dancing on Broadway. He wrote down his experiences, recorded an audio journal, and put it all away.

But the experience would not just be put away. For many years, he battled survivor’s guilt and sudden flashbacks of scenes from those unthinkable days.

It took him time to realize that he was dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder. The stress was so great that, for 20 years, he avoided returning to Ground Zero to face all he had been through. 

Instead, he turned to dance. A close dance friend put together a dance to commemorate the lives lost on 9/11: the Table of Silence Project 9/11, which has been performed every year on the morning of 9/11 at Lincoln Center since 2011—the 10th anniversary.

In 2021, for the 20th anniversary, Parry was able to return to Ground Zero. It was then that he summoned the strength to revisit his journals and started the process of writing his book.

For Parry, it has all been a process of healing. “To create something beautiful and meaningful on that day of atrocity, on that day of devastation that caused me the emotional trauma,” he said.