That day … 25 years later

Conversation with Maria Teresa Cometto and Glauco Maggi, moderated by Claudio Pagliara, Director of IIC NY

On the occasion of the release of their latest book “2001 – 2026 – From Giuliani to Mamdani – New York 25 Years After September 11,” Director Claudio Pagliara will be in conversation with journalists Maria Teresa Cometto and Glauco Maggi, who were on site on September 11, 2001, and experienced those terrible events firsthand. What happened in New York after the towers collapsed? Brought to its knees in 2001 by Islamic terrorists, 25 years later the world’s most “diverse” city elected Muslim Zohran Mamdani as mayor. Rudy Giuliani, the 9/11 mayor, was Catholic. His successor, Mike Bloomberg, was Jewish. The third mayor, Bill de Blasio, was atheist, and the fourth, Eric Adams, was Protestant Christian. It’s not religious faith at City Hall that defines the Big Apple. Rather, this city is the home of great contrasts and redemptions, as Michael Kors, the New York designer who created the first dress for First Lady Michelle Obama, said: “New York can be the toughest, grittiest place in the world, but also the most glamorous and magical. This yin & yang has always guided me… When the city falls, it rises again. It reacts. It keeps transforming.” During their 26 years as New Yorkers, the authors have experienced the same “yin & yang” and tell in this book the resilience of a city capable of bouncing back and reinventing itself: today less Wall Street and more Tech City, safer and richer in new museums and cultural centers, but also more expensive and stirred by political divisions. Still always lit up by the thousand lights of an unstoppable spirit of renewal.

Q&A will follow

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BIO

Maria Teresa Cometto and Glauco Maggi are Italian journalists and authors, wife and husband. They have lived in New York since 2000 and have been U.S. citizens since 2018. They are co-authors of “From Giuliani to Mamdani. New York. “From Giuliani to Mamdani. New York 25 Years After September 11” (2026 Mind Edizioni) and “This Is Not New York. Journey into Deep America” (2024 Neri Pozza, 2026 Bordighera Press). She writes for Corriere della Sera and has published, among others, the books “Emma and the Angel of Central Park” (2022 Neri Pozza, 2023 Bordighera Press), “Marchesa Colombi. Life, Novels, and Passions of the First Female Journalist of Corriere della Sera” (2020 Solferino), and “Tech and The City. Startups in New York, a Model for Italy” (2013 Guerini). He, who has been deputy editor of Gente Money and editor of La Stampa Tutto Soldi, writes about politics and economics for Investire and La Voce di New York. He has published with Mind Edizioni “The Lone Warrior. Trump and the Impossible Mission” (2020) and “Trump The Revenge. So Where Is America Headed Now?” (2025).