New Orleans, LA (June 7,2018) - “Reclaiming the Fire,” a free event on Wednesday, June 27, will commemorate the 45th anniversary of the UpStairs Lounge Fire, which claimed 32 lives on June 24, 1973, in a second-floor gay bar at 141 Chartres St. in the French Quarter.

The Historic New Orleans Collection and the LGBT+ Archives Project of Louisiana present this panel of historians and witnesses discussing how the event shaped the LGBT+ community locally and nationally.

Participants include Royd Anderson, director of the documentary “The UpStairs Lounge Fire” (2013); Clayton Delery, award-winning author of “The Up Stairs Lounge Arson: Thirty-Two Deaths in a New Orleans Gay Bar, June 24, 1973” (McFarland, 2014); Clancy DuBos, the journalist whose story “Blood, Moans: Charity Scene” ran on the front page of the Times-Picayune the morning after the fire; Robert W. Fieseler, author of “Tinderbox: The Untold Story of the Up Stairs Lounge Fire and the Rise of Gay Liberation” ( Liveright, 2018); and Frank Perez, president of the LGBT+ Archives Project and co-author of the forthcoming book “Southern Decadence in New Orleans” (LSU Press).

The event will also feature a reading and book signing for Fieseler’s book, which retails for $26.95 and will be available for sale at the event through The Shop at The Collection.

We hope you will help us spread the word about this important event in LGBTQ history. 

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Media Contact: 
Anna Grundmann LeDonne
Communications Strategist
Gambel Communications
o: 504.324.4242 | c: 985.807.5341