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Documentary - 50th anniversary of the UpStairs Lounge Fire

Event Type: JP Library Event
Age Group(s): Adults
Date: 6/22/2023
Start Time: 6:30 PM
End Time: 8:30 PM
Description:
 The Jefferson Parish Library will commemorate the 50th anniversary of UpStairs Lounge Fire with a screening of Royd Anderson’s documentary at 6:30 p.m., Thursday, June 20, at the East Bank Regional Library, 4747 W. Napoleon, Metairie.

This event is free of charge and open to the public. The New Orleans chapter of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays is co-sponsoring this event.

Royd Anderson, a Cuban-American filmmaker, teacher and historian who specializes in Louisiana disasters, will discuss the disaster, as well as Clay Delery, author of the book, The Up Stairs Lounge Arson: Thirty-Two Deaths in a New ORleans Gay Bar, June 24, 1973.

No one was charged for starting the fire that claimed 32 lives on June 24, 1973, in a second-floor gay bar at 141 Chartres in the French Quarter. The primary suspect, a gay man with a history of psychiatric impairment named Roger Dale Nunez who had been ejected from the bar earlier in the day, was never charged and killed himself in November 1974.

Many felt the fire was inadequately acknowledged by the New Orleans community—some family members refused to claim the bodies of their relatives out of shame, and local civic and religious leaders largely ignored the tragedy. According to survivors, many avoided talking about the event, as they faced discrimination in the workplace and from landlords.

For more information regarding this presentation, contact Chris Smith, Manager of Adult Programming for the library, at 504-889-8143 or wcsmith@jefferson.lib.la.us.

Library: East Bank Regional Library    Map
Location: Jefferson & Napoleon Rooms
Contact: Chris Smith
Contact Number: 504-889-8143
Presenter: Chris Smith