DC Public Library System

Tinderbox, the untold story of the Up Stairs Lounge fire and the rise of gay liberation, Robert W. Fieseler

Label
Tinderbox, the untold story of the Up Stairs Lounge fire and the rise of gay liberation, Robert W. Fieseler
Language
eng
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Illustrations
mapsillustrations
Index
index present
Literary Form
non fiction
Main title
Tinderbox
Nature of contents
bibliography
Oclc number
1005117932
Responsibility statement
Robert W. Fieseler
Sub title
the untold story of the Up Stairs Lounge fire and the rise of gay liberation
Summary
"Fieseler chronicles the ... event that claimed the lives of thirty-one men and one woman on June 24, 1973, at a New Orleans bar, the largest mass murder of gays until 2016. Relying on ... access to survivors and archives, Fieseler creates [a] ... portrait of a closeted, blue-collar gay world that flourished before an arsonist ignited an inferno that destroyed an entire community"--Amazon.com"Buried for decades, the Up Stairs Lounge tragedy has only recently emerged as a catalyzing event of the gay liberation movement. In revelatory detail, Robert W. Fieseler chronicles the tragic event that claimed the lives of thirty-one men and one woman on June 24, 1973, at a New Orleans bar, the largest mass murder of gays until 2016. Relying on unprecedented access to survivors and archives, Fieseler creates an indelible portrait of a closeted, blue- collar gay world that flourished before an arsonist ignited an inferno that destroyed an entire community. The aftermath was no less traumatic--families ashamed to claim loved ones, the Catholic Church refusing proper burial rights, the city impervious to the survivors' needs--revealing a world of toxic prejudice that thrived well past Stonewall. Yet the impassioned activism that followed proved essential to the emergence of a fledgling gay movement. Tinderbox restores honor to a forgotten generation of civil-rights martyrs." -- Publisher's description
Table Of Contents
Introduction: History reclaimed -- Act I: Fire -- Brotherhood of men -- Sunday service -- Gay liberation -- United we stand -- Act II: Fallout -- Mayhem -- Call for aid -- Liberation descends -- Visions -- Fun house -- Firetraps -- In memoriam -- Act III: Legacy -- Deliverance -- Downfall -- Rally forth -- Last resort -- Coda: Second line
Classification
Content
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