Cosponsored by Brookens Library, Friends of Brookens Library, and Gender and Sexuality Student Services
Forty-three years before the Pulse nightclub shooting became the
largest mass murder of gays in the United States, an arsonist set fire
to the Up Stairs Lounge in New Orleans, killing 32 people. Author Robert
Fieseler, a Naperville native, will share excerpts from his book, which
recounts the tragic fire that happened June 24, 1973, with survivor
interviews and extensive research to weave a story with memorable
characters living in a closeted, but thriving, world that was thriving
before the fire. Fieseler’s story of the forgotten history also reports
the political and societal change that followed the fire with a
supported and emerging gay rights movement.
Robert W. Fieseler is a journalist and nonfiction
author whose debut book, Tinderbox is a finalist for the Randy Shilts
Award for Gay Nonfiction and the Edgar Award in Best Fact Crime.
Fieseler graduated co-valedictorian from the Columbia University
Graduate School of Journalism and is a recipient of the Pulitzer
Traveling Fellowship. His essays and feature stories have been
nominated for the Pushcart Prize and recognized in roundups of best
nonfiction by The Atlantic. He writes about marginalized groups and
overlooked people who make the world better for themselves. As such, his
heroes tend to be exiles and outcasts seeking their own forms of
freedom.