April Newsletter
Check Out the New Website
We are so pleased to announce our new website has launched! In addition to a new, more user-friendly platform, we have added a lot of new content, including photographic galleries on Lost Queer Bars of the French Quarter, Ephemera, Southern Decadence Invitations, Gay Carnival, and the Up Stairs Lounge. You can also listen to interviews and read the transcripts from our Oral History Initiative. There is also a section on Podcasts about local queer history. We’ve also greatly expanded the Bibliography and now have an Obituary page. We are always looking for content to add. If you can help with that, please let us know.
GiveNOLA Day is May 2
GiveNOLA Day is approaching! Please mark May 2 on your calendars and consider donating to the Archives Project. All Donations are tax deductible and will help us in our mission to get local queer history out of the closet. GiveNOLA Day, an initiative of the Greater New Orleans Foundation, was inaugurated in 2014 and is an annual one-day online giving event.
Annual Membership Meeting Scheduled for June 1
The Archives Project’s Annual Membership Meeting will be held on Thursday, June 1, at 7:00pm at the Marigny Opera House, 725 St. Ferdinand Street. Light refreshments and wine will be served. In addition to hearing about the Archives Project’s accomplishments in the last year, the meeting will also feature information about the fast approaching 50th Anniversary of the Up Stairs Lounge fire. Hint: The Archives Project is spearheading a coalition of groups and planning a three day commemorative event. This event is free and open to the public; we do, however, hope attendees will join the AP and / or renew their membership.
Up Stairs Lounge Fire 50th Anniversary will be June 23—25
Commemoration events to mark the 50th anniversary of the tragic Up Stairs Lounge fire are coming together and include: an opening reception and presentation at The Historic New Orleans Collection, panel discussions, a memorial service at St. Mark’s United Methodist Church followed by a second line Jazz funeral procession, a ceremony at the site of the fire, film screenings of the three documentaries made about the fire, a performance of Tinderbox, dramatic reading with musical accompaniment by Brad Dalton based on the book of the same name, as well as a performance by the Mélange Dance Co. at the New Orleans Museum of Art’s Lapis Theater called The UpStairs Lounge: United We Stand. The host hotel is the Marriott, which is offering discounted rooms for attendees. Registration opens to the public on April 15, 2023.
Louisiana Historical Association Conference
At the request of the Louisiana Historical Association, the Archives Project made a presentation to history professors from across the state at the LHA annual conference, which was held last month in Alexandria. Attending the conference for the Archives Project were Executive Director Frank Perez, board members Robert Fieseler and Robert Ticknor, and volunteer, Jordan Hammon. Representatives from the Archives Project spoke about the current state of LGBT+ historical scholarship in Louisiana as well as the significance of our history, much of which remains invisible. They also stressed the need for academics to do more excavating of queer history.