The Fire Up Stairs
In the early nineteen-seventies, The Up Stairs Lounge, a little known queer oasis in the French Quarter of New Orleans, was a second home to its patrons, a place where folks felt safe and free to be themselves in a world that was rampant with discrimination.
Then on the night of June 24th, 1973, someone doused the entrance of the bar in lighter fluid and lit it on fire, causing a blaze that would kill 32 people. Until the tragedy at Pulse Orlando in 2016, the fire at The Up Stairs Lounge was the single deadliest attack on the queer community in the US on record, and it remains one of the deadliest fires in modern New Orleans history.
The Fire Up Stairs Podcast is a miniseries about the 1973 Up Stairs Lounge arson, exploring its lesser-known history and present-day themes. Over the course of the series, we'll be joined by notable members of the queer community to discuss the story of the Up Stairs Lounge; its role in the larger arc of queer history, and themes that are just as relevant to the queer community of today as they were fifty years ago.
Guests include: drag superstar Ben DeLaCreme, journalist Robert Fieseler, HRC's Cathryn Oakley, political strategist Brian Derrick, journalist Clancy Dubos, Up Stairs Lounge survivor Ricky Everett, and documentarian Robert L. Camina.
The Fire Up Stairs is produced and hosted by Joey Hardy Gray, executive produced by Ryan Killian Krause, and edited by Citizens of Sound.
Presented by Equal Pride and Provincetown Brewing Co.
Sponsored by Sean x Val, Malin & Goetz, Double Scorpio, and Halloween New Orleans.
The Fire Up Stairs
Chapter Three: The Community
For the next two episodes of The Fire Up Stairs Podcast, we'll be zooming out to discuss how the themes surrounding the events of the arson at the Up Stairs Lounge are still very much relevant today.
On this episode, host Joey Hardy Gray is joined by international drag superstar BenDeLaCreme to discuss the importance of queer spaces. The two chat about the recent drag bans popping across the country, the importance of fostering community, how queer people pass culture down through generations, and why drag is its own form of rebellion.
To stay up-to-date on BenDeLaCreme, you can visit her website or follow her on Instagram and Twitter.
