Until the massacre at the Pulse Nightclub, it was the deadliest mass murder of LGBTQ people in U.S. history. Most people have never heard of the fire that killed 32 people at the Up Stairs Lounge in New Orleans, until recently. The journalists who are bringing this story to life share how they dug through the past to tell update this dark chapter in our history
Speakers: Robert Fieseler, Pete Madden, Ken Miguel
ROBERT W. FIESELER is a journalist and the debut author of “Tinderbox: The Untold Story of the Up Stairs Lounge Fire and the Rise of Gay Liberation” — winner of the Edgar Award in Best Fact Crime and finalist for the Randy Shilts Award for Gay Nonfiction. Fieseler graduated co-valedictorian from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and is a recipient of the Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship. A proud gay American, he married his longtime partner at Walden Pond and currently resides in New Orleans.
PETE MADDEN is a reporter and editor for the ABC News Investigative Unit, which contributes coverage of national security, political corruption and human rights to “Good Morning America,” “World News Tonight with David Muir,” “Nightline,” “20/20” and abcnews.com. Previously, he was a senior producer at Sports Illustrated, where he co-reported the magazine’s “First Golfer” feature about President Donald Trump’s global golf business. Trump called it “fake news” but the Washington Post called “one of the best pieces of political journalism of the Trump age.” He is a graduate of Vanderbilt University and the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.