Quiet Conversations The Upstairs Lounge Arson Attack
My name is Arthur Severio, and welcome to Quiet Conversations: The Upstairs Lounge Fire.
I left home with a suitcase filled with dreams, a pack of brand-new Fruit of the Loom underwear, two pairs of 501s, and some shirts that weren’t exactly made for a fat kid like me. My mama had stuffed a twenty-dollar bill in my pocket just in case I wanted a snack and a Diet Coke from the vending machine for my ride into the Crescent City.
My brother met me at the downtown Greyhound bus terminal to take a United Cab back to his French Quarter apartment. It was 1983, and I was only 17. I was so happy because I had finally reached the place that I had dreamed about to get me through those endless days of doing little more than surviving. Soon I met Marcy Marcelle who was scheduled to perform that night at the Upstairs Lounge.
In these Quiet Conversations, I talk to people whose lives were touched either in their personal experience or using their artistic talents to describe that night.
Quiet Conversations The Upstairs Lounge Arson Attack
Bill Larson and Bubba Copeland and the World Today
People who are in a lot of mental anguish and pain don't always crumble and give up. Instead, they reach out to help their community. After being ostracized by his mother his whole life, Bill Larson left home to create himself as the head pastor of the New Orleans chapter of the MCC moving the church from the backroom of the Upstairs Lounge to its new home in the New Orleans Uptown Garden District.
What happened that night at the Upstairs Lounge Fire?
"It went from people celebrating to those same people screaming in pain.
Stephanie and her friend arrived in the French Quarter to live the Bohemian lifestyle. On the first night of being in the French Quarter, they heard the news of a fire at a gay bar. Stephanie has lived with memories of what those two young kids saw fresh off the bus.
Bubba Copeland lived a private life with his kids and wife. Bubba was a school teacher, mayor, and a member of the Lee County Board of Education until a conservative newspaper routed him.
Bill Larson and Bubba Copeland both died martyrs.
Let their living not be in vain.
Historian Frank Perez explains the mission of the LGBT+ Archives of Louisiana and a welcome to Quiet Conversations.
with Rio Riggen
