In honor of the fourth annual remembrance of the mass shooting at the Pulse Nightclub on June 12, 2016, the History Center presents a newly curated online exhibition, The Stories They Could Tell, now available on the museum’s website. It will be on display through August 20 and is fully bilingual, with text in both English and Spanish.
After closing March 16 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the History Center reopened the first week of June. “During our closure, we discovered that our online programs reached a wide audience, including folks who might not otherwise be able to attend them,” notes museum director Michael Perkins. “We decided to break new ground and present our annual Pulse exhibition online.”
On June 12, 2016, the Pulse Nightclub shooting claimed 49 victims and forever changed the lives of many more survivors, family members, and first responders, as well as the communities to which those individuals belonged. The outpouring of love and support in the wake of such tragedy linked profoundly personal histories together in unexpected ways. Each of these journeys, in many ways so different, converged in the early morning hours of that fateful day.
Through this fourth Pulse remembrance exhibition, the History Center invites people everywhere to discover artifacts that serve as physical representations of these moving stories — some of struggle and loss and others of triumph and hope.
On June 12 at noon, the exhibition’s chief curator, Pam Schwartz, and One Orlando registrar Jeremy Hileman present an online curator’s tour of The Stories They Could Tell that highlights selected artifacts and offers a behind-the-scenes look at what went into creating the exhibition.
In related programming, on June 11 at 7 p.m., the History Center presents a special online event with Smithsonian curator Katherine Ott, who’ll discuss the National Museum of American History’s exhibition Illegal to Be You: Gay History Beyond Stonewall, which commemorates the Stonewall uprising and other pivotal moments in the modern LGBTQ+ civil rights movement.
Both programs are free and will be presented via the Zoom platform. For details and to register, visit the events section of the museum’s website at TheHistoryCenter.org.
