Fringe hears about Pulse memorial
Fringegoers took a break from the frivolity of the massive theater festival on Wednesday to hear from Barbara Poma about plans for a permanent memorial at the site of the Pulse nightclub tragedy in Orlando.
Poma owned the Orange Avenue nightclub where 49 people were shot to death in June of 2016 – at the time, the nation’s most deadly mass shooting.
An interim memorial opened this month, and Poma said a permanent memorial should be completed by 2020. The site is a place of pilgrimage for many who wish to pay their respects.
“We had, on Sunday, 300 visitors – in the rain,” Poma said at the free presentation at the Orlando Fringe Festival in Loch Haven Park.
Poma spoke of the onePulse Foundation’s vision of “a world where everyone is free to live their truth” – a sentiment that aligns with the unjuried, uncensored Fringe’s artistic goals and its community spirit.
“There is a similarity with the United We Fringe theme and our sense of solidarity,” said Orlando Fringe executive director Alauna Friskics. She asked Poma to speak at the festival after watching a presentation on the process underway to design the permanent memorial.
“So much thought and love and gone into this memorial,” Friskics said.
More than 2,000 community members participated in a detailed survey that will lay the groundwork for the monument’s eventual design. Poma and other officials also visited similar memorials around the country to conduct research.
Many of the Pulse victims were gay, and the Fringe has long been home to gaythemed performers and entertainment.
Poma reiterated that the future memorial would honor those lost by continuing to spread a message of love and acceptance.
“If we have changed any hearts or any minds, in our city or around the world,” Poma said, “then they did not die in vain.”