Help me give fat activists the opportunity to share their history, wisdom and advice in their own words to anyone who has internet access. Every little bit helps so donate what you can and please consider letting your friends know about the project on Facebook, twitter, etc.Our society talks about fat people, wages war on fat people, and dictates to fat people what's "good" for us. Rarely are we talked to; rarer still are we given a place or a voice in discussions about us.The fat rights movement has existed since the 1960's and we deserve to speak for ourselves, in our own words. That's what this project is about.Through the Fat Acceptance and Health At Every Size Communities I have had the opportunity to meet some of my fat activism heroes and hear their stories, wisdom and advice. It inspired me, and I want to give everyone that opportunity.For this project I am interviewing fat activists, starting in the 60's and moving forward in time to create a verbal history that is accessible, free of charge, to anyone who has access to the internet.The first phase of this project will cost $5,000 including travel, equipment, editing, etc. I'm going to start immediately and keep going as funds come in. There are lots of ways you can help.First, you can donate to the project. If you are donating less than $5 (every little bit helps!) or prefer another payment option just e-mail me at ragen at danceswithfat dot org and I'll set you up.No money? No problem - you can still help in major ways:Pass this page on to your friends through e-mail, blog, social media, carrier pigeon, whatever! http://www.gofundme.com/InOurOwnWords If you know of a (or are a) fat activist who would like to be interviewed for this project, I would love to hear from you at ragen at danceswithfat dot org.If you want to be updated as new videos go up, join the project e-mail list at http://eepurl.com/BBXyX I've received questions about diversity and inclusion in the project and I want to address that. It is very important to me to make this project inclusive of people of color, people with disabilities, queer people, trans* people, and men all of whom often find themselves under-represented in fat activism.The first phase is created to primarily include people who were active from the 1960's through the 1980s, future phases will focus on activists from the 1980s through today. From the beginning of my research I've been looking for activists from the above communities, sometimes with limited success. My process has, to this point, centered around asking people who were active at that time for suggestions and my hope is that by starting the project with the group that I have, others may feel more comfortable to become involved, or those who I haven't found may find the project.I intend to continue to diligently and proactively work to find members of these communities and I welcome suggestions for activists to whom I should reach out, or ways to more successfully reach out to activists in these communities.Some of the amazing activists who have already agreed to be interviewed are:Barbara BrunoBill FabreyCathy MillerDeb BurgardHarry MinotJessica MayJon RobisonJudi RichardsonJuicy D. LightLinda BaconLynn McAfeeLynn Ellen MarcusMarilyn WannRonda BokramSusan Huddis Koppleman