The Anarcha Project is a people's history project consisting of interviews with anarchist and anti-authoritarian people (primarily women and transgender folks) in the continental US from 2003 to 2005. 159 interviews have been completed with people in the continguous 48 states (except the Southeast) as of January 2005. The goal of this project is to record radical history and publish these stories in order to dessiminate unrepresented voices and words. The final product will consist of a book, this website with some audio archives available for free to the public and a historical video collection.

Please hook it up if you are interested in being interviewed.

Project Herstory
I started out thinking about this project in the fall of 2003 and sent out a call for help getting contacts. With the help of lots of people, (special thanks to Chris Crass from Anti-Racism for Global Justice) and my goddess of a friend, Amy, I was able to interview 58 people on my first trip. Amy and I were continually amazed and inspired by the people and projects we saw, both anarchist and not. I interviewed a few more people around Arizona in December and hit the road again after a second call. The third and most recent call went out in the spring of 2004, prior to my last interview trip.

Final Product
Book
The book will consist of approximately 20 of the interviews I've completed. The interviews will be edited down and reviewed by the person interviewed. There will be quotes from different interviewees regarding topics of interest, like work, sex, activism, etc. I would like the book to be published by a publisher, so it is widely available to the public, but failing that, I am prepared to self-publish. I am looking for an anarchist woman/trans person to design a cover for it, so suggest someone or an idea.

Website / Audio Archive
You're on the website, but (obviously) the archive is not available yet. I would like for the public to have free access to the recorded interviews, or at least a portion of them, bandwidth permitting. I am still learning about the technical aspects of this project, so please be patient.

Video
Finally, I will be completing a video archive with a more historic perspective. Ultimately, I would like to donate the videos to a library or archive, but preferrably a libertarian/anarchist archive. I may be editing a condensed video of some of the interviews, but that is a long way off and I am primarily concentrating on the book and website first.

Routes

On March 22, 2005, I am setting out to complete my fourth and final interview trip. You can read the call here.

TRIP IV
03/22/05 - Baton Rouge, LA
03/23 - 03/24 – Birmingham/Northern, AL
03/25 - Nashville, TN
03/26 - 03/27 - Liberty, TN
03/28 - 03/29 - Louisville, KY
03/30 - 03/31 - Charleston, WV
04/1 - 04/2 - Richmond, VA
04/3 - ½ 04/4 Carrboro/Raleigh/Durham
½ 04/4 - 04/5 - Greensboro, NC
04/6 - 04/7 - Charlotte, NC
04/8 - 04/9 - Asheville, NC
04/10 - Greenville, SC
04/11 - Athens, GA
04/12 - 04/13 - Atlanta, GA
04/14 - Atlanta, GA
04/15 – 04/17 - Charleston, SC - SEANet!
04/18 - 04/19 - Jacksonville, FL
04/20 - St. Augustine, FL
04/21 - Orlando, FL
04/22 - Orlando / Lake Worth, FL
04/23 - Lake Worth, FL
04/24 - 04/25 - Miami, FL
26, 27 - Tampa, FL
28, 29 - Gainesville, FL
04/30 – Tallahassee, FL
05/01 - 05/02 - Pensacola, FL
05/03 - Mobile, AL
05/04 – Biloxi, MS
05/05 - HOME - New Orleans, LA

I have completed three interview trips in the past. The dates and cities are listed below. I hope to have the project complete by the winter of 2005.

Trip I
August 13 - 14, 2003: Prescott, AZ
August 14 - 15, 2003: Flagstaff, AZ
August 16 - 18, 2003: Albuquerque, NM
August 18 - 19, 2003: Durango, CO
August 20 - 24, 2003: Denver, CO
August 20 - 24, 2003: Boulder, CO
August 25 - 27, 2003: Salt Lake City, UT
August 27 - 29, 2003: Boise, ID
August 29 - Sept. 1, 2003: Seattle, WA
September 2 - 3, 2003: Olympia, WA
September 4 - 8, 2003: Portland, OR
September 9 - 12, 2003: Eugene, OR
September 13 - 15, 2003: Sacramento, CA
September 16 - 26, 2003: Bay Area, CA
September 27 - 30, 2003: Los Angeles, CA

Trip 2
Jan. 7th - 8th, 2004: Dallas, TX
Jan. 9th - 10th, 2004: Austin, TX
Jan. 11th, 2004 - Spring, TX
Jan. 12th, 2004 - 13th: Houston, TX
Jan. 14th, 2004 - 16th: New Orleans, LA
Jan. 16th, 2004 - 18th: Biloxi, MS
Jan. 24th, 2004 - 25th: DC (NCOR)

Trip 3
June 14th - 17th, 2004: Washington, DC/Baltimore
June 18th - 20th, 2004: Philadelphia
June 21st - 25th, 2004: New York City
June 26th - 27th, 2004: Hartford
June 28 - 29, 2004: Providence
June 30 - July 2nd, 2004: Boston
July 3rd - 5th, 2004: Machias, Maine
July 6th - 7th, 2004: Manchester
July 8th, 2004: Bethel
July 9th - 10th, 2004: Montpelier
July 11th - 12th, 2004: Syracuse
July 13th - 14th, 2004: Buffalo
July 15th - 16th, 2004: Pittsburgh
July 17th, 2004: Morgantown
July 18th - 20th, 2004: Cleveland
July 21st - July 23rd, 2004: Columbus
July 24th - July 25th, 2004: Detroit
July 26th, 2004: Ann Arbor
July 27th - 29th, 2004: Chicago
July 30th - 31st, 2004: Madison
August 1st- 2nd, 2004: Minneapolis
Aug. 3rd - 4th, 2004: Sioux Falls
Aug. 5th - 6th, 2004: Omaha
Aug. 7th - 8th, 2004: Kansas City
Aug. 9th - 10th, 2004: Lawrence
Aug. 11th - 12th, 2004: Wichita
Aug. 13th - 14th, 2004: St. Louis
Aug. 15th - 16th, 2004: Indianapolis
Aug. 17th - 18th, 2004: Cincinnati

Interviews
So far, I've interviewed people who considered themselves women, female, male, not identifying a gender and various others. I've interviewed chicana, black, not identifying ethnicity, jewish and white women. I've interviewed women aged 16 to 84. I've interviewed unemployed women, teachers, authors, students, unschoolers, bike mechanics and a variety of other folks. I've talked with folks who are going to prison for direct action and those who would never consider property destruction. I've talked to people who vote and people who don't, people who drink and people who don't, people who live pretty close to the mainstream to those who wouldn't know mainstream if it smacked them upside the head (we consider this a good thing).

The point is, I've talked to a lot of different kinds of people. If you vaguely fall into the category of anarchist/anti-authoritarian and woman or trans person (whether that's "born woman," transgender, used to be a woman, intergender, don't recognize gender), I'd love to talk to you. Please suggest yourself or another anarchist.

Preparing for Your Interview
Some people have been surprised when we've shown up with a video-camera. Be aware that I am videotaping all the interviews I can, except when people do not want to be videotaped, which I respect and understand. The general outline of the interviews are: backgrounds/demographic questions, your political tendencies, your opinions on a bunch of issues, feminism issues, race and ethnicity issues, and finally, your expectations for the future. Those are some things you can think about prior to the interview. I try to make the actual interview as relaxed as possible. They usually take from one and a half to two hours, so please schedule some time for setup, the interview and good-byes. Two and a half hours is a good length, especially if you've got a lot to say. If you are feeling physically ill on a certain day, please let me know and we'll reschedule. We will both be happier for it.

Honestly, the interviews are not too difficult. In fact, most women have found them pretty enjoyable, given that they get several uninterrupted hours just to talk about their opinions. Here are a few things that folks have said:

"I felt deeply moved about having the opportunity to be included in a project that had such meaning to me, anarcho-feminist women interviewing anarcho-feminist women on issues that matter to us."

"I loved doing the group interview! Two women I met at that have since become good friends, and I never really knew them until then. So that was very cool."

"I feel a little self conscious on camera- but all and all I had a really good time doing the interview."

"I felt very comfortable with the interview and interviewer (you). (!!)
What made me feel particularly comfortable was your attitude of
confidentiality and respect"

There are really no wrong answers and you are in control of answering or not answering any question. So, contact me!