The storied activist: The ACT UP Oral History Project

The ACT UP Oral History Project is a compelling and provocative means of documenting the experiences of the surviving activists who took part in creating awareness and social change regarding HIV/AIDS issues from the mid-eighties onward. This blurb, taken from Oral History site describes the project's intent and why documenting this social movement is crucial in understanding the place of AIDS activism in today's context.

The purpose of this project is to present comprehensive, complex, human, collective, and individual pictures of the people who have made up ACT UP/New York. These men and women of all races and classes have transformed entrenched cultural ideas about homosexuality, sexuality, illness, health care, civil rights, art, media, and the rights of patients. They have achieved concrete changes in medical and scientific research, insurance, law, health care delivery, graphic design, and introduced new and effective methods for political organizing. These interviews reveal what has motivated them to action and how they have organized complex endeavors. We hope that this information will de-mystify the process of making social change, remind us that change can be made, and help us understand how to do it. (ACT UP continues to fight to end the AIDS epidemic.)

This is an amazing resource for anyone interested in early AIDS activism, and organizations/individuals working toward social change. More than 60 people were interviewed for the project; Five minute video clips of the interviews and free full-text PDF files of every interview in its entirety are available for immediate download. Check out this phenomenal site