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Title: Judy Freespirit papers
Dates: 1971-2009
Collection Number: 2008-48
Creator/Collector:
Extent: 9 linear feet (7 cartons, 1 oversized folder)
Repository:
GLBT Historical Society
San Francisco, California 94103
Abstract: Judy Freespirit (Judith Louise Berkowitz Ackerman) was an activist, writer, and performer, focused on the subjects of women,
lesbians, Jewish culture, fat acceptance, disability rights, and incest survival. Freespirit was of the earliest members of
the fat acceptance movement, as coauthor (with Vivian Mayer) of the 1973 Fat Liberation Manifesto. The collection includes
manuscripts and journals; subject files on various activist, therapeutic, and religious topics; and audiotapes, videotapes,
and film of various performances, including Freespirit’s own. There are also ephemera, such as t-shirts, buttons and photographs.
Language of Material: English
Collection is open for research.
Funding for processing this collection was provided by the National
Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC).
Copyright to material has been transferred to the GLBT Historical Society, with the exception of the photos by Cathy Cade
in Box 4, whose copyright remains with the photographer. All requests for reproductions and/or permission to publish or quote
from material must be submitted in writing to the GLBT Historical Society Archivist. Permission for reproductions and/or permission
to publish the Cade photos is given on behalf of the GLBT Historical Society as the owner of the physical items and is not
intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the researcher.
[Identification of item]. Judy Freespirit papers. Collection Number: 2008-48. GLBT Historical Society
The collection was donated to the GLBT Historical Society by Judy Freespirit in 2008.
Biography/Administrative History
Judy Freespirit (Judith Louise Berkowitz Ackerman) was an activist, writer, and performer, focused on the subjects of women,
lesbians, Jewish culture, fat acceptance, disability rights, and incest survival. Freespirit was of the earliest members of
the fat acceptance movement, as coauthor (with Vivian Mayer) of the 1973 Fat Liberation Manifesto, and later a performer with
Fat Chance and Fat Lip Reader’s Theater. She is the author of four books: Daddy’s Girl, Keeping it in the Family, Whole Lotta
Quakin’ Goin’ On, and A Slim Volume of Fat Poems.
Freespirit was born in 1936 to a working-class Jewish family in Detroit, Michigan. From an early age, she was subject to incestuous
sexual abuse by her father; from the age of five, she was also pressured by her mother to diet. Dance and theatre became her
primary methods of survival. After an early marriage and the birth of a son, she finished college and became Director of Social
Services at a psychiatric hospital. She later became involved in the women’s liberation movement, and came out in the early
1970s as a lesbian. This led to further activism, including an extended period of work against the Briggs Initiative in Sonoma
County. After her asthma and environmental allergies became increasingly disabling, she became part of the Berkeley disability
movement and worked with the World Institute on Disabilities (WID) on issues of fat, health and disabilities. After many years
of performing and activism, Freespirit died in 2010.
Scope and Content of Collection
The collection includes manuscripts and journals; subject files on various activist, therapeutic, and religious topics; and
audiotapes, videotapes, and film of various performances, including Freespirit’s own. Some of these have been digitized. There
are also ephemera, such as t-shirts, buttons and photographs. This collection complements another collection of Freespirit’s
papers at the June Mazer Lesbian Archive in Los Angeles. GSSO linked terms: http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/GSSO_000381; http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/GSSO_004301;
http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/GSSO_008492; http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/GSSO_008520
People with disabilities
Lesbians
Theater
Fat-acceptance movement
Fat activism