She never really left—but now she’s back with something even bigger.
Joann Castle, a longtime Detroit activist, BookLife Prize winner, and author of What My Left Hand Was Doing: Lessons from a Grassroots Activist, is reorganizing her work with a powerful new platform for intergenerational organizing. The book that captured the roots of her journey was first published by Against the Tide Books in 2018, but the mission is alive and more relevant than ever.
Welcome to http://www.WhatMyLeftHandWasDoing.com, a new online hub where readers, students, and activists can engage with Joann’s work in real time. At the heart of this revitalization is “The Activist’s Survival Guide” — the 11-point toolkit introduced in the original book, now being expanded to meet the demands of this political moment.
A second edition of the book is in progress, featuring a new prologue, epilogue, and revised principles that address today’s urgent calls for justice, democracy, and cross-generational collaboration. From street protests to policy fights to kitchen-table organizing, Joann’s new work speaks to the moral clarity — and practical strategy — we need now.
Come join us. Learn, reflect, organize, and pass it on.
My niece, Alena Williams and I, speaking at a bookstore in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Alena has been at my side as a co-presenter and partner throughout my book promotion days. Alena understands my my impassioned drive to fulfill my book’s vision of an intergenerational, interracial perspective. Alena is a clinical social worker following in the footsteps of her uncle, my late husband, Mike Hamlin, a Detroit labor activist and social worker. She is deeply committed to empowering communities and has a profound love for Detroit, the city that raised her.
The Activist's Survival Guide 