Synopses & Reviews
How a new generation of activists is changing the world
That age-old quest for meaning—Who am I? What is my calling? How can I make the world better?—is about to get a twenty-first-century makeover by one of the country’s most widely read young writers on social change. Courtney E. Martin pursues the gritty truth about the complicated and challenging process of social change in contemporary America.
In Do It Anyway, Martin explores the lives and motivations of eight activists—not superhuman heroes, but ordinary young people searching for their own way to make a difference. Among others, we meet Raul Diaz, a prison re-entry social worker at Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles; Nia Robinson, an African American climate-change activist in Washington, D.C.; Maricela Guzman of California, a former soldier fighting to end violence against women in the military; and Rosario Dawson, an actor struggling to use her celebrity for social change while staying authentic in her activism.
In direct opposition to an older generation’s cry that young people are apathetic and disengaged, Do It Anyway introduces a new generation of activists drawn to the kind of work that keeps you up at night because you believe in it so deeply.
Synopsis
If you care about social change but hate feel-good platitudes, Do It Anyway is the book for you. Courtney Martin’s rich profiles of the new generation of activists dig deep, to ask the questions that really matter: How do you create a meaningful life? Can one person even begin to make a difference in our hugely complex, globalized world?
About the Author
Courtney E. Martin is a senior correspondent for the American Prospect and an editor of Feministing.com. A 2002 recipient of the Elie Wiesel Prize in Ethics, she is the author of Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters and coauthor of The Naked Truth. Her writing has appeared in Mother Jones, Newsday, the Christian Science Monitor, and on Huffington Post and Alternet, among other publications. She lives in Brooklyn.
Table of Contents
Introduction
“I Am Hungry for One Good Thing I Can Do”
Rachel Corrie, peace activist, Olympia, Washington
An Altar Boy with a Gun
Raul Diaz, prison reentry social worker, Los Angeles
Recovery Mission
Maricela Guzman, veterans’ activist, Los Angeles
The Boxer
Emily Abt, filmmaker, New York City
It Ain’t Easy Being Green
Nia Martin-Robinson, environmental justice advocate,
Washington, D.C., via Detroit
Class Action
Tyrone Boucher, radical philanthropist, Philadelphia
Power Becomes Her
Rosario Dawson, actor and activist, Los Angeles
via New York City
Born to Teach
Dena Simmons, eighth grade teacher, Bronx, New York
Conclusion
Good Failure
Acknowledgments
Further Resources