Hand on the Pulse traces Joan's life; finding her community in Greenwich Village in the 1950's, celebrating the body in her writings and in her public readings in her black slip, having a lesbian archives in her home for 25 years, teaching students "from colonized backgrounds, " participating in the Black civil rights movement as a freedom rider, becoming a feminist, and helping to forge a new lesbian and gay consciousness through grass roots organizing. Now in her 60's, Joan continues to celebrate the body as an aging woman and as a woman with cancer.

Co-founder of the Lesbian Herstory Archives in New York City, Joan has made a significant contribution to our understanding of women's sexuality, gender issues, and the preservation of lesbian history and culture for the last half century.