Coca Crystal (December 21, 1947 – March 1, 2016) was an American television personality,

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not neces ...

and political activist, connected with 1960s

counterculture A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Hou ...

. She was best known for her weekly cable-access

variety show Variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is entertainment made up of a variety of acts including musical theatre, musical performances, sketch comedy, magic (illusion), magic, acrobatics, juggling, and ventriloquism. It is ...

''The Coca Crystal Show: If I Can't Dance, You Can Keep Your Revolution'', which ran from 1977 to 1995.

Biography

Born as Jacqueline Diamond on December 21, 1947, to Jack Diamond, owner of J. Diamond Furs and Rita Dunn, a former fur model. She was born in Manhattan and raised in

Mamaroneck Mamaroneck ( ) is a town in Westchester County, New York, United States. The population was 31,758 at the 2020 United States census over 29,156 at the 2010 census. There are two villages contained within the town: Larchmont and the Village of M ...

. Starting in 1969, she was a contributor to the East Village Other (EVO) and the name Coca Crystal was created as her pen name. She would write about politics, women's issues and personal events, many of which earned her the title "slumgoddess". In 1975 she adopted her sisters mentally and physically handicapped son, Gustav Che Finkelstein, after her sister was arrested and imprisoned for possession of

Hashish Hashish ( ar, حشيش, ()), also known as hash, "dry herb, hay" is a drug made by compressing and processing parts of the cannabis plant, typically focusing on flowering buds (female flowers) containing the most trichomes. European Monitorin ...

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...

. Gus got a “executive producer" credit and his babysitter was interviewed on her show. She cared for Gus up until her death. Her cable-access, weekly variety show television show ''The Coca Crystal Show: If I Can't Dance, You Can Keep Your Revolution'' would always start out with lighting a joint, oftentimes she would be pulling the joint from a flower pot and then smoking it. She would talk about protests, anti-nuke activism, local and world news with special segment called ''Newborn News'' and invite a wide variety of guests. Some guests on her show included:

Philip Glass Philip Glass (born January 31, 1937) is an American composer and pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. Glass's work has been associated with minimal music, minimalism, being built up fr ...

Debbie Harry Deborah Ann Harry (born Angela Trimble; July 1, 1945) is an American singer, songwriter and actress, best known as the lead vocalist of the band Blondie. Four of her songs with the band reached on the US charts between 1979 and 1981. Born in ...

Abbie Hoffman Abbot Howard "Abbie" Hoffman (November 30, 1936 – April 12, 1989) was an American political and social activist who co-founded the Youth International Party ("Yippies") and was a member of the Chicago Seven. He was also a leading proponen ...

Judith Malina Judith Malina (June 4, 1926 – April 10, 2015) was a German-born American actress, director and writer. With her husband, Julian Beck, Malina co-founded The Living Theatre, a radical political theatre troupe that rose to prominence in New York C ...

Cesar Chavez Cesar Chavez (born Cesario Estrada Chavez ; ; March 31, 1927 – April 23, 1993) was an American labor leader and civil rights activist. Along with Dolores Huerta, he co-founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA), which later merged ...

Dana Beal Irvin Dana Beal (born January 9, 1947 in Ravenna, Ohio) is an American social and political activist, best known for his efforts to legalize marijuana and to promote the benefits of Ibogaine as an addiction treatment. He is a founder and long-ter ...

, and

Tuli Kupferberg Naphtali "Tuli" Kupferberg (September 28, 1923 – July 12, 2010) was an American counterculture poet, author, singer, cartoonist, publisher, and co-founder of the rock band The Fugs. Biography Naphtali Kupferberg was born into a Jewish, Yi ...

the Fugs The Fugs are an American rock band formed in New York City in late 1964, by the poets Ed Sanders and Tuli Kupferberg, with Ken Weaver (musician), Ken Weaver on drums. Soon afterward, they were joined by Peter Stampfel and Steve Weber of The Holy ...

. One of her frequent guests,

Glenn O'Brien Glenn O'Brien (March 2, 1947 – April 7, 2017) was an American writer who focused largely on the subjects of art, music, and fashion. He was featured for many years as "The Style Guy" in ''GQ'' magazine and published a book with that title. He ...

went on to host his own long running

public-access television Public-access television is traditionally a form of non-commercial mass media where the general public can create content television programming which is narrowcast through cable television specialty channels. Public-access television was creat ...

show, ''

TV Party Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

'' after he appeared on Coca's show. In April of 1977, a woman claiming to be Crystal called the

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

to claim the

pieing Pieing or a pie attack is the act of throwing a pie at a person. In pieing, the goal is usually to humiliate the victim while avoiding actual injury. For this reason the pie is traditionally of the cream pie, cream variety without a top crust, an ...

of conservative activist and author

Phyllis Schlafly Phyllis Stewart Schlafly (; born Phyllis McAlpin Stewart; August 15, 1924 – September 5, 2016) was an American attorney, conservative activist, author, and anti-feminist spokesperson for the national conservative movement. She held paleocons ...

on behalf of the ''Emma Goldman Brigade''. Schlafly was attending a

Women's National Republican Club The Women's National Republican Club is the oldest private club for Republican women in the United States, and was founded by Henrietta Wells Livermore in 1921.The club grew out of the earlier women's suffrage movement in New York which led to the ...

event thrown in her honor at the landmark

Waldorf Astoria New York The Waldorf Astoria New York is a luxury hotel and condominium residence in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. The structure, at 301 Park Avenue between 49th and 50th Streets, is a 47-story Art Deco landmark designed by architects Schultze ...

. In 2013, a play written, via interview with Coca Crystal and titled ''If I Can't Dance You Can Keep Your Revolution: The Coca Crystal Story'' was performed by Danielle Quisenberry. The play was shown at Emerging Artists Theatre, TADA! Theater, and part of the East Village Theater Festival at

Metropolitan Playhouse The Metropolitan Playhouse is a resident producing theater in New York City's East Village. Founded in 1992, the theater is devoted to presenting plays that explore American culture and history, including seldom-produced, "lost" American plays an ...

in New York City. Crystal died of respiratory failure on March 1, 2016 in

Rochelle Park, New Jersey Rochelle Park is a township in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 5,814, reflecting an increase of 284 (+5.1%) from the 5,530 counted in the 2010 Census, which had in tu ...

at age 68. In 2006 she was diagnosed with

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissue (biology), tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from tran ...

and had struggled with many treatments prior to her passing.

References

External links

Coca Crystal Video Recordings and Papers
Fales Library and Special Collections at New York University Special Collections
Coca Crystal's Youtube videos

Promo for ''The Coca Crystal Show: If I Can’t Dance, You Can Keep Your Revolution''
(1994)
The final video: ''Coca Crystal Show''
(June 16, 1995) {{DEFAULTSORT:Crystal, Coca 1947 births 2016 deaths Hippies Actresses from New York City People from Mamaroneck, New York American television actresses People from Manhattan Journalists from New York City Yippies American anarchists Underground culture

Biography

See also

References

External links