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

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...

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''. Ho ...

. 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 performances, sketch comedy, magic, acrobatics, juggling, and ventriloquism. It is normally introduced by a comp� ...

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

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 Villag ...

. 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 sister's mentally and physically handicapped son, Gustav Che Finkelstein, after her sister was arrested and imprisoned for possession of

Hashish Hashish (; ), usually abbreviated as hash, is a Compression (physics), compressed form of resin (trichomes) derived from the cannabis flowers. European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, Lisbon, As a Psychoactive drug, psychoactive ...

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

. Gus received an “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 (band), Blondie. Four of her songs with the band reached on the US charts between 1979 and 1 ...

Abbie Hoffman Abbot Howard 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 proponent of the ...

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

, Dana Beal, Tiny Tim, and

Tuli Kupferberg Naphtali "Tuli" Kupferberg (September 28, 1923 – July 12, 2010) was an American counterculture poet, author, singer, editorial cartoonist, comic artist, columnist, publisher, and co-founder of the rock band The Fugs. Biography Naphtali Ku ...

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 (sometimes called community-access television) is traditionally a form of non-commercial mass media where the general public can create content television programming which is Narrowcasting, narrowcast through cable tele ...

show, ''

TV Party ''TV Party'' was a public-access television cable TV show in New York City that ran from 1978 to 1982. History After Glenn O'Brien was a guest on the weekly variety television show, ''The Coca Crystal Show: If I Can’t Dance, You Can Keep ...

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

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

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 Humiliation, humiliate the victim while avoiding actual injury. For this reason the pie is traditionally of the cream pie, cream variety without a ...

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, and anti-feminist, who was nationally prominent in conservatism. She held paleoconservative soc ...

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 ...

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 the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, New York. The structure, at 301 Park Avenue between 49th and 50th Streets, is a 47-story, Art Deco landmark des ...

. 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 was a resident producing theater in New York City founded in 1992 by Parsifal's Productions, Inc. Originally producing in the auditorium of The High School for Graphic Communication Arts on W. 49th Street, the theater ...

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, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 5,814, an increase of 284 (+5.1%) from the 2010 census count of 5,530, which in turn reflected a ...

, at age 68. In 2006 she was diagnosed with

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma, is a malignant tumor that begins in the lung. Lung cancer is caused by genetic damage to the DNA of cells in the airways, often caused by cigarette smoking or inhaling damaging chemicals. Damaged ...

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 Manhattan People from Mamaroneck, New York American television actresses Journalists from New York City Yippies American anarchists Underground culture

Biography

See also

References

External links